Rhinoceros Beetle Update: THEY'RE ALIVE!!!

So last year, I was given some rhinoceros beetles which were supposed to have died come the end of summer. Well, they did, but not before leaving behind a bunch of eggs, which my wife wanted to hatch and take care of. For more details, please read my past posts on this topic (links below, please scroll all the way down).

I'm pleased to announce that we have become the parents of 8 robust males and 4 healthy females. After a long period of sleeping in the dirt, the young, energetic rhinoceros beetles have emerged from the soil which we changed every month or so. It was a lot of work, but it paid off.

Here are some pictures our babies.

BUT WAIT! There's more...

So here I thought, "This is it. After I give away these m*ther f***ers or they die, no more."

Taking care of rhinoceros beetle grubs, changing out their dirt, feeding them their jelly every day is a lot of work! I really was looking forward to getting rid of them all, as much fun as it was watching them grow and emerge from the ground. I really didn't want anymore. My wife and I were actively taking care to separate the males from the females in order to prevent them from reproducing. That's 8 males and only 4 females. But what happened?

My wife started noticing that there was one or two white, round little grubs rubbing up against the plastic walls of one of the tanks.

"This can't be," I told her. "We've been keeping them separate haven't we?"

We've been giving the beetles away in pairs to friends who want them. We already gave away three pairs, which means there should be only 6 more of these creatures left. We thought it would be nice to change out the dirt for these creatures one last time so that they could live out the rest of their lives in clean dirt.

I dump out one of the tanks, and as I sift through the dirt, I came to find out that one of the beetles had died and was consumed by the others; cannibalism is not unheard of amongst rhinoceros, even stag beetles. It was kind of sad and gruesome to find parts of the dead beetle here and there, so now we only have 4 males and a female rhinoceros beetle left.

It was the second and the largest of the tanks which hid a bit of a frightening secret; WE HAVE BECOME PARENTS OF RHINOCEROS BEETLES AGAIN.

As I dumped out the second tank, I was surprised to see a number of grubs roll onto and off the dirt that was proceeding from the tank, like many miniature Sonic the Hedgehogs in super-sonic spins.

I was expecting to see 3 or 4 grubs in the dirt, but how many did we find?

Sift after sift would yield more and more grubs, until finally, when after long last I had finished sifting all the dirt there was, we found a total of 40 grubs.

HOW COULD THIS BE???

4 females, and one by one we removed them from the cases as they emerged. There was one female that didn't really show up until towards the end.

This means that these grubs are the product of either 1 or 2 females!!!

What's going to happen now?

My wife and I have decided to save all the grubs and see if anyone wants them.

We found a large, empty, plastic container, put in some of the new dirt we bought, and we're now using it as a sort of "nursery." There is plenty of space, but even so, grubs are known to eat each other.

I plan to sift through the dirt in another month or so. I wonder how many will survive...

We laid out one layer, and then another...

The tank completely full yet, but we're going to get some more dirt soon, and hopefully not too many will be eaten.

Until the the next rhinoceros beetle update!


Related Links:

Accidentally Rhinoceros Beetle Breeders

UPDATE: Rhinoceros Beetle Babies

UPDATE: Rhinoceros Beetle Babies

A few months ago, I wrote about how we accidentally became rhinoceros beetle breeders.

Well, today, I’m posting an update.

We were given 5 mature adults, and they’ve since passed on, but now we’re taking care of their offspring.

We began with twenty-some-odd eggs, but only 12 grubs have made it.

After reading up on rhinoceros beetle breeding, he have become aware of some interesting, yet disconcerting facts.

Firstly, we were shocked to find out that rhinoceros beetle grubs are voracious eaters.

They’ll eat everything they can find, even their own fellow siblings.

This shouldn’t be too surprising, but all that eating also results in regular pooping, which is why good rhinoceros beetle breeders must sift through the dirt the grubs are growing in monthly for poo.

 The soil in which the grubs live must be sifted for poo every month or so.

A soil poo-sift is a good time to check up on the health of the grubs, and see how many are still around, and beginner breeders are warned not to be too surprised if there are less grubs than they began with; the grubs will eat each other and this is simply a fact of life.

To do a soil-poo sift, the tanks must be emptied out, preferably by turning them upside-down and emptying their contents onto two or three spread sheets of newspaper; the newspaper makes for easy clean-up afterward.

 The contents of one of the tanks dumped out.

How many rhinoceros beetle grubs can you see?

This in itself can be a hair-raising experience if you’re not used to it; the grubs like to hang out at the bottom of the tank, so when you turnover the tank to empty it out, the grubs will roll down from the hill you just made, wriggling and writhing about.

You’ve got to pick these little crawlers up with your bare hands and put them somewhere so they don’t hurt themselves or get away.

Then, you use a sifter to sift through the soil for poo bits or any grubs.

The poo are these interesting, black, square bits that resemble black Chiclets.

 Rhinoceros beetle grub poo up close.

They aren’t mushy or smelly, just hard and odorless.

You might be wondering why I'm focusing on poo right now.

Well, for one, a poo-sift/status check on my beetle grub babies is what this post is all about.

Second, I thought maybe my Japanese readers might be interested, seeing as Japan does seem to have this fascination with poo, as I've already mentioned in another post.

Anyway, moving on...

After sifting through the entire mound of soil, you’ve got to put the soil back in the tanks, and add more breeding soil; over a third of what you remove from the tanks is poo, and the dirt must be replenished.

You can buy bags of special breeding soil that has food and nutrients in it for the grubs to eat at most Japanese hardware stores.

 Special dirt for rhinoceros and stag beetles, clearly labeled.

After replacing the dirt in the tanks, and adding more breeding soil, you can put the grubs back in, and they’ll automatically start to dig themselves back in, and you can leave them in the tank until the next change; the Japanese interwebs say to do a soil poo-sift every month or so.

 My babies beginning to dig into their fresh new dirt.

Other pieces of advice are to make sure the soil is nice and moist; we do this by checking the top soil with our fingers, and spraying the soil with water, using a spray-bottle you can get at a 100 yen shop.

The interwebs say that they won’t get ready to change into rhinoceros beetles until late spring, when the summer approaches, so it’s going to be soil poo sift for the next few months.

 Both tanks sifted and replenished with poo.

I mean, I mean DIRT. Replenished with dirt.

Raising rhinoceros beetle grubs is interesting. I can’t wait until the grubs cocoon and hatch into full-fledged beetles. Will my beetles survive the winter? Time will tell.

Until the next poo-sift!

Related Post: 
Accidentally Rhinoceros Beetle Breeders

Japanese Toilets