# Pachnoda grubs



## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

Just making enquiries. managed to get hold of a couple of tubs pachnoda grubs and wanted to get hold of some more both as breeders and feeders for Beardies.

Questions are.


Is the entire genus edible or are some of them none edible, there are about 8 species of pachnoda.


Some of these are worth breeding as pets for sale it seems. The emerald green beetles come to mind.


Any info on supply of more grubs / beetles would be appreciated.


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## OrigamiB (Feb 19, 2008)

As far as I know, no fruit beetle releases toxins, and I'd imagine the same to be true of all the pachnodas. Its definately worth looking into though

I've used a guy called andré in the past for beetles and hes pretty good, lots of nice species and a really nice guy to do business with. you can find his website at: Pet Beetles - Rearing Tips, Sales & Exchanges

As for food breeding, don't expect a decent colony of them for a while. They can stay in the larval stage for quite a few months


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

OrigamiB said:


> As far as I know, no fruit beetle releases toxins, and I'd imagine the same to be true of all the pachnodas. Its definately worth looking into though
> 
> I've used a guy called andré in the past for beetles and hes pretty good, lots of nice species and a really nice guy to do business with. you can find his website at:





OrigamiB said:


> Pet Beetles - Rearing Tips, Sales & Exchanges
> 
> As for food breeding, don't expect a decent colony of them for a while. They can stay in the larval stage for quite a few months


 

Thanks for that, I'll go have a good mooch around and see what he has. 

Oddly the live food is as interesting as the lizards are :lol2:. 

We are converting a spare room into a 'bug room' now to accommodate all the lizard food. Looks like I'll be breeding beetles as well haha. 


I got hold of some other grubs yesterday. 

_Eudicella Schultzeorum sp._Anyone know if these are suitable as feeders also.


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## spencerburgo (Dec 1, 2010)

im going to give the panchoda grubs ago when i get back at the end of the month, my frogs and toads love them, the big grubs have a nasty bite on them i always nip there heads with tweezers if i feed to young frogs, and they are hard to get hold of some times, so i think breeding is the way to go,: victory:

cheers spencer..........


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## serpentsupplies (Sep 4, 2009)

also another quicky. although they can, they don't always pupate well. the ones that you buy through a pet store as feeders are grown on a very poor substrate/food. and therefore don't often survive the pupation stage very well. 
personally if you want to get some beetles to breed i would by some adults or get some grubs from somewhere that aren't selling them as food.


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## spencerburgo (Dec 1, 2010)

serpentsupplies said:


> also another quicky. although they can, they don't always pupate well. the ones that you buy through a pet store as feeders are grown on a very poor substrate/food. and therefore don't often survive the pupation stage very well.
> personally if you want to get some beetles to breed i would by some adults or get some grubs from somewhere that aren't selling them as food.


im going to get a starter kit from ricks live foods as well as some larvae to bring on,

cheers spencer............


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## tarantulabarn (Apr 21, 2005)

i found the best oplace to get decent grubs to both feed and grow on is croydon reptiles, very heathy grubs and well looked after


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## jamie_sri (Nov 3, 2010)

Anyone any ideas if the fruit beetles are ok in beside cresties? Some of the colours of the beetles are fantastic but they seem to get to a fair size


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

Thanks for the replies guys. Since getting a single box of grubbies. We have now thrown out a single bed, ripped up a carpet, laid laminate flooring and are now in the process of planning out a 'bug roooooom' mahaha.

Into this room will go. Any food suitable to feed my dragons. We're having (not that OH has a clue that we are yet) Giant african snails. beetles, mealworms, crix, lokkies, morios, and anything else I can think of later to fill a spot.

yes of course I left an allocated spot on top for that spare viv we have.....:lol2:


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## ZOO CENTRE (Apr 1, 2010)

nicnet said:


> Thanks for that, I'll go have a good mooch around and see what he has.
> 
> Oddly the live food is as interesting as the lizards are :lol2:.
> 
> ...


You can use all larvae of flower beetles as feeder food but the most of them are 'little' expensive.


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## MissCat (Mar 9, 2009)

jamie_sri said:


> Anyone any ideas if the fruit beetles are ok in beside cresties? Some of the colours of the beetles are fantastic but they seem to get to a fair size


This is something I have been considering doing for a while, just waiting for my smag colony to get to a bigger size so I can split it for the experiment. Here are my thoughts so far:

1: I am going to use _Smaragdesthes africana oertzeni_because they are small enough for a crested gecko to eat withough damaging itself, should it choose to do so. I DID, however, try to co-habit the cresties with some _Subulina octana_ snails, which worked well, up until the night that my living room was filled with the sound of happy crunching as the snails got nommed :gasp: So I really don't know if this will work!


2: I am working on the assumption that they may try to eat the beetles at first, but the nasty taste/smell they exude (smelly poo!) combined with the hard exoskeleton might be enough to put them off eating too many.

3: Substrate will have to be DEEP. Deep enough for teh beetles to bury down in and breed, it will also have to be good quality leaf litter (from my local woods) so teh larvae will grow well (am intending on breeding in the viv with cresties/beetles). I figure I have to check the substrate for eggs already so having to completely change it for fresh substrate for teh larvae once it's all been eaten wont be a big issue. My only current concern is that I don't know if teh larvae will attempt to nibble the crested gecko eggs. 


4: To make it a good display there has to be a good balance of light/heat. Obviously I can't add TOO much heat or it will be bad for teh cresties. There IS already UV, which both cresties and beetles will enjoy, this will make the beetles more active too. 


Basically, I will be giving this a genuine shot soon. We shall see how it turns out. I think I would only ever use smags though, as I would be concerned that any beetle bigger, the crestie ould hurt itself if it tried to eat it, plus the grubs of some beetles can have a nasty pinch on them, so when the female cresties dig to lay eggs, they could potentially get a nasty wound, I think using smags limits the risk somewhat.


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## spencerburgo (Dec 1, 2010)

tarantulabarn said:


> i found the best oplace to get decent grubs to both feed and grow on is croydon reptiles, very heathy grubs and well looked after


there website is under repairs at the moment will check back later,: victory:

cheers spencer...............


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## OrigamiB (Feb 19, 2008)

MissCat said:


> This is something I have been considering doing for a while, just waiting for my smag colony to get to a bigger size so I can split it for the experiment. Here are my thoughts so far:
> 
> 1: I am going to use _Smaragdesthes africana oertzeni_because they are small enough for a crested gecko to eat withough damaging itself, should it choose to do so. I DID, however, try to co-habit the cresties with some _Subulina octana_ snails, which worked well, up until the night that my living room was filled with the sound of happy crunching as the snails got nommed :gasp: So I really don't know if this will work!
> 
> ...


These are just my findings anyway, I'm pretty new to the beetle scene and i've only been keeping them about 8 months now. There pretty cool though and fun to watch


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## MissCat (Mar 9, 2009)

OrigamiB said:


> These are just my findings anyway, I'm pretty new to the beetle scene and i've only been keeping them about 8 months now. There pretty cool though and fun to watch


Have you seen smag beetles? lol they are small enough for a crested gecko to eat. Also not particularly known for canibalism. I top up the substrate until it's all poo then I have to replace it entirely, can pick out the majority of eggs (Eudicella mostly, tend not to bother with Pachnoda and can't find smag eggs anyway)
Substrate will only be gone through once a month and I have not found any evidence so far that going through the substrate thouroghly on a monthy basis has any negative effect (although I imagine more often would begin to reveal negative effects)...though I do try to leave well alone once they start to pupate. My Pachnoda and Smags love light and I am curently in the process of designing several experiments involving lighting. 

I have not used dog food for Pachnoda and smags, though have for Eudicella and a couple other species.)


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## OrigamiB (Feb 19, 2008)

Ye I keep smag, to be honest I wouldnt let my cresties eat one as there still 2/3cm big despite being small for fruit beetles


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## MissCat (Mar 9, 2009)

OrigamiB said:


> Ye I keep smag, to be honest I wouldnt let my cresties eat one as there still 2/3cm big despite being small for fruit beetles


I would have said they are about the same size as a large cricket, which my adult cresties eats? I'm not at home right now so can't actually measure a smag to check that i'm not talking out of my rear end though lol.

Edit: Brown, "silent" cricket, not black.


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## OrigamiB (Feb 19, 2008)

Maybe my smag are a bit bigger, depends on the substrate I guess, there also chunkier then crickets anyway and probably have much higher levels of chitin compared to crickets making them that bit harder to digest. I'm fussy with my cresties anyway, I give mine size 5 crickets rather then size 6 as I feel the bigger sizes are harder to digest for them lol


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## Caz (May 24, 2007)

I ate one of these grubs today just out of interest and have to say it really didn't taste nice at all.. 
I'm not surprised some lizards refuse to eat them.


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