Having your larvae emerge as a beetle is an extremely gratifying moment. Caring for your newly emerged beetle is simple, but there are a few things you must do to ensure proper care.
After a beetle has emerged, they will be in a state that we like to call “Dormancy”. During this time beetles will not eat, will generally not move much, and will need time to fully harden their bodies. So how do you take care of your Dormant beetles?
1: Place your beetle in a closed container, and fill it with moist substrate and tissue paper.
2:Leave your beetle in a cool place, around room temperature (68-80°F)
3:Make sure that your beetle container does not dry out, spray water if needed. (If you have substrate like coco fibre, that will help keep it moisture longer)
4:Check on your dormant beetle about once or twice a week to see if they have started wandering around looking for food. Once they do, the tissue paper will start getting shredded up.
5:If you notice the tissue paper has been shredded, try giving it some food like banana or beetle jelly. If they start eating that means they are now active! If not, leave them in their container and check again in a few days.
Partially torn up, becoming active.
Fully torn, ready to eat
Tips and Notes:
1: For larger stronger beetles like the Palawan stag beetle, or the Hercules beetle. It’s better to use paper towels since they will easily rip up tissue paper without being active. And vise versa, for smaller beetles, you want to use soft tissue paper or toilet paper that they can rip up once they are active.
2: You can tell if a beetle is eating if they settle down near their food and stick their little beetle tongue out at it to soak it up.
3:If you don’t have any substrate yet like Coconut fibre, Aspen shavings, Flake soil, etc then you can just keep your beetle in paper towels or tissue paper until it is active. But it is advised to use substrate for your adult beetle once it’s active.
4:The Dormancy period for newly emerged beetles is usually around 1-3 months. There are a few exceptions like Homoderus mellyi (Crab Stag Beetle), and the Lucanus elaphus (Giant Stag Beetle) which can have a dormancy period of 6 months!
5:Female beetles will usually become active sooner than male beetles.
6:You only need to keep the tissue paper and substrate moist, it should not be dripping wet. Just as long as it is not all dried up your beetle will be okay.
7:About half a month to a month after your beetle becomes active and starts eating they will be ready to breed. Typically, species with shorter lifespan need to be bred sooner than the species with longer lifespan.
8:If you dig up your newly emerged beetle too early, their body may still be a reddish color, and not fully developed yet. Be very careful when handling them. You can keep them similarly to your dormant beetles, but place them on fresh tissue paper, their wings need time to dry in order to form properly. Sometimes I like to place a second tissue paper on top of the newly emerged beetle in case they flip over. (Order: Left to Right, top to bottom)
9:Beetles under 30mm may not make obvious tears in the tissue paper. Keep a closer eye on them. You can also offer them small amounts of food after 2 weeks in case they have already started eating.
If you have any further questions, please contact us at
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