I love beetles!
I have kept several different species of African rose beetles over the years.
Your desert beetles-
how long do the adults live for?
What I found a bit sad with rose beetles is, that they spend months/ years as larva and then live only a couple of months as adults. Yes, that big fat larva filling out my hand is nice to look at and impressive, but not really the shiny colorful jewel I had been going for.
And what do these beetles eat?
And yes, I agree, I also settled on ants now and have no beetles anymore.
The Asbolus verrucosus have been recorded to live for up to 15 years in captivity! I started out with 3 but one died after a few months. The other 2 are still alive and have been in my care for 2 years!
Desert beetles tend to have pretty long lifespans that can be as short as 6 months to as long as 15 years. The average is 2-4yrs in my experience.
Most beetles in captivity are wild caught (most are very common in their native range). So some can be old and weak when you get them.
Breeding desert beetles can be hard because many species need very specific temperatures that can only be achieved using a reptile incubator.
Most desert beetles besides some specific specialists are scavengers and eat nearly anything. I've fed them beetle jelly, dog food, carrots, apples, bananas, and fish food.
Very fun to keep. But because of the space requirements I'm restricting myself to my small 10 gallon tank so I can focus on ants.
Ants are much more fun to observe and are much more rewarding than beetles.
Desert beetles tend to be more active at night when I'm sleeping and are more of a display pet.
