# Milkweed bugs...



## Guest (Sep 19, 2004)

I was wondering if anyone has had luck culturing/feeding these to dart frogs?
I know awhile back there was talk about it. And today when I went out to collect some woodlice (I'm going to try to culture them) I saw a bunch and thought about collecting them, but I didn't think it was worth it b/c I haven't heard anyone talk about them in a long while.

-Tad


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

I do not have them but I've talked with a few people who do.

It looks like the red on the milkweed bugs is invoking the same reaction in PDFs that bright colors in PDFs invoke on things that would eat them.

In other words, the milkweed bugs are not getting eaten.

s


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

I had some. Unfortunately we were building a house and moving while I was trying to get familiar with the insects and I obviously missed a critical time when I should have started a new culture because they died. They look to be easy enough to culture but like Scott said, people who've tried them think they will be of limited value. Some PDF apparently eat them when they are small and at an early instar stage but they don't seem to be crazy about them.


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## JWerner (Feb 17, 2004)

I obtailed mine from Tor at NWFF in 2003. They were accepted by some frogs and refused by others. I stopped working with them because the effort placed into culturing them was not worth the output. If you have a small collection and more time than I had, you might look into trying it out. I also never figured out a good way to get the very young milkweed bugs out of the culture and into the frogtanks in a timely manner that would not destry the culture. Once again, too much effort.


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