# Other flour beetle as food ¿?



## nelcadiz (Jun 27, 2007)

Hi guys!! in my field parcel I have a little house, fruits trees, and I found these small beetles at flour. I don´t know that species are, but I think that can be one of two following (both feed from flour, rice, cereals etc, as rice flour beetle):

Tobacco bettle (_Lasioderma serricorne_) 2-3 mm size



















Beetle of drugs (_Stegobium paniceum_) 2.5 mm size



















How can I do to reproduce them??


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Without knowing an exact ID, we can only guess. Id try and raise them like I do my RFB, in a mix of 3 cups white flour, 3 cups wheat flour, and 1 cup yeast. Keep them warm and away from moisture. Also, remember that the frogs eat the larvae, not the beetles.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

These are the same as the infamous shorelinite beetles here in the USA. 

Check out the archives at frognet.org for more rearing information on them. 

I've had them do well in flour to which I added several tablespoons of brewer's yeast. They have a slower generational time than flour beetles but on the plus side the frogs scarf up the adults. 

Ed


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Ed,

Any ideas on where one can get the aformentioned shorlinite beetles? They sound like an easy to culture treat for my frogs.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

If you were close to me I'd give you a culture... 

They have been circulating in the hobby for awhile now so I am surprised that they haven't made it out by you yet. 

Ed


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## nelcadiz (Jun 27, 2007)

Hi again, I´ve read more about these beetles and I think that "my beetle" is beetle of drugstore (_Stegobium paniceum_).

Then, I can do cultures with this specie??


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

shorelinite beetles are also known as drugstore beetles, so we should be talking about the same beetle. I've been keeping them for a long while and sent starter cultures to a few people, but due to lower generation times this takes a lot longer... and I've got a lot of frogs who love them, and I'd rather start more cultures than send them to other people 

I've tried them on Ed's RFB media mix for most of the time I've had them, and recently tried a grain mix that was the recipe labs evidently raised them on when they are used for experiments. I've not determined which works better. Generations have been around 2-3 months for me, and when I get the explosion of adults, I start new cultures and feed most of the extras out. 

I feed out only the adults... I've noticed in the flour mix that these guys will create little hardened "caves" for themselves as grubs, hardening up the media round them, and this makes them a pain to sift out. They also don't seem to be particularly active grubs either! In contrast, the adults are very active, and I've used them to feed a wide variety of frogs, not just PDFs. They are very popular! They are also easy... I start a culture, stick them on a shelf, and forget about them until I see the adults climbing around the lid of the container. 

Note - I've had them chew holes thru the cheap "toss away" plastic FF containers, at the bottom of the culture in the media. Either don't use these, or toss the culture after one generation (this usually becomes an issue after the second generation).


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## nelcadiz (Jun 27, 2007)

Why can´t to feed with the beetles? How I can identify the larvae between the flour?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Well, you can, it's just not all that likely they will eat them, tho there are the odd tinc or so that do. The beetles tend to give off a noxious taste. Shorelinite beetles are rather tasty, but their generation time is so long there is no guarantee there would be any beetles to feed when you had a crisis 

Larvae are removed from the flour with a flour sifter. You usually don't see them until you sift thru some of the flour, while the beetles stay on top of the flour.


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## nelcadiz (Jun 27, 2007)

:wink: , then is better the larvae as food than beetle, right?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

They are called rice flour beetles... but yes, it's actually the larvae that are fed out. The hobby hasn't given the larvae another name like most of the other beetle larvae that are bred as feeders (mealworms, superworms/rainbow worms, buffalo worms, etc.) which I think is a good thing... people start thinking the larvae and the beetle are two different species :shock: I had a talk with someone about darkling beetles... his response was "wow, their larvae sound really similar to mealworms!" That's because darkling beetle larvae are called mealworms... ugh.


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## nelcadiz (Jun 27, 2007)

Can you show me some pictures of these cultures?


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