# Rice flour beetles



## porkchop48 (May 16, 2006)

How hard are they to culture and feed out to frogs?
My frogs right now get springtails, FF and pinhead and would like to add a bit more variety to their diet. 
Any suggestions?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

They are easy to culture but you need to sift the larva out as many frogs will not feed on the adults. Some people like Corey keep them on a schedule so the adults are moved to new cultures to lay eggs and then sifted out so when you go to feed the culture out, there aren't any adults to remove. 

Ed


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## evolvstll (Feb 17, 2007)

Here a link to azdr's sheet on RFB's:

http://www.azdr.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=53


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

> They are easy to culture but you need to sift the larva out as many frogs will not feed on the adults.


This hasn't been my experience. All my frogs love them and have eaten them more than once.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I have had auratus take the adults but have had tincts, tricolor, E. silverstoni, pumilio, Mantella, and oak toads all reject the adults however all frogs that I have tried on them have taken the larva. 

Ed


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

I have often wondered if the media is the cause of such varied experiences with frogs eating the adults. The beetles (at least to me) smell like the media they were in.

I rarely see any of my thumbs eating anything, so I can't comment on them, but I have witnessed all my tincs (citronellas, powders, cobalts, azureus, leucs) eating the beetles on multiple feedings. My auratus morphs aren't voracious eaters, so I can't speak for them as they don't eat as I'm putting food in like the tincs do.

Never heard of an oak toad. Local species?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

The flour beetles secrete quinalones however different strains and species can have different levels of secretion so its possible that I worked with a strain with a larger secretion. 

Oak toads are Bufo quercicus which are a small toad native to the south eastern USA. They are an interesting species. 

Ed


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

i have found to get best results from using semolina flour and brewer's yeast on a 1:1 ratio.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Some people should also know better than so assume Corey can keep on a schedule like that for more than a couple months... I call Erin once or twice a year for emergency flies and you think I could keep up that RFB culture schedule? I don't even know if mine are still producing :lol: It was actually and idea that got passed down to me and tweaked. Worked great while I did it, but I'm working more with buffalo worms now. For those interested in super production, I could explain what Ed is talking about...

The key with these guys for me was bowl feeding. I had a horrid time getting some frogs to take them before they died in the humdity until I started bowl feeding. Now the frogs even eat ones that don't really move... RFBs are great and easy, but without the bowl feeding I felt like I was just killing them for no reason.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Oh wait, I think I *did* already write it up... 

Flour Beetles (Tribolium ssp)

As for Josh's comments.... 

"The problem with the adults can be handled by a quick taste test. Some will ignore them from the get go. Some will try them, just to spit them back out. Some will be drama queens and drag their tongues half way around the tank to show their distaste. And then there are some that didn’t get the memo that the beetles are noxious and think they are the best thing since sliced bread. I have to wonder about those frogs, but if they like them, you’ll at least have something to do with extra adult beetles." (from above article)

I had one azureus that thought they were the plague. The other ate them like candy. I never understood what was going on. The one azureus was the only one that ate any of the beetles for me.


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## porkchop48 (May 16, 2006)

I just got a mental image in my head of a frog trying to get the taste out of his mouth. :lol: 

I may have to try these in the near future. I have gotten all my tree frogs to understand the concept of bowl feeding I may have to start on my darts soon


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Yeah, even reading the article again after writing it that mental image still makes me chuckle, especially since I actually remember the frog doing it... such a drama queen. 

I find the PDFs can take a little longer purely because they are terrestrial rather than arboreal (which would be up in the tank and easily see in the bowl). While glass bowls or petri dishes seem like an easy way to get them to see in, they tend to try and eat stuff thru the glass and that's a mite frustrating to watch. I usually have a shallow depression in the substrate so I can sink the bowl I'm using so the lip is level with the substrate so the frogs can see in better. Once they are used to bowl feeding, you can just stick the bowl anywhere in the tank and they will investigate it.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

if you keep birds, i advice you do not keep rice flour beetles in your house.

I found dozens of beetles running loose in my sister's room because they eat bird pellet food. And I still find them, even after thorough cleaning.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

They could just as easily be wild ones as they could be from what you culture... and you should be keeping foods like that in air locked containers like that anyways as bird/small animal food attracts pests if they didn't have it when you bought it. While culturing these guys can increase you chances of infestation, my flour beetle infestations are usually the Red Flour Beetles we have around here, where as I culture the Confused/Rice Flour beetles. The Reds can fly.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

no, they were ones that escaped my culture. I found out that my old, plastic containers allowed them to climb out from tiny imperfections on the side of the container.

I did keep the food closed. They were attracted to spilled food from the bird's food dish. I also think they were infesting the cockatiel's bedding medium. Thankfully, I noticed the problem and told my sister to clean more frequently. Less spilled food equals less renegade beetles. :roll:


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