Peanut beetles as cleaner crews

D

Drteeth

First Instar
I have many extra peanut beetles and they seem to be the best cleaners for extra fruit pieces and food.  Is it safe to mix these in with roaches so that they can clean up excess food before it goes bad? It seems like they should be find but I don't want them to go after the live roaches. 

 
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I was wondering the same. Thinking of getting some, but only if they can work for a living. No freeloaders here.  :P

 
:lol:  All of pets have jobs. My dog warns me when the mailman is coming, my cat is a mouser, my beardie helps me spend my money and keeps me company during my winter hibernation. The roaches and inverts, their job is to compost my leftovers, hiss to warn of vibrations and make me happy. Tiny beetles don't make me particularly happy, so they need to have some special skills before moving in.  :P

 
I found that my small amount of 12 peanut beetles almost died out but then bounced back with a small vengeance. They devour almost any food item in the tank. They breed rapidly much more so than buffalo beetles and may take over the tank if left unchecked. If you are looking to get rid of some peanut beetles they are highly sought after in alternative medicine as "gorgojos chinos".

 
I remember that convo on gorgojos chinos I have wanted some ever since. The only person who advertises them for sale is capecod and that price is way to high. If they do make a good cleaner I might have to put them in with my lobster roaches...if I get some.

 
I've removed all beetles from my Panchlora nivea bins. Tedious work to separate all beetles from roaches. I'm pretty sure some nymphs perished with the beetles. I did the same with my Therea roaches. The ever growing number of beetles wasn't to my liking. Now I only keep small springtails with some of the more moist roach bins. The isopods I also had to let go... 
I still wonder why one would like to add beetles? If you need a cleaner crew, aren't you feeding too much? But please enlighten me if I'm wrong. 

 
stanislas said:
I've removed all beetles from my Panchlora nivea bins. Tedious work to separate all beetles from roaches. I'm pretty sure some nymphs perished with the beetles. I did the same with my Therea roaches. The ever growing number of beetles wasn't to my liking. Now I only keep small springtails with some of the more moist roach bins. The isopods I also had to let go... 
I still wonder why one would like to add beetles? If you need a cleaner crew, aren't you feeding too much? But please enlighten me if I'm wrong. 
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Cleaner crews also eat dead roach bodies, it's the main reason people would ever use the beetle species as a cleanup crew I'm pretty sure, and since some roaches don't readily eat their dead, the beetles can be quite useful. You do really need to watch the beetle's population though, since they can stress out roaches if their number get too high.

 
Hisserdude said:
Cleaner crews also eat dead roach bodies, it's the main reason people would ever use the beetle species as a cleanup crew I'm pretty sure, and since some roaches don't readily eat their dead, the beetles can be quite useful. You do really need to watch the beetle's population though, since they can stress out roaches if their number get too high.
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Thanks for pointing that out! 

I see, that it makes sense as you have roaches that do not eat their death. I'm considering to add Eupolyphaga sinensis females nymphs to some my enclosures to see to that. At least in enclosures with non related species so avoid the possibility of hybrids. I will experiment with it. See what it gives. Perhaps I'll start with tossing some dead roaches into a enclosure with some Chinese... 

What bothers me about the beetles is their increase in numbers if you don't keep an eye on them. You just go though it and pick up the excess of beetles? 

 
Hisserdude said:
Cleaner crews also eat dead roach bodies, it's the main reason people would ever use the beetle species as a cleanup crew I'm pretty sure, and since some roaches don't readily eat their dead, the beetles can be quite useful. You do really need to watch the beetle's population though, since they can stress out roaches if their number get too high.
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That's why I use them in all of my dry tanks. Since I started, I have yet to have additional trouble with phorid flies, and no more "Ewww gad. Where's the dead giant hisser that I can smell all the way down the hall." Those guys get funky real fast when they die. But yeah, I do have to do some beetle maintenance when the populations get too large. I suppose it's just a question of which option seems like less work... Removing beetles on occasion or dealing with deadies. 

 
Best/laziest was to collect beetles is take a little 2 oz cup or ramekin. Bury it so it's flush with the surface and put a bit of apple or carrot in. They fall in next day you have a cup of beetles and larvae.

For what it's worth I try to have as many beetle free colonys as I can the only one's they help with are the dubia and orange head but who knows once my other colonys large roaches grow in numbers. For small roaches/pet spieces I don't use em

 
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