Milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) as feeders?

[sschind]

Thanks for the tips. That probably explains the smell the guy I got the FF culture from gets his media from Josh's frogs.

I took the pictures before I put in the food and water. They are already messing it up so I doubt I'll keep them set up this way. I was more or less just testing it out. I have access to several species of large grasses and I've always wanted to see how they would look in a setup. I'll just keep the stuff around so when I do my bug shows I can make a quick display and add the bugs.

I'm seeing lots of molts on the ground so mine are maturing nicely as well. I did also set up a half a dozen or so in a 32 OZ deli just to see if they reproduce in there but I will probably end up going to a setup like yours.

 

[CosbyArt]

Thanks for the tips. That probably explains the smell the guy I got the FF culture from gets his media from Josh's frogs.

I took the pictures before I put in the food and water. They are already messing it up so I doubt I'll keep them set up this way. I was more or less just testing it out. I have access to several species of large grasses and I've always wanted to see how they would look in a setup. I'll just keep the stuff around so when I do my bug shows I can make a quick display and add the bugs.

I'm seeing lots of molts on the ground so mine are maturing nicely as well. I did also set up a half a dozen or so in a 32 OZ deli just to see if they reproduce in there but I will probably end up going to a setup like yours.

Ha, that is funny. Not sure what it is but the culture medium/media of the FF's I got sure has a unique and strong odor. Almost as powerful as the experiment I did with just potato flakes, water, and yeast

Yeah the Milkweed bugs will start to dirty their culture pretty quickly, and is why paper towels are recommended. Sounds like a good idea, nothing better to show off a invert like a terrarium setup.

As you just started to culture them I'd recommend if you can find more Milkweed bugs add them to your culture, as not of them will make the transition to sunflower seeds. After several trips/collecting them I started off with 346 Milkweed bugs (according to my record log, and yeah I counted them when I found them lol). Right now a quick count reveled just over 80 visible, and likely another 50 or so hiding in the paper and seeds (lots of tiny nymphs), but not counting the eggs.

So put simply about half will die in the change from their natural food to the new food source, from old age, or unknown reasons. I figure anyway the more you can start off with to culture the more you can feed off once they loose their toxicity.

 

[CosbyArt]

Update - The milkweed bugs were doing fine, the 2nd generation of captive bugs give birth to the 3rd generation; however, in that timeframe they all seemed to die relativity about the same time of in about a week. Not sure if the black sunflower seeds were not a good enough food source, or if they simply went without water for too long (as they use a lot of water, and it was dry for a bit).

I will try again this spring when I can capture more. Strangely, I seen a small group of them living on dried out seed pods on the fence row in early January - I guess with the mild winter and little snow, from the El Nino weather, many insects lived much longer this year.