Milkweed bugs as feeders

[Sparky]

Has anybody used milkweed bugs as feeders before? I mean they are easier to breed than crickets and roaches and look a lot prettier. In fact they are known as the "married man's crickets" because they don't look or smell as bad as crickets and roaches for the wives

I know they are popular in the reptile and frog community but they're almost completely invisible in the insect and arachnid community. I heard you can just use sunflower seeds and grass seeds as their substrate as they will eat those. Has anybody used or is using them right now?

 

[hibiscusmile]

would like to as I get a lot of them, u experiment for us and let us know!

 

[sueb4653]

Found this on line

Because the Milkweed Bugs feed on Milkweed, these insects are fairly safe from predators. Why? Just like the Monarch butterfly, whose larvae feed on Milkweed, which makes the adult also safe from most predators, the chemicals in the Milkweed latex (sap) is toxic. The latex contains cardiac glycosides, a type of cardenolide. If a predator eats one of these bugs, the predator will more than likely vomit. The same is true if your dog was to eat one.

 

[Sparky]

Lab grown milkweed bugs lose their toxicity overtime because they are fed on sunflower seeds and grass/wheat seeds instead. Just like poison dart frogs in captivity. They lose their toxins and can even be handled because they are fed fruitflies and spring-tails while in the wild, they get their toxins from termites. Milkweed bugs in the hobby lose their toxicity also. I mentioned above that they are popular with the herps and frogs community as feeders.

Here they are being reared as feeders in a frog forum. http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeders-live-frozen-culturing-etc/9478-alternative-crickets-fruitflies-milkweed-bugs.html

The babies are small enough to be used like fruit flies and they get as big as medium crickets. That way you can cut down on buying fruitflies AND crickets once you have a viable colony.

 

[sueb4653]

Neat

 

[Paradoxica]

Wow that sounds promising. I once tried aphids from a milkweed plant (not knowing it was toxic) and my nymphs spit them out and violently tossed away the remains. But as long as they bugs have never eaten milkweed that should work. Let us know how that works/ where we can find some.

 

[rs4guy]

Where can these be had?

 

[Introvertebrate]

Aren't milkweed bugs a temperate species? I was under the impression that any temperate insect requires a real or simulated diapause period in the winter. That's why we typically use tropical crickets or roaches as feeders.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I have them here in Ohio, so they overwinter I guess.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Yeah, I just wasn't sure if you needed to give captive ones a time-out in the winter. You can't feed them off if they're hibernating. It would also slow down their breeding pace.

 

[Sparky]

I been doing some snooping around and I've found nothing on milkweed bugs overwintering in captivity. I will try them out soon and hibernate half while having the other half in a warm place. I'm guessing they wouldn't need it. From what I researched, they produce some type of anti-freeze agent but not totally meant for overwintering, it's more like the strongest survive kinda thing. The eggs will hatch whether it's over wintered or not. I know some ant species can go into hibernation in the wild but isn't necessary in captivity. While some insects NEED it; For others it's just another survival of the fittest obstacle.

I guess it would be more based on personal preference. Some prefer to keep it natural as possible and overwinter them. Some say they're in captivity, they're already outliving their wild relatives anyways, they shouldn't need another "natural obstacle".

 

[Introvertebrate]

Interesting. I'm looking forward to hearing your findings.

 

[brancsikia339]

How exactly do they feed on sunflower seeds?

 

[Introvertebrate]

Wikipedia says that large milkweed bugs are found as far north as Ontario, Canada, but are more abundant in the south-eastern United States. Its the same species over that entire range. I would think that a milkweed bug living in Florida wouldn't remain dormant for very long in the winter, if at all.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Another interesting quote: "Raising this species in the lab has become so routinized that Oncopeltus fasciatus has become the standard lab animal for general entomological research.

Koerper and Jorgensen (1984), for example, reported a technique for rearing that went through a new cycle every thirteen weeks, with 400 nymphs and 195 adults constantly present. The food requirements for such a colony was 25 grams of sunflower seeds per cycle."

 

[Sparky]

How exactly do they feed on sunflower seeds?

They have a proboscis-like mouth part like mosquitoes and assassin bugs which they use to drill into sunflower seeds. They then inject the seed with an enzyme that dissolves it from the inside into a liquid slurry which they just suck right out.

Yeah I figured that they wouldn't need to be overwintered though...

 

[Mime454]

Really interesting. Can you buy them anywhere?

 

[Paradoxica]

I just googled a supplier that sells to schools so they should be the lab grown ones that eat seeds.

http://www.berkshirebiological.com/Milkweed-Bug-Eggs--per-clump.html

Now who wants to be the first to try 'em?