Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,
Anyone know where i can find beetle grubs for sale, or in the wild? The rain beetles are here also, and i think im gonna catch some and keep em. How should i house them, and what do they eat?
Thanks,
Andrew

Where are you located? If you are in California where Pleacoma sp. are located. The adults do not fed. The larva feed on varios roots and detritus. They can take many years to complete their life cycle. They go through extra larval instars where as all other scarabs go through 3. What species are you interested in?

Yeah, I live in Northern california. The kind of grubs i was hoping to find where the rhinocerous bettles. But if those arent available i would settle for any grubs that turn into something that looks cool.

Thanks,
Andrew

Unfortunetly there are not any of the large Dynastes in northern California. If you are into large scarab beetles though, the females of the rain beetles which come out with the fall rains are as large as any of the Dynastes in the US. The trick is finding the females. The males are easy to catch if you put out a light trap (a bucket with a light source in it) all night and into the early morning when it is raining. They are most active pre-dawn. The only way to get females is to dig them out of their burrows after a rain. The females of all the Pleocoma, aka. rain beetles, are flightless. They take a lot of effort but are among the most highly prized beetles in true die-hard scarab collectors. The males do have some small horns on them. These beetles are very finiky about where they live. They seem to prefer clay-type soils and like wooded natural areas, mostly in mountains.