u/EpicPopoi

Following Richard's Inverts recipe, is brewer's yeast for pigeons the same ingredient used for making flake soil?

Average depth of my larvae substrate, 500mL

All 4 of them are enclosed in a safe, shaded box with controlled temperature to avoid heat spikes during the afternoon

Hello, beginner here! taking care of four L2 Dynastes hercules hercules larvae and I am in the Philippines where the temperature gets too humid. I need help in regards to the substrate moisture drying out too fast.

I keep them stored in a quiet and shaded part of my air-conditioned room with a fan indirectly circulating to keep a bearable temperature since they're lowlands (cant leave them in room temperature, since PH temperature spikes from time to time). Each larvae have their own containers with vent holes at the top.

I recently gave them the new substrate last week of may, by which each of them have an average of 500mL flake soil, properly moistened to a clump but not dripping wet. On the first few weeks, they seem ok until the drying issue starts to happen. I started misting but not too much so that the water would seep at the bottom but not flooding the container in the process, just enough for it to moisten and nourish the larvae. It worked, and they all regained their weights. However for the past few days it became more of a problem when I realized that their substrate dried faster than usual with no condensation. As much as possible I dont want to keep misting since it'll build up rot, and their upcoming 1L addition on each substrate is on the way.

I need help with it since as much as I love taking care of them, the moisture issue is stressing me out:(

1. Would it help maintain the moisture if I cover up one side of the top slits?
2. Does substrate amount matter in terms of moisture? (since they all have 500mL + 1L incoming)
3. Is it normal that they dwell at the bottom, gain weight but all have different reactions to the substrate even though they all have the same environment setting? (Larvae #1 seems to be smaller than others compared to a larger size Larvae #4)

Gladly would appreciate your help, looking to learn more about beetlekeeping^^

Hello, beginner here! looking forward on making my first flake soil but I came to a problem where its pretty difficult to acquire pure hardwood sawdust here in the Philippines, most common ones here are softwood that are either treated with chemicals or unsafe for the larvae.

Following Richard's Inverts flake soil recipe, am I able to use 100% oak pellets in substitution for hardwood sawdust? (80% sawdust;20% frass/old flake soil recipe)

Really worried since I have 4 L2 larvae who recently got a substrate change, and my reserves are running out. Ill start restocking on online-bought flake soil but economy-wise they're pretty expensive for our location haha

Thank you!