This article has been migrated from my old pages, and I will update it, once the migration is over. Luckily there have been a few advances in breeding of Dynastes, even so the basic principles remain the same. I guess there are already many breeding reports for this species, so one might ask, why another one, but there are some good reasons. On the one hand hercules beetles enjoy a constant, even growing popularity in breeders, on the other hand there are still many breeders that do not succeed breeding and keeping Dynastes hercules. As I also have been making some mistakes keeping this species, I would like to give you a guideline for success in Dynastes hercules.
1. SUBSTRATE: Even though the larvae are feeding on wood mainly, I rather would use a mixture of leaves and wood in a proportion of 1 to 1 or even 3 to 2 parts (leaves to wood)…
About the wood: It is very important to find the right quality, considering consistence and stage of rotten. white rotten wood is good, but it should already be soft and not too wet. I have been using beech and oak, but at the moment turned to birch, what seems to be no problem for the larvae and is easier to find (for me ;-)). But still I am mixing it with oak leaves. All I have to do now is wait and see if that mixture leads to big imagos ( I will keep you updated).
About the leaves: Although it is possible to keep the larvae on wood only there are some disadvantages of this method:
1: Take care that the substrate is not too moist, otherwise it will decompose, and larvae seem to not like excessive moisture…
2. As far as I observed the larvae eat the leaves as well and larvae that are kept on a mixture tend to grow faster (At least in my breedings)
3. A leave wood mixture has a good consistence, oxygen can easily access the substrate and that is good for our larvae…
4. The substrate should be fine. Larvae that are kept on a substrate consisting of big pieces tend to grow slowly than larvae kept on a fine substrate. A reason for that phenomenom might be that larvae have to cut the big pieces while others just keep on stuffing everything in them…
I am using rotten leaves of Oak and beech. The best quality of leaves I usually collect in fall, before the new leaves are falling of the trees. The old leaves are rotten and easily crumbled.
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