Entomology is my Hobby

New Pet

2012-01-30T10:26:00.000-08:00

Found a nymph Assassin Bug under some bark this winter. Not sure the species yet but its feeding on Fruit Flies and fattening up quick!

Endless food...

2010-04-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

After buying crickets for our Gecko for a while, I decided I needed to have my own self sustaining food source for our Geckos. It get to expeensise and inconvientet to go the store every week for crickets. After researching I found a site that breed amazing Leopard Geckos. Their Geckos are kept on a strict diet of meal worms. So I found a site called sunshinemealworms.com, located in Oregon that sells meal worms. I Ordered 2000 to start my own colony.

Meal worms or Tenebrio molitor are also known as Darkling Beetles or Flour Beetles. Meal Worms are just the larva form of these beetles. There are several similar species available but this is the most common and practical as several 'useful' sized worms are available to use as they grow.

Here is the Meal worms Setup:

The setup was easy. Just get a small tote that is about 7-14 (+) quarts and at least 4 inches tall. Add a few inches of Whole oats, bran, wheat germ, or even Flucker's Cricket Food (gut load). Add a few carrots or apple slices so they have moisture and BAM!, you have a colony. We have 2 of these colonies, both in the same setup with about 1000 Meal Worms in each colony.

The colony is practically odorless, minus the smell of outs and bran, which isn't a bad smell at all. A lid with holes keeps the colony secluded in their own environment. We keep these totes in our furnace room, inside small plastic drawers. Escaping is impossible, no to mention they cant even climb the plastic sides of the totes they are in. The colony will be self sustaining shortly once the mature worms change into pupae, and then again into Darkling beetles, which will then lay eggs, restarting the cycle.

FYI: Meal Worms make great food for birds, reptiles, and even fish.

Housing Scorpions

2010-04-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

We decided to keep some through the winter to see how they do. We set up a small 10G tank and set up a habitat. Here are some pics:

Scorpion Hunting Continued

2010-04-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

We went on several more scorpion hunting trips before winter hit. We discovered that there are 2 types of scorpions in the area we were hunting:

Northern Scorpion

Paruroctonus boreus

AND

Yellow Ground Scorpion
Vaejovis confusus

Notice that the Norther Scorpion has a larger stinger, claws, and a darker body. The Yellow Ground Scorpion has a darker stinger and skinnier claws. Both are relatively harmless, but have the potential to be fatal. They both glow the same. They live side by side in the High Utah Desert.

During our hunts we came across several Male Desert Tarantulas. I also did not expect to find these because of our harsh winters.

This guy current resides in a jar of alcohol. He is now the largest Arachnid in my collection. I try not to over collect while hunting for bugs. I usually only harvest a few really good specimens of any particular species.

Scorpion Hunting

2010-04-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

I was flipping rocks one day while hiking with my dad and managed to find 3 scorpions. I had no idea scorpions would be in this area because it snows heavily in the winter. But where there are 3 there are more...

With the help of my cousin, we built UV LED light mods for our Mag-lights. The lights weren't to complicated to build, and they replaced the original light housing so they were perfect. I would show you a picture of the mod but I think he is going to paten it and try to sell the mods...

Anyways here is the finished product:

In case you are wondering what UV lights have to do with scorpions, THEY GLOW. If you hit a scorpion with UV light it will light up like a glow stick!
>>
We started the hunt at about 10PM. Things weren't looking so good at first. We wandered around in the dark for about 10 minutes. The only thing that as glowing was paint-ball casings. But it wasnt long before one of the casings was moving slowly along the hillside. We had found our first scorpion! After another 20 minutes of kiking up the mountain, we were finding them almost every few minutes. We ended up catching about 50 scorpions that night all in about 1.5 hours. Not bad!

That one Girl

2010-04-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

I met a girl. She liked me and I liked her. So we got married. She is not a huge fan of bugs, especially handling them, but she does like being outside with me and doesn't mind swing a net at anything that flies or jumps.

We like to go on 'Adventures' in the Utah Wilderness. A Good net is a requirement on any hike :)

Goodbye to Florida.

2010-02-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

Like I said, I only spent 2 years in Florida. It was a great state. Lots of insects and other creatures crawling around...

Mediterranean Geckos were everywhere! Many where almost see through.

I decided to build a small pond with the small amount of time I had. It attracted many insects and other guests.

And yes there were plenty of these lurking around...

Maybe I will go back and Visit some day...

Various Insects

2010-02-18T11:31:00.000-08:00

Here are a bunch of pictures of insects I captured. Most of these were caught in Orange Park, Florida. Feel free to help me identify them!!!

Good Night, Sleep Tight...

2010-02-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

In Gainesville when I first Arrived, I noticed dark spots in the corners of the room on the celling. I also noticed what looked like little blood stains in the crack on the wall. Under futher investigation, I found out that my worst thoughts were correct: BED BUGS.

The Apartment I had moved into was completely infested. While we did take every measure to eradicate this pest. I did collect as many as I could find before we started spraying...

I collected between 50-100 Bed Bugs which I have preseved in a small vial.

Here are a few pick of the buggars:

More Florida Creatures

2010-02-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

A friend and Myself Managed to catch a Cicada Killer in a cup on day. I eventually pinned him out and framed him. He is just under the size of my thumb.

Florida also had Fireflies, which I had never seen before. You would see them in the trees and in the grass. There were lots fo them near water sources.

2 years in Florida

2010-02-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

I served a 2 year service mission in Jacksonville Florida. I mostly went around talking with the less fortunate and trying to lift spirits. 99% of my time was devoted to these people. But this did not stop me from carrying a jar or 2 on my daily endeavors.

While much of Jacksonville is Dense Urban, anything that is not concrete is Jungle. Florida is hot and Humid, it can be Swampy, and it rains just about every day. It is a haven for large insects and spiders. I quickly learned you didn't go running through the dense plants and trees unless you wanted a face full of spider.

These spiders were called "Bannana Spiders" by the locals. Their True name is the Golden Silk Orb-Weaver. They built webs that could be as large as 3-4 feet in diameter. They built these webs at all levels in the trees as well.

I spent some time in Gainesville Florida, a few hours south of Jacksonville. Gainesville had more swamp and more forests. They also had many alligators swimming around. Gainsville is where I collected 90% of my collection.

I managed to collect various cockroaches, wasps and a few types of mantids. I also captured a few walking sticks and some very interesting beetles.

My favorite capture by far was this guy: A Grizzled Mantis (Gonatista grisea)

I rescued him from a bird (hence the damaged, protruding wing) just to freeze him for my collection...

The Saddle

2010-02-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

I decided to make sure my insect collecting remained Legal so I spent some time Up in American Fork Canyon. After hiking about 20 miles into a saddle above Alpine Utah, I came across a meadow of wildflowers fed by natural springs and snow melt. If their ever was a heaven for butterflies, this place was it. I have heard romurs that you can capure "Glass Wing" butterflies here, but I have had no such luck. This place is impossible to get to until around June, after the snow has finally melted.

Zion's National Park

2010-02-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

Utah has an awesome place called Zion's National Park. It is down south so it is more desert. It is famous for its rock arches.

Here I caught tons of amazing insects. I managed to nab some rare butterflies and a nice Tarantula Hawk Wasp. One night I was stoped by a park ranger. Turns out it is illegal to capture or take ANYTHING from a National Park. I explained to him that I had no idea, and that I many pinned insects back at my campsite. He let me off and allowed me to keep the insects I had previously captured.

UTAH

2010-02-08T08:22:00.001-08:00

We eventually Moved from California to Utah. Utah is mostly High Desert. Basically that means that the further south you go, the more desert it gets. The further up the mountains you go, the more Trees and Forests you find.

It is basically an insect Haven. It seems that the 2 best climates for catching insects is either very Dry, or very Humid. Utah's geography makes for a very diverse insect population. Utah doesn't have a lot of people in it. Most of the people are in the Salt Lake City area. I think the best thing about Utah is the fact that you are only ever 30 minutes away from the wild outdoors.

School started, it sucked. But I did have on class with one teacher that furthered my passions for science and insects. JAY ALLEN taught a class called Zoo-Botany. In this class we did everything from Dissections of fish and animals, to leaf collections and identification. He had fish and plants and all sorts of interesting things. The highlight of that class for me was the insect collection project. He had Entomologist come in from the local colleges and show us their collections and tools for study. I was hooked. we were given some insect pins and a box and sent on out way to collect Orders of insects. We only had to collect 75 insects from 12 Orders. I think I collected upwards of 500. It was nice to know that someone else sheared the same passion as I did with insects and the outdoors. Turns out Jay was also a Park Ranger at the American Fork Canyon. After the assignment ended, Jay said we could keep our collections or throw them our. I volunteered to keep anyone collection that was planing on throwing it out. I went home that day with a life time supply of insect collection equipment...

I never stopped collection from that day forward...

A Different Kind of Kid

2010-02-08T07:37:00.001-08:00

All my life I have been fascinated with the small creatures that live amongst us. I would much rather be outside digging through the dirt and leaves for bugs and frogs then anything else.

My parents signed me up for sports but soon learned that I didn't care much for it. In fact, I spent most of the time catching bugs in the playing field then paying attention to the game.

I would spend time catching little frogs and large snails. I always smashed the snails cause my mom hated them. They ate our plants. I would hunt down Black Widow Spiders that were in the sprinkler system box. I would catch lizards near my Dad's warehouse. We called them Blue Bellies because they had to blue stripes down their stomachs. I also chased rabbits in the field and caught some sort of crazy looking caterpillar that ate the "stink weed" that grew out there. They looked like a Monarch Caterpillar only several times smaller and with less stripes.

I also spent a lot of time with my Grandpa Bud in Arizona and Various camp sites throughout California. He would bring me hunting with him, which provided ample opportunities for creature hunting. He was always interested in what I found. Once when we were fishing we came across a cow skeleton. I moved the skull and found several colorful Carrion Beetles, about 1/2 long. My grandpa suggested we use them as fishing bait. Instead they bit the crap out of his hand...

Eventually I got my first terrarium, in which I grew some plants and eventually kept my first Praying Mantis. She eventually laid an egg sac and died. That spring the eggs hatched and I released the baby mantids into the world.

The Bay area of California was full of insects and spiders. Behind my house was a creek filled with creatures. Though I had a few friends that would go on adventures with me to hunt out the creatures of my neighborhood, most would rather hang out at the mall or play Guitar Hero. I was always different. I spent many hours hunting alone.

One time, while flipping rocks on a hill near Rockville Park, I came across a colony of large millipedes. I was never quite certain as to what kind they were but they grew up to 3-4 inches. I only ever found them in this spot. It was near a power pole and some sort of City Owned Electrical storage thing.

I never actually started Collecting Insects and such until we moved from California...