Bean Weevil Culture - Tub

Bean Weevils - Culture

Bean Weevils are a very small beetle that feeds on dried beans, as well as other dried peas and pulses.  The larvae feed inside the bean, eating away at the inside until it is ready to pupate. It then makes a small chamber to pupate and emerges from the bean as an adult beetle.
Even as adults these weevils are very small at only a few millimetres long and are used as a food for any species that likes very small food items, much in the same way as fruit fly. Due to the small size they are hard to catch making them a great cleaner crew for larger reptiles.

Bean weevils are the perfect size for hatchling amphibians, very small fish and juvenile insectivorous invertebrates (e.g. mantis and tarantulas).

Bean Weevils are supplied as a culture of feeding larvae along with beans and usually contain adult beetles however if the cultures are not fully mature then you may have to wait a week or 2 for the weevils to start emerging from the beans. They should be stored at 20-25C in the containers they arrive in and will produce weevils for several weeks, if not months. Eventually the larvae will have eaten all the beans and no new beetles will emerge.

To use, the wood wool is gently removed from the culture and the beetles shaken into a plastic tub where they can be dusted with vitamin supplements if required before being used. The wood wool is then returned to the culture.