Do crickets vomit when exposed to ethanol? Entomology

Right, so I'm collecting insects for an Insect Bio course and I just caught a really jumpy house cricket in my basement. Our refrigerator is too full tonight for me to kill it the humane way so I closed it in a tupperware container and slipped in a paper towel soaked in ethyl rubbing alcohol like my TA suggested (wiley little guy nearly jumped right out of the little open slit.)

I looked away for barely 5 minutes and when I came back, he seemed to be chewing on the paper towel, with the formerly white cloth now brown in a few spots. Is this normal?

Submitted November 18, 2017 at 09:17AM by chaosfire235 http://ift.tt/2zNGeBk Entomology

Do crickets vomit when exposed to ethanol? Entomology

Right, so I'm collecting insects for an Insect Bio course and I just caught a really jumpy house cricket in my basement. Our refrigerator is too full tonight for me to kill it the humane way so I closed it in a tupperware container and slipped in a paper towel soaked in ethyl rubbing alcohol like my TA suggested (wiley little guy nearly jumped right out of the little open slit.)

I looked away for barely 5 minutes and when I came back, he seemed to be chewing on the paper towel, with the formerly white cloth now brown in a few spots. Is this normal?

Submitted November 18, 2017 at 09:17AM by chaosfire235 http://ift.tt/2zNGeBk Entomology

Question about waxworms Entomology

Hopefully I'm in the right sub! I have about 45 live waxworms that I used for a lab experiment. I no longer need them. I've been keeping them in the refrigerator door in their container. What should I do with them??

I don't have any bearded dragons or other reptiles to feed them to. Any suggestions?

Submitted November 02, 2016 at 07:19AM by alilbored1 http://ift.tt/2fb9Yf3 Entomology

Rearing Moths in the Fall? Entomology

I recently picked up an interesting book (Moths, and how to rear them by Paul Villiard), and rearing my own (hopefully silk moths) indoors sounds pretty interesting and fun to me. I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some questions I have that the book really didn't provide.

1: Can it be done this of year in Central Ohio? fall foliage is in full bloom, and I'm worried about finding correct food plants for them.

2: Relating to the first question, the book has information about force-blooming small tree branches indoors if they have buds on them. When can that be done?

3: What is a good supplier of moth eggs? Is it still legal? The book was written in the late 60's, so the internet was not super prevalent. I understand the problems with introducing non-native species, and I won't do that.

4: Is it still possible (early - mid fall) in Central Ohio to find larvae in the wild? If I do this, what is the correct way of rearing it indoors? What about cocoons?

5: Is diapause a necessary part of their life cycle? Grown indoors, can I rear eggs to adults, skipping this step by controlling temperature? If not, how do I know when allow it to complete its life cycle after diapause?

6: For species that diapause as pupae, the book suggests keeping them in a refrigerator. Is this the widely-accepted way of doing this?

Thanks for any help you can provide me!

Submitted October 17, 2014 at 08:20AM by Eojis http://ift.tt/1rDLQ1D Entomology