Hello and welcome to Invertercast. It's me and it is Leah.
Hello, yes, I'm here. And we've got someone down below us who I believe is going to be with us now as much as possible.
So Simon, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much. Nice to be here. How are you doing? Not too bad.
So how's everyone doing? What have you been up to? Anything?
Yeah, absolutely. I actually stretched my ears to a little larger size. So they're like zero gauge now.
That was kind of a painful stretch, but it was worth it. The juice was a squeeze. Anything in the Invert world?
Yeah, I just rehoused Postulotharia regalis. So I made a video of that. I'll be posting that probably this week.
And then I've got a few babies I need to rehouse too. Simon, for you, that's spiders.
Yeah. How have you been doing? So I mean, have you been up to much? Well, we know you've been up to a lot like videos every day for the last three weeks.
Yes. A bit of everything. We've been doing a lot in the room. We're doing a lot more shelving, putting out the room.
I've got a lot more nymphs coming in. I've got a shipment of jumping spiders. So yeah, doing quite a lot.
And more importantly this week, as they happened before we even knew what the subject was, we rehoused our beetles.
So yeah. Which beetles have you been rehousing? Well, some beetles mostly, Pachnoda, Martinata, and these guys, which I actually love these guys.
I don't even think you can see that. This is Zephobos Moria, which is the super worm beetle, the darkened beetle.
Oh yeah. But I absolutely love these guys. The big ones, they're really cool.
The nip actually, we have a bit of a nip up yet, but they're really cool.
And we've got absolutely loads of them in a bioactive tank with the...
We've got them with the Nogenatas, we've got them with the mint beetles, some weebles. So I've got a fair few beetles in there, which is quite nice.
And I've got some more coming this week. So that's good.
I'm trying to get some rainbow dung beetles and maybe like a Hercules beetle because they're just fascinating.
The Hercules beetles are really good. I'm actually looking for one of those for a photo shoot.
So yeah, I think if you've seen the photographs that I...
I was going to say, is that the photo shoot for the super secret project that we're not allowed to talk about?
Yeah, yeah. So to see if I could get Hercules beetles. So I have been looking for them, but finding adults is proving very difficult.
I can find the groups, but not the adults.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
It's sad.
I was having a little bit of a look today, just seeing who's out there, who's selling in the UK.
And beetles seem to be very few and far between at the moment.
Interesting.
Did I ask the one Richard Sinberts, he does them.
But he always seems to be out of stock. He's more often than not, he's out of stock than he is in stock.
So sorry for not looking at the camera.
Oh, you're fine.
That's all right. This is something for people to listen to. They're just unfortunate enough to have our faces as well.
So don't worry about it.
That's all right.
Just watching his beetle, you see. So I wonder if I am now, but if I don't want to drop it or earth it or anything.
So I'm just keeping an eye on it really.
It'll be okay to have over a long period.
See, that's how they come with photographs. What if these beetles, the Earthly beetles, have a scientific name for them.
And I've been trying to get older some, but as I say, I can only get the groups and not the adults.
There is a place called Bugs UK that sometimes has them, but again, they haven't got them now.
So it is quite difficult to get decent looking beetles in this country.
Well, I think that's really surprising, especially because beetles are actually the largest order of any animal, any organism in the entire world.
There are 390,000 known species of beetles throughout the world, worldwide.
And if you check out Simon's video, and also I was watching some other stuff as well.
He does actually cover that.
So a quarter of the like the populate animals on this planet would be beetles.
Yep, one in one in four of every living thing is a beetle.
How does every footstep not just crunch under your feet then?
That's like, they're everywhere.
And I was reading as well today that they think that there's another like 2 million at least that are still to be scientifically identified and more appearing every week.
All the time. Yeah, they're always discovering new species of beetles.
And yeah, I read about that estimate as well that there's like 2 million species that still have yet to be discovered.
And they're trying to discover them before like, you know, deforestation and loss of habitat actually wipe them out.
So it's pretty, pretty fascinating.
Yeah, it is very much. I mean, a lot of them are found in the Amazon.
And I'd say with mantis, they'll be there. I'll find a new mantis in the Amazon that we've never seen before.
But they're finding a lot more beetles, obviously.
I mean, it's just sad to think that they're going to bulldoze up on that just for sake of it.
And we're going to lose these guys because if they're only finding in the Amazon and we haven't found them before, that means that's the only place to live.
Yeah, like they're not down in Suffolk, are they? You know, they're in a very select space.
And I think that's the thing with a lot of the inverts that we keep is that they are in specific pockets.
So if you look at like the rubber ducky isopods, they're very, they're in very specific spaces, aren't they?
And you also get it with some forms of gecko.
Madagascar. Yeah, fully geckos.
The blue gecko you're talking about. Yeah.
Yeah, I believe crested geckos, crested geckos and leaches are from Madagascar.
And a few others, I'm sure, and chameleons, tons of chameleons.
I mean, I can't make the reptiles sorry.
But most of the reptiles in Madagascar, but you know, some of the ones.
I know the blue one there, talk about that today, I can't remember its bloody name now, but they're critically endangered and they're only from Tanzania, is it?
So the one that says Tanzania, it's a blue gecko.
Oh, wow.
Oh, I've seen something about that.
I would have to do some digging online to find it, but I've definitely seen something about that.
I don't know where they're at a very local locality, aren't they?
Yeah, I've got the villains in the chat, maybe you can pop the name in for us.
If he is.
He might be.
I can't see the chat's all the way over there, so I can't see.
Yeah, it's called DJC or something like that.
No, he's not in the chat yet.
But we have got Bugs of Corner UK.
They would really like a Hercules beetle.
Yeah.
And I suppose that sort of can take us onto a bit of a topic really, so I was doing a little bit of research of what would be an easy beginner species to kind of look after it.
And I think actually quite a lot of them, as long as you get it right, it's quite easy.
They're all pretty much the same.
The easiest species to pick is Pachinode and Adonata, which is the Sunbeam.
They're not only the easiest, but they're actually the cheapest.
And that's the ones you just had out, wasn't it?
Yeah, no, no, that was a darkened beetle from the sunbeam.
There's some beetle that's extremely pretty.
I'll get one out for you in a minute, actually.
Yeah, you were speaking about them, weren't you?
They have like a really nice goldish colour with circles on them.
Yeah, they're good for beetle, right?
I've just bought some more this week, they're coming next week, which is great.
Those are about the best.
I know in America your problem is getting older, those, don't you?
Yeah, I think they are quite hard to get hold of in the US.
Those ones, yeah, probably.
I'm not sure because I haven't really looked, but I know that Hercules beetles occur naturally here.
They're from here.
I'm a member of a Facebook group called All Bugs Go to Kevin.
And it's basically a bug identification group.
Do you have to give them all your bugs though?
Yes, they're sacrificial bugs.
We pay homage to Kevin.
No.
But a few posts actually, actually, pretty recently in the past few weeks or so,
were about Hercules beetles.
And they found this huge beetle in their house and they were like,
what is this?
And a lot of us were like, that's a cool Hercules beetle.
So it's kind of exciting.
All bugs go to Kevin.
All bugs go to Kevin, yes.
I'm joining that group.
Yeah, it's a wonderful group.
It's fantastic.
You'll see lots of spiders.
A lot of people in the US will find some kind of brownish looking spiders.
They look like recluses, but most of the time they're not.
They're like wolf spiders or grass weavers, things like that.
And every now and then you'll see an actual brown recluse.
And it's just really funny.
Everybody always thinks everything is a brown recluse here.
So from what I was looking at, if we go back to beetles,
because you have Hercules beetles,
I think motorcyclists get knocked off their bike constantly by them.
I'm joking there.
So do you have the possibility?
Unfortunately, no, they don't live here naturally.
I think our altitude and the weather here is just too cold during the winter.
Although they can hibernate and the like, oh, that's beautiful.
That is really cool if I'm in.
I'll be back with the green swimming.
Yeah, check that out.
But yeah, they occur mostly in like the southeast regions of the US,
so like Florida, the Carolinas, parts of Georgia and Alabama,
mainly in those areas.
So they're very cool.
Yeah, they are.
They can get to an impressive size as well, can't they?
Oh yeah, they get very massive.
I believe they can be about two and a half inches,
which is what, about six centimeters?
Not meters.
No, centimeters.
Okay, I was going to say, I don't want to come across the six meter.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, but they come in all sizes.
And I think the smallest beetle in the world is only about one millimeter,
and it's a feather wing beetle.
And that's a...
Simon has a thought there.
Yeah, I know what it means.
I thought I knew the name a bit, the scientific name, I can't remember.
Let me see, I have...
It's got a window.
Well, there's so many, so many species of them,
but feather wing beetles are in the...
Tildi family or subfamily of beetles.
And they're like, the majority of them are one millimeter or less in length,
so they're really tiny.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
And their name comes from their wings.
Their wings are actually really unique because they look like...
Do you guys get dandelions where you are?
They're like weeds.
But their wings look like when the dandelion turns all white and the little seed pods,
they kind of float off and they have the little fluffy seed pods.
Their wings look just like that.
So they think that their wings are only used for like floating around,
not really flying, just kind of falling gracefully, if you will.
But they're pretty fascinating.
Let me see where...
Yeah, passive flotation, just like the seeds of a dandelion.
So they're distributed...
There's quite a few that do that though, isn't there?
Quite a few different kinds of insects that do that.
There's some spiders that transport themselves with the wind.
Yeah, the golden orb weavers that actually this year like overtook
pretty much the entire East Coast and everybody was finding golden orb weavers everywhere.
They make those little zigzag webs.
And so yeah, a whole bunch of them just appeared on the East Coast
and we knew they were coming and stuff, but people were freaking out, of course.
Yeah, and it's amazing though if you actually see them taking off because they cast a web,
like a line up, don't they? Like flying a kite.
And off they go.
It's pretty amazing.
We were sitting in the garden last year when it was sunny
and it was just spiders that were riding for every round and it's been flowing around.
Because I was through it as well.
Wow.
Some of our spiders.
How cool.
I mean, you've got actually, if you look, a lot of people don't realise
like how many of something they've got because they just say it's spider.
But if they look and walk down this species you've actually got in your country,
in your case in your state, which is pretty much the same thing.
I think it's the size-wise.
You know, you just be amazed.
It's like, it's like an isopods.
It's like, we've got 38 species of isopods that are recorded and there's something not sure about.
That's horrendous when you think about how small we are.
So it's the same in the big pools and the spiders, so many.
There's 660 species of spider in the UK.
Oh, wow.
There was a lot, but I didn't know there was 660.
How does that make you feel?
Sorry?
How does that make you feel, Simon?
I know you're not a big fan, but you're getting better, aren't you, with your spiders?
Well, I'd mix and kill five because I'm okay with true spiders.
It's tarantulas, I don't like.
Okay.
So true spiders are fine.
Tarantulas, no thanks.
Simple as that, you know.
It's the fozy legs.
It is.
I can't stop.
The difference between the crits, I don't know, it's just one of the things that you look at.
It just makes you feel uncomfortable.
It's not something that happens all the time, holding any of the book.
You know, it's just tarantulas.
No, I don't think I'm hearing.
They're horrible.
So to go back on what we were saying about how, if we were to get all the animals together, a quarter of it would be beetles.
Beetles.
I'm using animals in a very general term, you know, just living.
Of course.
In the UK, there are over 4,000 species of beetle, which is quite mind-moggling.
I never really thought about it in that kind of sense.
I can name about four.
That's what I was trying to say about there's so many individuals, individual species, not individuals, like I'll tell you in the year or the night.
But individual species in small areas, you just can't believe it because you grow up thinking, oh, it's a beetle.
When you see something scamper across the floor, it's just a beetle.
It's just a beetle.
Yeah, but you don't really know what a beetle it is.
So I realized that you've seen 10 beetles that day and they're all different.
Yeah, right.
When you get close and inspect it, it's something else.
But when I was a kid and you lifted up a brick or something, you saw like a lot of ice supports and you'd be like, oh yeah, just woodlice that, took the brick.
Yeah.
But now I'm picking them up and going, oh, that's an eskisacellus, that's a scabur, that's the labis.
I think, you know, once you know, it's a different world.
So just absolutely.
You know, a little bit, you don't have to know everything, just a little bit is enough to peak an interest every time you lift up a log or a brick or whatever.
It's great.
So same with beetles.
Most definitely.
I'm fascinated.
I agree, Simon.
Absolutely.
Like you, that's, and that's kind of how it started for me with tarantulas.
I just learned about one.
And then that was it.
I was like, okay, I got to learn about all of them.
And now I'm starting to feel the same way about beetles.
And I was like that with isopods as well.
You know, it's just the more you learn about them, the more you start to get that fascination.
Beetles, the beetle world is just, it's unending.
Like there's so many species of beetle that, and they all do different things.
Like some of them are, are composters.
Some of them are pollinators.
And then they had, there's also predatory beetles.
Like, we know them.
Yeah, we know them here.
Yeah, yeah, we know them here, you know, as ladybugs, but ladybugs are actually predatory.
They eat small other small insects.
Like aphids.
Yep.
Moth larvae.
Let's see.
I've got all this.
They're used quite a lot in the agricultural industry as well.
So keeping down aphids and doing this.
There's people out there who breed ladybugs.
Oh yeah.
And yeah, they're not gentle with it either.
I think growing up as a child, you get to like the songs about ladybug, ladybug go away home and all this kind of stuff and everything.
All kids stuff like ladybug, ladybug, wellies.
And actually, they're masochists.
They're little sadists.
Yeah, absolutely.
Even ladybug larvae is so violent.
And so just from, just from, as soon as it actually from an egg, it's out looking, they're a bit like mantis.
It's just like looking for something to kill any.
Yes.
The second form.
I mean, there's also other books.
I mean, the sastic books.
You know, I mentioned sastic books and their beetles at the end of the day.
Are they beetles?
They're not.
They are beetles. They're in the order.
So they are, they are a bit, but they are a bit, which means it's a true book.
So they have to be sucking rather than mammals.
Oh, well, then I do have beetles because I have assassin bugs.
There you go.
Yeah.
Ha ha.
These are the sassy.
I absolutely love them.
Oh, they're amazing.
They're so cool to watch because they're, they're, they're so social and it's kind of funny because when one assassin bug gets like a cricket, right?
Gets its prey.
The others get kind of lazy.
Don't want to find their own.
They try to steal that one.
So it's pretty fun to watch them do that.
I think, I think they're awesome.
Yeah.
Just to say nothing, all people do this as well.
They all got glue on the thing that I said the picture of got glue on the thing.
You can't get rid of them once they're on there.
I mean, I was actually watching some videos, Simon, about handling beetles and things and some people are saying using gloves and some people are saying not to.
And I think it's more a case of preference, isn't it?
So if you, if you want to get them off easily, like there was a, I don't know if you've come across beetles TV. I've only just came across him today.
Lovely.
Love you lad.
And he has some things and he's talking about, you know, having it just so it's easy to move them.
So they're not obviously clinging on to you.
And you're trying to get them off.
They are extremely clingy.
I've been really, really clingy a lot.
Wow.
And that's still there.
It just doesn't care.
I mean, they really are sticky.
And if the biggest fear when you're taking them off is whether you're going to hurt them or break the task for us.
So it's like, it's better, it's better to sort of let them walk on to something else, you know, just encourage them by encouraging them at the optimum.
Well, I, I, something else to put them away.
I definitely wouldn't want to handle the assassin bugs because they do have quite a thing like they have been on.
They're not one you want to handle.
But, you know, we got DJC in the comments sort of like, you know, poking the cage.
Make sure you handle them.
Yeah, right.
Don't blame Tony for those.
But yeah, it's, I, I, I, I'm like a near pop assassin book and it's, it's not pleasant.
So it's not pleasant at all.
Okay.
Yeah, I think I would much rather handle a herculean beetle or, you know, even a scarab.
They're, they're not quite as, I don't think they're a scary and I don't think they really bite.
So I think that would be a much better handle than, than the assassin beetle or the assassin bugs for sure.
There's one thing I know it's sad people say, I don't keep people's but anybody who fights crickets keeps people's.
Or even super worms, the darkling beetles with the crickets and they're flesh eating beetles.
And that's, that's to read the death cricket.
So the crickets don't eat you.
So you do keep people's if you buy crickets.
Oh, wow. See, I didn't know that.
I don't need to do it in America, but we do it here with little flesh eating beetles.
That's amazing.
Well, we have little, what do we call them banded crickets and I don't know if those are, they're probably the same. Yeah.
Yeah, the yellow house cricket.
Uh huh. Yeah, we have.
So sometimes what we'll definitely, we definitely get it in the UK is you'll get the larvae in the cricket boxes.
The little fuzzy, the little fuzzy things.
I've forgotten the name of them.
Oh, wow.
They've got, they've got a funny little name and everyone like you can, you'll see people coming new into the hobby.
They're like, I've got crickets and they're invested with these things and it's actually is part of the breeding project.
Like it's, it keeps that waist down as Simon says.
The crickets, the crickets believe the dead crickets.
And if there's any parasites in the dead crickets, it's posted onto the live crickets and then onto your animal.
Wow.
So the idea is for the fleshy beetles to actually the larva to eat those dead crickets to keep your other crickets pure.
And that's the idea behind it.
That's pretty amazing.
Also, it stops them stinky.
Yeah.
Is that why they're so smelly?
They are so, I hate the smell.
Yeah.
It's their bodies smell, basically.
Amazing.
Crickets aren't the nicest feeders to have.
No, certainly not.
I love super worms for the fact that they don't smell and they eat something that's super cheap.
They eat, you can keep them in the like dried oats, you know, just regular oats and they eat that and that's, they can live in it and they eat it and they're perfect.
I just had this conversation on Instagram with Shady about she keeps her super worms in oats and she's invested with grain mites.
Oh, no.
I just advise her never to put your super worms in oats or anything else.
Put them in substrate and give them, you know, give them something proper to eat, like a bit of fruit or something.
Okay.
You don't get the grain mites because she's probably not watching this because she's too busy.
She is.
She's like, oh, I'm going to put the beaker rabbit.
That may be a chunk.
It flew off my finger.
Oh, wow.
When it puts its wings, it puts it on my hand there.
It scared me.
Yeah.
It's so funny though, like you mentioned that how ladybugs are so vicious because when we're, when I was a kid, like they were kind of my favorite little bug.
And that's, that's the one that we would have and we thought they were very lucky when they would land on us.
And like, we also used to say that the number of spots that they have, the little black spots on their shelf is like the number of wishes that you can wish for when you blow them away, you know, and they fly off.
And there's actually quite a bit of folklore around ladybugs and other interesting beetles.
Matt, you were mentioning the scarabs earlier.
Oh, I was just sort of discussing, we were chatting in the before the stream, just around how beetles beetles are cool.
But actually they have such an impact on different cultures.
And I think the most, the most known one is the is the scarab.
So, you know, from ancient Egypt, and, you know, the scarabs for signs of like good fortune and fertility immortality.
So that's why you would see quite a lot of them depicted within tombs, arrows and in the jewelry and stuff.
And I believe they even found, they found scarabs, the like gold encrusted scarabs in, I believe it was Ramesses, Ramesses actual tomb.
The Egyptians were brilliant at taxidermy.
You know, think about the mummies, they've been, they were preserved really well, weren't they?
Amazingly.
They, the Egyptians, you know, dry, arid place where they're able to do all of that.
But also, you know, if we think about it as well, it is like they, the Beatles life cycle is sort of showing like that birth and back then as well.
So it'd be birth, the grub from the egg, then they would assume that it dies going into the cocoon and then rebirth again.
So it's actually a really interesting, if you delve into like the cultural things and I hold on there, Simon, I'll pop that up on the big screen for you.
Oh yeah.
That's from Egypt itself.
That's from the, that's beautiful.
So that's the scarab, that's a real one.
Wow, is it petrified?
I have no idea.
When, when, when you mentioned it, Neliana went in and came back with it.
So I don't know anything about it.
I just remember that.
That's one thing.
I love that.
So yeah, that's, that's from a, a tomb, I guess.
And if anyone remembers one of the best films ever made, which is the mummy, out there, it is one of the best films ever made.
I agree with it.
And the Beatles get in there and start going up like he's prying them out of, out of the window underneath their skin.
I do believe that I've seen a couple of them actually in a, at the museum here in Denver, we have an Egyptian wing that's just permanent.
And so they do have a couple of scarabs that are on display there.
It's pretty fast.
It's pretty cool.
So they're in little coffins, same with mantis, they did mantis as well with the scarabs.
So there's like little mummy, mummy fire ponds.
Wow.
More survival to people when it goes up the mantis, but the only thing you could get the mantis impression because the, the arms, the raptors still existed in there and the, the prenotum there, the shield of the back of their head.
Wow.
And just Googling it now, it looks amazing.
The little coffin.
It's incredible.
Yeah, they are really, really pretty.
He's sucking rubbish.
I'm going to do it.
No, I want, I wanted to see it.
So I remember, I remember seeing it back in the day in an old school trip, going to the Egyptian thing.
And I was like, yes.
And yeah, they put them in like, if anyone gets some time, anyone that's listening, have a little, they made little coffins, little socks.
Or little coffins, little sarcophagi for the Beatles to put them in.
Yeah.
Well, I think that's really interesting too, because I believe scarabs are part of the composting.
Like that's what they do is they're composters.
So they, they break down, you know, like leaf litter and dead, dead things or dead organic things.
They eat basically like the waste that's left behind, and that's part of what makes them so useful.
If you will, like agriculturally, they, they help to keep away infestations of, of pest insects that would, that would harm your grain or your, you know, your product, your product that you're trying to grow your agriculture.
And so it's really fascinating how Beatles, like they have such a really large part in, in composting.
Well, I've actually got a big picture on my screen at the moment of a dung beetle and referring, referring back to Simon's video.
So if anyone's watching, go check it out.
I think it was 10 facts about Beatles on the Mantis Garden.
Very cool.
And one of them was, there was a brilliant little clip of some stag beet, some dung beetles going around, bearing it all up.
But I didn't know that they buried it.
So that's something I learned today.
So if we think about that waste collection and everything going on this, and for people that have listened to this podcast before and new people, you sort of start to find out that actually,
this little micro universe of beetles and insects and inverts, how much they actually put back into the full ecosystem.
Because it's actually really interesting to sort of see.
And what was it, Simon, was it the stag beetles are technically the strongest animal on the planet?
No, the strongest, the strongest pound for pound would be the dung beetle.
Oh, sorry, the dung beetle.
Sorry.
Yeah, the dung beetle.
Although the stag beetle is a type of dung beetle.
Is it?
I believe.
I believe so.
Well, the stag beetle is actually, actually, it's sap from which tree is it?
There's one of the trees.
There's one tree they actually like, but you need the sap of the tree.
So when we think about like the dietary things of them, that's why we give a lot of like these fruit pots and the sugary things to beetles.
Yeah, they've got that sort of stuff.
I mean, but there's a lot of people see next.
I mean, there's one people that is responsible for pollinating all the lily pads, whatever they call the kind of what they call, because I don't do plants.
Oh, let me look.
In the Amazon, there's one people at night, they close up and catch the beetles and the beetles run around all night, get covered in foam and they weren't showing the morning.
They go to the next one because they don't.
And it is just that probably just that one beetle that does that?
Yeah, it's that one beetle.
Yeah, yeah, I have no idea what name it is because I wasn't expecting to.
You know what, I didn't, I don't even have that in my notes and I'm so sorry.
Well, you should be sorry, Lea, because you know everything.
I failed. I failed at research. I failed.
What are you on about? I watched a couple of YouTube videos.
I bet you got the ironclad people in there.
Yeah, maybe the ironclad.
Oh, that sounded amazing.
Fantastic.
Just, just, this is from my mind, the fact, I think it worked out, it was something like three bosses they could carry, no, if it was human, they could carry the equivalent of like three bosses on the back.
I think it wasn't too many are, you know, I wouldn't squot them.
It'd be like, well, your backpack, sort of.
I think a lot of research on those, but I forgot most of it.
It happened.
Happy to know that I watched your videos today, Simon, and I have all of this information fresh in my head.
I think what you were saying as well, or part of what you touched on is how that they are observing those ironclad Beatles and thinking about how they can transfer their exoskeleton sort of makeup, how it's put together around crafting airplanes and other things that would have to put up with a lot of stress.
So like looking at exoskeleton and the, the, the caitin on that people rather than going like, like you've got ground people with caitin on grubs in one direction, the following.
Whereas in the ironclad, it sort of weaves like a, you know, like a lattice pattern, like a lattice.
Which is stronger than it covers that over and over and over and becomes really strong. I mean, you could do it yourself to get organza because I can believe so I could get organza mesh.
And keep piling on top of each other in different directions.
If it comes to Richard, eventually it becomes rigid and that's the same idea.
You know, if you get a lot of work, anything and do it.
And you know, you've got a lot of old black jackets, bulletproof jacket, shall we say. They used to be made out of glass and rubber.
I was at work and it's simply because the glass was countered into the rubber and then put on the opposite direction on top of it.
And it's exactly the same way that the caitin shell works on the ironclad people.
I can't remember the, you should know this if you've watched it, but it's got a really cool name, the ironclad people.
It's got a really, you said you'd watch this.
I was in fraud by the amazing information that I must have missed the name.
It's called something like the diabolic, I don't know, diabolic.
Diabolic colour.
This part's very.
Diabolic colour. Something like that. Diabolic colour.
Diabolic colour.
Diabolic colour. That's it.
It's got a really cool name. I don't remember about it.
Fantastic people.
Glad you guys worked that out.
And it looks like a tank.
So it looks like someone has welded just loads and loads and loads of bits of metal to it.
It is an impressive looking thing.
For old people, it looks like the A team have made it.
Yeah.
Basically.
Most of it, well it does look a bit like a bit of a moving rock really, doesn't it?
It does, yeah.
If I remember rightly, I might be wrong for this, but if I remember rightly, that is related to the blue death-faning people.
Oh yes they are.
If you're in Colorado or Arizona or California desert, they have them all over the place, don't they?
The bar, etc.
There's loads of them, you can just pick them up.
Yep, they're all over.
I think, but it's been a while and there's a lot of people, so I might have got that wrong.
So I don't know if you're sure, but I think they are.
And the blue death-faning people is quite a popular people here.
It is. Same here.
Yeah.
They're quite excited.
Sorry, go on.
No, they're just super cute.
I want some so badly and I don't have any, but I think they're pretty amazing.
They're very good at cohabiting as well, Leah.
Yes.
So you can have, so like maybe an Arizona-based scorpion as well in with it.
And yeah, you can definitely have like a little setup.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
But I do believe that the, the, there's little black ones that look just like the blue death-faning beetles.
Yeah, they are, they're cousins.
They are related.
Absolutely.
And also, also.
And ground beetles are really cool because they're actually really important for the biological control of insect pests for agricultural farms and such.
So a lot of farmers do like harvest them and keep them around just to keep those pest insects away and gardeners and stuff, especially if they don't want to use pesticides, which is actually really, really bad on the environment.
Because, you know, you're not just killing those pest insects, but you're also going to be killing the beneficial ones that are doing that same job.
So, but yeah, they, they also eat weeds.
The, like dandelions, those, those weeds and those invasive plants that are destructive to weeds in air quality.
Right.
Because we don't, they do serve some sort of purpose.
We're just, we still haven't researched entirely about weeds and what they do.
But the ground beetles actually help to control that population as well.
So they, they, when they're larva burrow underground.
And so as they're in that stage, they eat the seed pods that are dropped from weeds and then they keep them from, from basically growing and investing the whole, the whole farm.
Yeah, so you're doing this as well.
Yep.
It's pretty amazing.
Which, which, because they can't.
Can, can, can we run some beetles?
Can I play new for something?
Sure.
Okay.
The Colorado Beetle.
Okay.
The Colorado Beetle is like a, like a devil amongst them.
That's one of the ones that go life, isn't it?
I believe so.
Yeah.
We do, we have a couple of invasive beetle species right now that are just wreaking havoc all over the state.
And actually right now, one of, one of those is the Japanese tree beetle, which obviously they don't really belong here.
They're invasive and they're actually just, they're wreaking havoc up on the, in the evergreens, the mountains, and it's just, it's been kind of disastrous.
So anytime we get a wildfire, there's plenty, plenty of food for the fire to just devour.
But again, fire kind of works in nature as well.
And it helps to deposit those phosphates and, you know, the ashes from the trees that are burned actually deposit into the soil and then the forest grows back even thicker and bigger.
So.
Who knows.
The use just go like that.
It's, it's natural.
Yeah.
We found out this week, because I think it's really cool.
In the noons this week, over here, we have a quickly leaf beetles have just appeared in the UK for the first time.
Oh, wow.
And that's this week, which is cool.
So they're worth having a look at.
Oh, five millimeters, which is, which is pretty small.
That's about part of an inch.
Right.
But they're really cute little prickly, awful little slimes and stuff.
I always get excited when something new like that's like a piece here.
But it also proves climate changes is moving things.
Yes.
Because we've over the last 10 years, I've say, I've seen a lot of inverts come to the UK that we've never seen before.
I've been beetles, mint beetles is one of them.
And that's that we see them every year now.
Wow.
Loads of them.
I mean, I used to see them.
Yeah.
Yeah, I do agree that climate change is definitely bringing a lot of different species of insect to places that are not.
You know, it's definitely having a very interesting effect on the ecosystems.
So it's a bit weird for us because we just been a small island because like, let's not forget if we are a tiny island really.
And to change so much and get so many different things in, it's got to go over a sea to get to us.
And yet it's we're still managing to get to the bottom of it.
And yet it's we're still managing to see this coming in.
Only last year they found mantis in the south of England.
We've never had mantis in this country at all ever.
And last year we was finding the European mantis in in gardens down south, which obviously to me is very exciting.
But not enough for me to move down south.
No.
No, no.
You might get a nosebleed Simon.
I definitely would get a nosebleed.
I can't fix that anyway.
But yeah.
But but also it's sort of like it sort of begs the question because you think so some of these creatures that they're not going to be flying over.
Over that vast distance.
And they've probably been coming to this country for years.
But like you said, Simon, I agree with like the.
Yeah.
I agree with the whole like climate change and the climate change.
And so they would have come over and in the winter and they would have died.
But now we're getting more warmer winters.
But definitely becoming more.
Absolutely.
Coming over on the plant and the food and stuff like that.
That's not the point of coming over.
It's the fascination of fact that they're staying.
Yeah.
They never used to be able to survive when I was a kid winter was bloody cold.
But it was this deep in snow.
I've seen that since the 80s 1980s.
Yeah.
I was going to say I haven't I haven't seen it.
Yeah.
Fair enough.
Oh, I didn't mean that.
Yeah.
No, it's the same in Colorado.
Like we're seeing we're seeing species here that normally don't drive here because it is so cold in the winter and we do get so much snow.
But these recent years, I mean, we haven't had a lot of snow.
And, you know, one thing that I that struck me is very strange is in May or like early June of like 2019, I believe the snow caps on the mountain tops were just they were already melted.
And the the mount types were bare and I'm going this is that's not normal because usually they're white capped all year round.
You know, like maybe they're not so white capped in like late July, August, but that one year they were they were gone by by mid June.
It freaked me out.
And it is proof that everybody sees it.
Yeah.
No, it's actually like we're involved in nature on a daily basis.
We can see the change.
We can document the change.
We know what's living longer.
And all the rest of the space is just fascinating.
It really is.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't get when it happens.
So it doesn't really matter.
I really do.
I really do care.
That's one of the things that is close to my heart is yeah, the changes and what's going to happen and how dry some places are going to get, you know, where others are going to get.
I mean, we're talking about what's to say in 100 years.
We're going to be going more towards the Mediterranean sort of weather here.
And that's there.
I think, you know, it's sort of like on that kind of topic last year was really hot in the UK.
It was really hot this time of year.
At this current moment in time, there's a thunderstorm happening outside and the wind's coming in and the wind and rain is coming in sideways and it shouldn't be at this time of year.
So I just, yeah, it's very odd.
It is very odd.
Hey, we're in England.
So we're used to the rain.
I never put my rain coat away.
It's the UK.
So I thought you could take your coat off till it was eight.
Oh, you go eventually.
Yeah.
No, I agree though. I mean, even here in Colorado, like we usually have, you know, winter coats for the winter, but these past few winters and stuff, it hasn't really been that cold.
I mean, 30s felt more like in the 50s.
And so we'd go, I'd have a hoodie, basically just a hoodie, like all year round and was fine.
No, no, you know, frostbite, no, none of that.
So it's just, it's pretty odd.
I know Ontario, Canada was hit in, what was it, 105 degrees, which is insane for that region of the world.
Like that's, it's unheard of.
So it definitely is taking a toll on, on, you know, insects and the creatures in the world for sure, you know, so.
But it really is. And I supposedly, that's like something that's really good about this hobby is that we can do our best, can't we, as invert keepers to try and preserve, preserve these, these insects that are, they are going extinct at a rapid rate, really, aren't they?
Yeah.
So it's about sort of keeping them alive, keeping them preserved, whichever, whichever way you sort of deem, deem well.
But when we think about temperatures as well, something I learned today was the sun beetles Simon.
Excuse my layman name, I haven't done my research on them.
Pashnoda najamata.
Say that again, sorry.
Pashnoda najamata.
So the Pashnoda najamata I'd researched.
I was close.
So, so I was doing a little bit of research on them to just just like a little bit and people, a lot of people are saying about keeping them to help them thrive is having heat mats to keep yours in a warm, I suppose your rooms heated isn't it so.
But if, if for instance, people didn't have an amazing mantis room, or a bug room, would you be recommending a little heat mat maybe on the side?
Well, for Leah, I'm going to say, as long as it doesn't drop below 65, this seems to be fine.
Yeah.
Room temperature is fine for absolutely fine. Yeah, it's a bit longer basically.
I think that's one of the big things as well isn't it when we start introducing heat, it speeds up metabolism growth cycles and.
It's just like to totally jump topic, but it's on the same topic. And because we were talking about you were not talking about the Beatles giving you like a little bit of a nip.
Every now and again, something I have seen and I saw it from Bill's incredible inverts.
So the Beatles are generally, you know, it's a little nip and stuff, but the grubs.
They've got some mandibles on them, haven't they?
Mandibles on them to really clamp on.
They can give you a nasty, the bigger the bigger groups like the Staggs and the OXE or at least Bill, they can really grab on you and give you a really nasty like.
Wow.
Really painful.
I suppose they need it to go through all the detritus and wood and everything.
Yeah, these guys eat wood, they can grow into wood.
So your fingers, nothing, you know, just.
Wow.
It's so soft compared to wood like it's.
Yeah.
So easy.
Yeah, which is pretty amazing.
Very lucky that like the mantis and everything when they bite you, they'll start to have a chew and then go, I don't eat this.
Yeah.
I was expecting someone else to say something.
No, no, no, no, no, no, I thought you were about to say something.
So like, yeah, they will go, oh yeah, we're not going to eat this doing this, but whereas a grub, they'll just they they've got to put on that weight and if we think about like their their life cycle, they're in the dark and they're just chomping, they're constantly eating
aren't they like chomping away and doing that.
They like the dark moist places full of fungus and mold and leaf litter and stuff.
So yeah, I get that.
I mean, that's the best thing to do when you've got beetles.
I mean, you know, it's the second that's going to go into this.
It's like, I think people go up so get these, you know, the four hours, parts, the double parts, just fill up with substrate, which will have leaf litter in it, broken soft wood in it.
And then pop the top on and wait for the beetles to come out.
That's that's it.
Wow.
Just the substrate basically.
It just takes the longest.
I think it depends which which beet will you have as well because some of them you need to put me like the big.
Oh, yeah, I've seen like the Hercules beetles when people are keeping the grubs they'll have them in like jam jam jar kind of sure bigger containers.
Oh, sweet jars behind you, Simon.
I've seen people keeping them in the in the sweet jars.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, I think that's a bit overkill.
Yeah.
Like, you know, like the fruit fly pops.
Yeah.
And you're going for that because you want something to stop any mikes going in or you didn't have to go in there because once they cocoon, if you see them when they cocoon, you see the beetles cocoon.
Yeah.
They just produce it themselves because it's like, it's really solid.
And they'll break out with that.
But once they're in that cocoon, they're a bit of a stage where they can get lunched on.
So let's keep away from everything.
Get out.
So I don't fancy putting anything there.
Just a bit too big.
Yes, it's like a waste of space.
I mean, I've got to think about that obviously because I'm selling stuff.
So I've got to think about how much space something takes up.
If you know what I mean, I've got to go.
Sure.
The minimum that's acceptable for the book basically is what I would go for.
If you're going to keep them anyway, you don't want a great big tub like, you know, with what beetle in it,
won't grow up in it.
So no, no, no.
No, that makes total sense because then, you know, you're just allowing for more space for them to be susceptible to those predatory mites or, you know, the fruit flies, all that stuff that makes sense.
Thank you, Simon.
Not only that, you've got like, let's say you put in your, let's say you've got a couple of grubs in one of these.
But they don't come out for six months.
You've got to put this somewhere for six months.
Right.
You know, it doesn't make any sense, does it?
You know, tricking over all the people of the place if you've got 10 of them.
So, you know, it's easier just go a little fruit fly pot like that.
Put stack of vinaigrette somewhere and you find it six months later, go check it.
Go see if there's a beetle there or not.
Yeah.
And some of them can take years, can't they, in the stage.
Wow.
So, I suppose we're coming to the end of the podcast about beetles and many other different topics.
It was good.
We did good.
I really enjoyed it.
It was a nice chat about all the different sorts of aspects and things.
So, yeah, really enjoyed that.
So, yeah, guys, thanks for listening, watching.
Leah, have you got a shameless plug or anything you want to?
I had one and it was really good.
Well, Shucks.
Simon and I had the interview.
So, there's that one.
So, check that one out.
Over on Mantis Garden.
Yes, on Mantis Garden.
And then, of course, Tarantula.
You can find me on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram.
I'm pretty much all over the place.
And this week I'll be doing a post-leth area of Regalis and talking about that species and showing you how I rehoused mine.
So, there you go.
Yeah, no, definitely looking forward to that one.
Thank you.
Simon, have you got a shameless plug or anything you want for where can people find you?
Over in your house.
My channel.
On Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, the other ones.
Everywhere, just the Mantis Garden and everywhere.
So, you know, wherever.
Not really that forced, mate.
I know.
I know you're not a fan of the stuff that you mentioned, Jaron.
So, it is.
I'm here as well.
Subscribe to this podcast.
Because we're on every week at 7pm.
And we'll always be about Beatles.
No, not always about Beatles.
Yeah, no, we talk about everything.
Yeah, everything.
And I think that's what's really nice about it.
And I'm that.
So, I'm from Somerset Spiders.
You can find me on YouTube, Instagram, skulking around on Facebook,
but not really doing much on there.
And as Simon says, like, subscribe to the podcast.
It's really nice having a bit of a chat and just getting to know each other
and exploring the wonderful world of inverts.
So, thanks for watching, guys.
Thank you all.
Cheers, bye.