Berick the Beetle

Meet Berick the Beetle. Many of you may remember a post last September about the meal worms Sister was raising. Back then they both had different names. After hatching into beetles, she renamed them Berick and Beatrice. Beatrice had a crack in her shell which allowed Sister to tell them apart. Sadly, Beatrice died the first day home. Maybe it was all the dancing and twirling Sister did while holding them in a small plastic vial while begging me if she could keep them.

I thought it'd be a great idea to put them in our garden out back. After all, isn't that where beetles belong? Sadly, Sister didn't feel that would be a good place. She explained to me (not calmly) that she'd raised them from larvae and couldn't bear the thought of them being eaten by a praying mantis. Thus, I agreed with the hope that their life cycle must be close to its end.

My initial fear was that they would breed. Now that Beatrice is dead I hope that is no longer a possibility. We don't actually know the gender of either of them, but like with rabbits, I'm sure we would have ended up with one of each and had hundreds soon enough.

Sister is obviously very excited that she was able to wear me down and agree to allow this creature in my house. Out of guilt (mainly because I read the Gregor series recently and it featured heroic cockroaches) I found an old fishbowl that we could put him in since the little tube he came home in was really small. It seemed cramped to me. The plastic over the top has holes in it. I mainly put it there so our cat wouldn't get any ideas of a midnight snack. I don't think Berick can climb the glass sides, though he spends quite a bit of his moving time trying. Beetles don't fly do they? (Shudder).Baby Bear loves to climb upon the step stool and watch Berick. He is very fascinated with this little creature. I don't know why. It doesn't even move most of the day. Half the time, when it does move, it tries to climb the sides of the glass bowl and falls on its back. I've had to put it right side up over a dozen times in the past week. I often wonder if the beetle is trying to die. Somehow, though, as soon as I right him again, he goes off to check out the food of the day (carrot, apple, pear, etc). Thus, Berick lives on.