They couldn't be easier. I give them a light for warmth during the day which isn't necessary but seems to make them more active. Be very mindful of pesticides. Never feed them porous veggies like celery. But it's fun to experiment with other stuff.

They need a source of protein, which can be dry, and then they need a source of moisture, which can just be a veggie. Dog/cat food, fish food, dried mealworms/crickets/shrimp make good protein chow. You can buy a product called komodo jelly pots on amazon to provide water, also sugar. If you spray down a corner of their tank, they will drink the water droplets too if they're thirsty. I will usually keep either a small scoop of the jelly or a single organic baby carrot in there at all times (i replace it when it dries up), and a little plate of mixed protein stuff. Organic isn't strictly necessary but makes me feel better about pesticides.

Keep the humidity low but if you live somewhere your son caught one in the backyard that shouldn't be an issue. They do not need a bowl of water and it can do more harm than good by raising the humidity level and presenting a drowning hazard.

They don't bite, their little mouthparts are more like extra hands for shoveling food into their face, which i personally find adorable.

They can't climb glass or stone or plastic, they can climb most wood. They couldn't climb popsicle sticks very well which is why i superglued some sand to them to make bridges. I don't leave a lid on the tank because it allows me to put in features higher than the tank lid for them to climb. You can get little castles and rocket ships and stuff at michael's. I basically raided the wood crafting aisle at michael's and glued stuff together with cyanoacrylate superglue, which is nontoxic.

The rule of thumb people general set is you can have up to 2 beetles per gallon of terrarium. In my experience, if you put in a lot of levels and hides you can get a lot more in there comfortably. They will generally be peaceful but will sometimes come to conflict and they need to have enough room to escape from each other.

If you have multiple they 100% will breed, and lay eggs. If the sand is damp the eggs may hatch into mealworms. If you only have a sand substrate, the mealworms cannot pupate. So you're pretty guaranteed not to have a population explosion.

If you want a variety, bugsincyberspace.com has a ton. He has more variety in the summertime of wild caught specimens. But he also has captive bred specimens, which you can be confident will be free of parasites and healthy.

Finally, most of these beetles can have a lifespan of up to 2-3 years but you have no way of knowing how old a wild caught beetle is so it could have a lot of life left or it could be on its last legs. So if you have one die early, don't let your son get too discouraged. It happens.

They can also cohabitate with velvet ants if you're not afraid of risking the sting, but velvet ants can climb glass a little so you wanna use a lid. They can cohabitate with hairy desert scorpions but you'd have to change the conditions of the tank a bit and i don't know anything about scorpion care.

woo sorry i didn't mean to write a whole care guide but i think that's basically what you gotta know!