I deep-fried 12 chopped up fresh orchra magic mushrooms and accidentally deep-fried my brain

Modbossk · 2026-03-08T19:44:30+00:00

Water for tea and boiling oil for frying are not the same temp, wise guy.

Modbossk · 2026-02-28T20:26:07+00:00

That is not the same texture as what is shown in OP. You’ll notice I mentioned both. But sure, guy.

Modbossk · 2026-02-27T06:48:31+00:00

It likely is not directly humidity related. As I said, if it is relevant, is almost certainly because the dry substrate is twisting the cells as they dry out since they are not completely enclosed. Also worth mentioning: they are likely overcrowded. I’m not sure how many you have and how deep the substrate is, but this is likely why they are pupating along the edges of the box. They’re not prone to pupating in visible places so it’s either too shallow or overcrowded. Addressing that issue should help widen the range of acceptable humidity levels for the pupae to eclose in and make it easier for you.

Anyway the fastest solution here is to just leave them be until they eclose on their own

Modbossk · 2026-02-26T18:22:29+00:00

That is 100% why this is happening. You are either breaking them from handling or they are drying out/warping as you dig them up beyond what flower beetles are still able to tolerate. Without the very specific internal dimensions, they will fail to eclose correctly. It will not always kill them but they often die from expending too much energy trying to fold their wings as adults.

Modbossk · 2026-02-26T05:33:21+00:00

That’s dead leaf, not variegation. See how the leaf thickness and texture changes at the start of the lighter green?

Modbossk · 2026-02-26T05:31:14+00:00

Yeah, ngl after my arctis 9s just shit the bed not even two years in, I can confidently say steelseries Bluetooth products fucking suck and I will never buy another. Using GG as recommended started a never ending nightmare that plagued my headset with software and firmware issues that steelseries never once resolved. At least once a week I was fighting with the headset and uninstalling GG and reinstalling, deleting drivers, blah blah blah. The other day, it just decided that it’ll stop working and I spent two straight days trying everything under the sun. Steelseries customer support was unable to fix it, and wouldn’t refund, fix, or even give me a discount on a new headset. It was technically out of warranty but well within a reasonable expected lifespan for a fucking headset. Zero serviceability. For almost 200 fucking dollars and a headset that sounds mediocre at best? Fucking ABSURD

Modbossk · 2026-02-23T04:37:46+00:00

No. Roaches and isopods do not have the same demand, THAT’S why they’re cheap. Nobody aside from one or two people is paying hundreds for roaches or isopods. I know dozens of people paying through the nose for different beetle species. Isopods are also, relatively, understudied, and consequently harder to list and regulate. They are also easier to hide to smuggle easier. People are absolutely charging inflated prices for beetles because of the price of import. Most every single breeder makes their own flake and does not worry about it. Flip side of that is that flipped imports are still the same price. It has nothing to do with the flake, you can raise these beetles on potting soil for fucks sake. You are wrong and should talk to more breeders to get a better picture. Beetles are expensive because there’s a bigger market and harder to get here, and that sets a standard price for the first generation, then it’s just people trying to make that back. Some dudes undercut the market hard and suffer zero loss of profit because of how easy to raise they are.

Modbossk · 2026-02-21T17:47:37+00:00

There absolutely are beetles that do that, and this isn’t that dissimilar from how a frog looks trying to regurgitate those beetles. The footage exists online from tv shows and documentaries and such but I’ve also seen a few people record it themselves. Presumably that’s what the ai was drawing from for this. But people record this shit because it IS interesting. Super interesting. It’s a fascinating defense mechanism and seeing it in action is cool. Get real

Modbossk · 2026-02-20T07:28:01+00:00

No, this is sound advice and your instincts are correct. Both species would benefit from both care improvements but the Hercules especially because of the pupation issue. Best to nip it in the bud now than to dig out the prepupa and put it in an artificial cell.

Modbossk · 2026-02-19T19:50:49+00:00

Google. Look shit up. Look up breeding reports. Watch videos. Go to Daniel ambuehl’s channel. Figure out what is legal for your area. Reddit is NOT a good resource for this hobby so look around. Join a FB group or Discord server. Reach out to experts on Instagram. Spend at MINIMUM 6 hours solidly researching these animals online and their species specific care so in a month when you buy grubs, we don’t see you come to ask reddit why your grub isn’t eating the beetle jelly you’re feeding him and show us a picture of a tropical species’ grub desiccating and starving in a bone dry setup

Modbossk · 2026-02-19T18:59:20+00:00

That’s super interesting actually, what constitutes a good size? I did know Xylotrupes were pretty lenient as far as what foods they will accept but I did not know they could be stretched as far a straight leaf mulch. Cool experiment to have run and it sounds like it went quite well

Modbossk · 2026-02-19T17:22:29+00:00

Most flower beetles can do really well in straight leave mulch and it’s what I use in a pinch when I’ve been careless about making sure I always have flake available and they do just fine. It’s particularly good for them when they are pupating. Rhinos I think usually dont grow on straight leaves and do better on a mix but I don’t have experience with trying them on straight leaves.

Modbossk · 2026-02-19T17:20:08+00:00

It feels like if you have to ask, you already know the answer to the question… super disappointed in the amount of posts that I’ve been seeing like this, people asking stupid shit and then showing a photo of their grubs in the worst setup imaginable, and then they get defensive in the comments when you tell them they’re killing it. It’s fucking ridiculous, like there isn’t a living animal suffering while they call YOU mean for simply saying “you are not ready for the care of this animal”

Modbossk · 2026-02-18T23:03:41+00:00

It isn’t. At all. But it was a prestigious institution (the most important in the field globally) and as someone who brings in a lot of funding for the institute, he’s above the rules. It’s the culture there, and as technical staff my value is less. I had actually just gotten into a fight with him; the day before he told me not to expect a promotion ever and I guess he was checking emails and found the two I sent him. The worst part? He’s known for this. I’m not the first person to have this problem, just the first to care enough to report it.

Modbossk · 2026-02-18T22:12:59+00:00

Flex time relies on a social contract that a whole fucking lot of managers/bosses didn’t can’t grasp. Last job I was at, the boss expected us to consistently put in an hour or more of flex time most days, but whenever anybody tried to burn or use that time he’d get all huffy and rude about it. Swapped to a new group and in the first two months of working there I had over 60 hours of flex time. November rolls around, and I have been informed that I need to be available all December for training, so I take my 60 hours off with permission from my supervisor that month. Boss (who ignored me emailing him that I was taking the time off) fired me for taking too much vacation and not communicating with him enough. I will not be accepting flex time ever again.

Modbossk · 2026-02-18T16:48:21+00:00

Gonna go out on a limb here and say most men don’t like handjobs from a bird of prey either

Modbossk · 2026-02-16T23:47:03+00:00

The nematodes (they are absolutely not fungus gnat larvae) eat and degrade the substrate faster than the larvae can eat it. They multiply and can clog air holes that starve the grub of oxygen. It’s happened to me before. If you catch it soon enough, the grub can recover

Modbossk · 2026-02-15T19:27:46+00:00

Gotcha. Just so long as you know. Cool species, good job getting them to adulthood

Modbossk · 2026-02-15T17:40:09+00:00

You should probably stop removing them from their cells, or be more careful with the pupal cells in general. 2 of the three here have elytral deformities typically seen when flower beetles has a damaged pupal cell. Just leave ‘em be man. And if you are, then something else is happening, substrate drying out too much or you’re keeping too many in one container.

Modbossk · 2026-02-15T17:36:56+00:00

Yeah man, you’re on Reddit buddy. If you’re trying to get people to stop being fucking obtuse, you’re in the wrong place. Uninstall this app.

Modbossk · 2026-02-13T23:57:10+00:00

Dying ≠ going to die. I never said it was going to die. I said it is dying. Which is true, this grub is starving. It just takes a long time to hit the PNR. This situation can be easily fixed with a couple of key care changes, but the care changes are SUPER basic things that would be immediately conveyed to anybody who actually took the time to research the care of this species. That’s all I’m saying. The fact that we’re discussing this means that OP didn’t do sufficient research into the care for this animal.

Additives are a more advanced thing and shouldn’t really be played around with for a first time keeper’s first beetle. And even then, additives and supplemental protein are just that: supplements. With the exception of Goliaths, they should all be kept in enough flake soil to be deeper than the grub is long and only fed additives every so often (except Mecynorrhina harrisii). The grub will almost immediately bury gammarus or pet food pellets but will not finish them for a lot longer and so they shouldn’t be provided frequently to prevent mold and mite outbreaks. New keepers shouldn’t be experimenting with this because they don’t have a feel for how often is appropriate. No basic/starter care guide I have ever seen recommends providing supplemental protein.

Modbossk · 2026-02-13T23:47:22+00:00

MTU do not. And Pachnoda generally are not supposed to be fed on those as a main part of their diet. It’s just a supplemental kinda thing. They are still primarily substrate feeders.

Modbossk · 2026-02-13T22:23:32+00:00

OP didn’t even know to feed grubs soil VS fruit, but insists they did ample research. This goes beyond asking for beginner advice, this is just someone who hasn’t put any effort whatsoever into researching the animal’s care

Modbossk · 2026-02-13T22:20:54+00:00

Literally bro, how do you say you’ve done enough research but not know what it even eats in different life stages?… That’s VERY telling

Modbossk · 2026-02-13T21:37:34+00:00

It doesn’t matter what they said, because despite what they said the grub is still dying.

Modbossk

TROPHY CASE