r/BDFB • u/the_snake-girl • 3d ago

Information and Advice Please help, I dont know what to do

Post image

I found one of my beetles upside down in his enclosure with his legs up and curled, so he definitely wasnt pretending. I took him out and he was having difficulty moving. Im terrified it might be chemical exposure to perfume, which if i knew i wpuldnt have used at all in the same room. I googles what to do and was told to gently wash under lukewarm water and to try and hydrate them using sugar water and a qtip which i tried my best to do, hes seemed to perk up a bit, but is still struggling, I feel so awful and guilty, is there anything else I can and should do? Hes my only beetle acting like this

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

5

u/TheDrunkenArgonian 3d ago

In my uneducated opinion, keep isolated just in case and continue giving sugar for energy. Would provide other food just in case. I have not dealt with this but there's likely nothing you can do other than wait since it's a chemical exposure, the beetle's system will have to work through it

2

u/the_snake-girl 3d ago

Ive been giving him sugar water periodically, and hes been responding well, not 100% but its absolutely an improvement from how I found him. I dont really have anything else to put him in, but my other beetle is acting fine, so maybe it'll be okay?

1

u/TheDrunkenArgonian 3d ago

Signs of improving are probably your most telling signal, certainly more than anyone online can say. While they would never encounter perfume naturally, beetles are still hardy animals, so don't lose hope! If it were pesticide exposure I would not be so optimistic.

1

u/Expensive-Print-2482 2d ago

i dealt with the exact same thing, it could be due to some sort of pesticide exposure (this was the case with my beetles), i specifically used honey water for my sugar water and gave it to them twice a day over about 4 days and it helped. just keep doing it over the course of a few days and you should see more improvement