If you want one beetle to start with, make it the sun beetle, Pachnoda marginata. It is active by day, eats fruit, lives in a group and goes from egg to adult in a few months, and its grubs grow up in the same bed of flake soil the adults walk on. The African fruit beetle is the same easy routine with a skull-like mark on its back. Derby's flower beetle is bigger and slower, the Sapphire flower beetle takes about a year and is happy at room temperature, and the rainbow stag beetle is the showpiece to work up to. Every beetle here is one I keep or sell.
What Makes a Beetle Easy to Start With
Most of a beetle's life is spent as a grub, buried in its food, and in many species that stage runs to a year or more before a short adult life at the end. A good first beetle turns that round: a short life cycle, adults that are out by day and feed on fruit in the open, grubs that can share one bed (stag beetle grubs need a tub each), and warmth an ordinary home can give with, at most, one heat mat or heat cable on a thermostat. Flower beetles, or flower chafers (the subfamily Cetoniinae), tick most of those boxes, and the sun beetle ticks all of them.
The Easiest Start: Three African Flower Beetles
Sun beetle (Pachnoda marginata)
The grubs are popular UK livefood, sold as fruit beetle or Pachnoda grubs, so plenty of reptile keepers have handled the species without ever meeting the adult: a bright yellow beetle about 20 to 25mm long, with big chestnut-brown patches, that flies readily. Keepers put the whole cycle at roughly three to six months from egg to adult, quicker at the warm end. The grubs share one deep bed and need nothing but the bed itself. The adult sun beetles I sell are captive-bred, grown on here from larvae, and because they are busy by day where you can see them, they are my pick for a family or a classroom.
African fruit beetle (Pachnoda fissipunctum)
This is the sun beetle's close cousin, on the same routine, and the difference is the pattern. The African fruit beetle is bold yellow blotched with dark maroon, and on many of them the dark marking across the shield behind the head carries yellow spots that can read as a small skull. It is about the same size as the sun beetle, wants the same warmth and the same bed, and breeds just as freely. My colony began as larvae from several different sources, grown on together, so the adults come from mixed lines rather than one family. My African fruit beetle care guide covers the husbandry in full, and most of it applies to the sun beetle as well.
Derby's flower beetle (Dicronorrhina derbyana)
Sold here as the Stripy Flower Beetle and known across most of the hobby as Derby's flower beetle (the catalogues spell the genus Dicronorhina), this is the step up in looks: metallic green with cream stripes and, on some, an orange shield behind the head. It comes from eastern and southern Africa and grows up to about 50mm long, and the males carry a flat, T-shaped horn on the head. The adults are day-active fliers on the same fruit and flake soil routine as the fruit beetles. The difference is time. Breeders' figures run from eight or nine months to about a year from egg to adult, the grubs want a bigger, deeper bed, and breeders warn that a cocoon kept too wet or too dry can leave the adult with misshapen wing cases. It is still an easy beetle, just a slower one, and I sell it as larvae when I have them.
Worth the Wait: Two for Your Second Tub
Sapphire flower beetle (Protaetia speciosa cyanochlora)
This dark metallic blue chafer comes from the Zagros mountains of western Iran and, like the rainbow stag below, needs no heat mat. Most keepers take it from egg to adult in about a year, and breeders disagree on whether a cool winter rest keeps it fertile; my Sapphire flower beetle care guide gives both sides. I am rearing a first generation, and I will only sell offspring once the colony is breeding, not from a first clutch.
Rainbow stag beetle (Phalacrognathus muelleri)
This is a metallic rainbow of a stag beetle from the rainforests of north-east Australia, the males up to about 70mm including their curved jaws. On temperature alone it is an easy first beetle, as my rainbow stag beetle care guide says: 18 to 25°C suits it, so a heated home needs no heat kit. The rest makes it a second project. Stag grubs sharing a tub can injure one another, so every grub needs a tub of its own, the grub stage runs for months, and a new adult can stay hidden in its cell for weeks or months before it digs out. The reward is an adult that typically lives twelve to eighteen months, and some keepers report longer.
Setting Up a Pet Beetle Enclosure
For the flower beetles, one enclosure holds the whole colony: adults on the surface, grubs in the bed beneath them.
- A close-fitting mesh lid. Flower beetles fly, so the lid matters more than the walls. Lift it only while you are working in the tub.
- A deep bed that is also the food. At least 10 to 15cm of flake soil with crushed hardwood leaf litter and crumbling rotten wood mixed through, pressed down firmly at the bottom, where the females lay, and damp enough to hold its shape when squeezed without dripping. A new bag goes in the freezer for at least a week at -18°C or colder to deal with mites, then stands open for a few days and should feel cool before any grub goes in.
- Nothing in the bed that will not feed them. No coir, which holds water but is not food for a grub, and no pine or other conifer wood.
- Something to climb. Bark flats or cork give the adults a grip, and a beetle stuck on its back on a bare floor can wear itself out.
- Fruit and beetle jelly. Banana, apple, pear and similar soft fruit, changed every two days or so while still fresh, with beetle jelly alongside, which lasts longer in the tub.
- Warmth for the tropical species. The target for sun beetles and African fruit beetles is 22 to 26°C, and Derby's flower beetle likes similar warmth. An English home averages about 19°C over the heating season. They tolerate a cooler room but breed better at their ideal temperature, which a heat mat or heat cable on a thermostat can provide from autumn to spring, fixed to the side of the enclosure and never underneath.
Looking After the Grubs
For most of the time from egg to adult, these beetles are fat, creamy white grubs. Flower beetle grubs share a bed happily as long as there is plenty of it; crowd them and they tend to grow into smaller adults. As the bed sinks and darkens with droppings, add fresh leaf litter and rotten wood. When a grub is fully grown it packs the substrate around itself into a hard cocoon and pupates there, and that is the moment to stop digging: opening a cocoon risks the beetle forming inside, and the new adult may sit in it for a while, hardening, before it surfaces. My guide to keeping beetle larvae takes each stage from L1 to L3 in turn, including tub sizes and when to change the bed.
Beetles and the Law in Great Britain
None of the beetles in this guide needs a licence to keep. The two points of law worth knowing are both about the wild.
First, never let a pet beetle or its grubs go outdoors. Every species here is non-native, and under section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to release a non-native animal into the wild or to allow one to escape. If you need to part with a colony, pass it on to another keeper.
Second, the native stag beetle, Lucanus cervus, is protected from sale. It is listed on Schedule 5 of the same Act for section 9(5), which makes it an offence to sell a wild one, larvae included, or to advertise one for sale. If you find a stag beetle in the garden, move it out of harm's way if you need to and leave it be, and put any larva you dig up back where you found it. The rainbow stag is an Australian species and is not on Schedule 5, so that ban does not touch it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you keep a beetle as a pet?
Yes. A flower beetle such as the sun beetle needs a ventilated tub with a mesh lid, a deep bed of flake soil, soft fruit and, to breed well from autumn to spring, a heat mat or heat cable on a thermostat. None of the beetles here needs a licence in the UK.
What is the easiest beetle to keep as a pet?
Of the beetles I keep, the sun beetle; the African fruit beetle is just as easy.
How long do pet beetles live?
Adult flower beetles usually live a few months; sun beetles are often quoted at around five, though in a study at a UK college zoo some lived for more than ten. A rainbow stag adult typically lives twelve to eighteen months. The grub stage comes first and adds months more.
Do pet beetles bite?
Adult flower beetles have weak jaws built for soft fruit and sap, and are harmless to hold. A big grub can nip, and a rainbow stag may try to pinch when handled, but none of them is dangerous.
What do pet beetles eat?
The adults eat soft ripe fruit and beetle jelly, and the grubs eat the flake soil, rotted hardwood and leaf litter they live in. None of them needs live food.
Do beetles need a heat mat?
The tropical flower beetles breed better with one from autumn to spring, fixed to the side of the tub on a thermostat and never underneath. The Sapphire flower beetle and the rainbow stag do not need one.
Is it legal to keep stag beetles in the UK?
Captive-bred exotic stag beetles such as the rainbow stag, yes, with no licence needed. It is an offence to sell a wild native stag beetle, larvae included, and the conservation advice is to leave wild ones where you find them.
Are beetles good pets for children?
Sun beetles are a good choice for children, at home or at school: busy in daylight, harmless to hold, easy to feed, and a whole cycle from egg to beetle in a few months. An adult should look after the heat mat and the lid.
The beetles for sale page shows which adults and grubs are ready to go. If the one you want has sold out, build its tub and bed now and they will be settled when it is back. Beetles and grubs go out Monday to Thursday in a ventilated tub inside a double-walled box, and my live arrival guarantee covers every livestock order.
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