B.dubia challenge with oral innoculation of Lysinibacillus sphaericus

Today I started an assay to see if Lysinibacillus sphaericus and Francisella tularensis LVS are pathogenic towards Blaptica dubia roaches when administered orally. I was supplied with spores stocks of three samples of L. sphaericus at different concentrations (9E+7, 2E+9, and 1E+8) and a plate of F. tularensis LVS on CHOC II agar. I used 600µl of the spore suspensions and spun them into a pellet (10,000rpm for 1 min) and resuspended them to 120µl in a 50% sucrose solution for a 5x concentration. For the F.t LVS, I used a large loop of bacteria and suspended it in 200µl of 50% sucrose solution. The bacterial-sucrose solutions were then fed to groups of 10 roaches similarly to the method used here. The roaches are incubated at 37C with water crystals for hydration. Survival will be checked daily.