Dermestid Beetles

[ridgebax1]

I saw a post by another member that mentioned Dermestids in a cricket container. Then I saw a site that sells them and mentioned using them for clean up in roach and cricket bins. Could someone please tell me more about this? Are they a good thing to have?

 

[Andee]

Dermestids and Isopods make good clean up crews. Isopods are what I would prefer have never tried dermestids. I don't know if dermestids will eat live insects or not if nothing else is available, but I do know that isopods eat all left over food (even molding food), some frass and usually dead bugs. Isopods do not eat living creatures and produce quite well under the right conditions, though to keep them producing you need to have soil, and leaf litter.

 

[DanSB]

My personal opinion is that they aren't good. They are a potential pest, they may or may not attack living / molting crickets and are a poor excuse for not regularly cleaning cricket bins.

With that said many large scale breeders use them, which is the only place they could possibly be of much use. Otherwise a weekly cleaning is far preferable.

 

[DanSB]

And to add: clean up crews in general are completely inappropriate outside of a monitored naturalistic vivarium that includes live plants, springtails, and the general beneficial micro organisms that will come with plants and soil.

Save the dermestids for stripping flesh off of bone...

 

[ridgebax1]

Thanks for the info; I am trying not to have crickets anymore, but I have a fairly large colony of Dubia's and am getting Turkistan's; With the phoenix, butter, silks and horn worms, I have more bugs in my house/refrigerator than I care to think about! Not including bug food! Thank gosh I don't need food for the food!

 

[junglefries]

It is the surprise spider inside the cricket box that angers me. eating up what i paid for. stupid arachnid needs to get a job and pay me back.