little worms in cricket cage

[Marc10edora]

I bought 500 crickets from mulberry a couple of months ago and they came with black beatles. I read in a couple of other posts that the beatles are good to keep with them because they eat the dead crickets. But a couple of weeks later I was cleaning the cricket container and noticed little worm like larva crawling around. It really freaked me out. Just how does the beatles eat the dead crickets? Do they lay worm larva in the carcuses or do they act like parasites in live crickets? I want to kow because I don't want my cham eating any of these.

 

[MWheelock]

If you can, take a picture of the worms and the beatles for us to identify.

As far as leaving them in to eat dead crickets... you should be cleaning the dead crickets out every day to every other day. I don't find that crickets are the cleanest of the insects that I keep. Dead crickets harbor bacteria. This not only is bad for your cham( live ones crawl all over the dead ones), you will often times see a higher mortality rate of crickets the less you clean.

Beatles usually come from the feed that is given to the crickets at the cricket factory. (Ever have a cereal box sit way too long, you'll see grain beatle larva and beatles if you wait long enough.)