Worms coming from crickets???

[LouieTiel32]

I went to get my chameleon his crickets for today and found these weird tiny brown worm looking things crawling around the cricket keeper. They are so small, but there was a lot of them. I didn’t see any yesterday when I got crickets so they must have multiplied fast or something. I am so disgusted. Could these be parasites or worms or something coming from the crickets??

 

[Carloscruz]

Pictures

 

[LouieTiel32]

I do not have pictures, but I just did some research, and they look a lot like dermestid beetle larvae.

 

[LouieTiel32]

I just found this online. They look exactly like this

 

[SerpeRoma]

These are dermestid's larvae, they're very common as clean up crew in feeder colonies as they feed on flesh and dead corps. They are not dangerous to your chameleon, but very low in nutrients. They will soon become beetles and can fly out (not very well) of your cricket container. I just had an invasion of those in my cricket bin which made me change container and toss them.. I counted more than 1500 in my bin. I personally don't like them even if there's people that clean up skulls with them, if you want to start a new colony for different purposes those are very easy to take care of. Also my bin smelled much less with them inside, but I just had too many.

 

[LouieTiel32]

These are dermestid's larvae, they're very common as clean up crew in feeder colonies as they feed on flesh and dead corps. They are not dangerous to your chameleon, but very low in nutrients. They will soon become beetles and can fly out (not very well) of your cricket container. I just had an invasion of those in my cricket bin which made me change container and toss them.. I counted more than 1500 in my bin. I personally don't like them even if there's people that clean up skulls with them, if you want to start a new colony for different purposes those are very easy to take care of. Also my bin smelled much less with them inside, but I just had too many.

Ew. I really don’t love bugs so I think I’ll probably just put them in the freezer for a bit until they pass. I only have one chameleon and I just by crickets for him every other week and clean out the container so the smell isn’t too bad. I wouldn’t mind them if they didn’t turn into beetles but I cannot handle bugs let alone flying bugs Thank you for the help!