Worms in my crickets...

[Panthergirl11]

So I noticed the other day that there are little catapiller worms living with my crickets. Are they safe? I noticed that when I got my last batch of online crickets that there was a black beetle with them. You think that beetle laid eggs and those worms are beetle larva? I just don't know where else they woulda came from.

 

[Hoj]

sounds like they are the same little bug that i get sometimes, from what i know they eat the dead crickets and are not a bad thing to have around

 

[Canny Chams]

ahh, those things piss me off, i pull them out whenever i see them

 

[Panthergirl11]

sounds like they are the same little bug that i get sometimes, from what i know they eat the dead crickets and are not a bad thing to have around

Yea I saw one of them eating a dead cricket and another one burrowing around in the dry gut load.

 

[brandon1]

So I noticed the other day that there are little catapiller worms living with my crickets. Are they safe? I noticed that when I got my last batch of online crickets that there was a black beetle with them. You think that beetle laid eggs and those worms are beetle larva? I just don't know where else they woulda came from.

They are good. The worms are in fact larva from the beetles. They both eat the dead crickets and left over food, and I even think they eat the cricket poo, but I'm not certain on the last part. By eating the dead ones they help keep the smell down, and if they eat the frass then that would also certainly help keep the smell down.

ahh, those things piss me off, i pull them out whenever i see them

Be happy. The larva and beetles are doing you a favor...

By the way, part of my reason for posting was to see if I could flawlessly execute a mulit quote as I have never tried it and was just told how to do so earlier...

Edit-It worked. I'm happy. The beetles and larva are good.

 

[DavidBuchan]

They are called Dermestid beetles. You can feed a couple (or the larvae) to your Cham if you like. They are totally safe and as others have said they will keep things clean in your cricket box for you

 

[Panthergirl11]

Awesome! I'm glad they are there. I saw a ball of them last night taking out a dead cricket.