# Cricket Larvae?



## ghordy

I picked up a batch of crickets at my LPS and I noticed a couple of little squiggly black larvae in the bag. This is cricket larvae, no?


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## leoman777

i forget what those are called but i tihnk they eat the dead crix so its like your own clean up crew  when i bought my box of crix i had some of those too


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## whitewolf

i forget what those are called too. They eat the nasty stuff.

No crickets lay eggs and baby crickets hatch out. They look like very tiny adults.


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## ghordy

whitewolf said:


> i forget what those are called too. They eat the nasty stuff.
> 
> No crickets lay eggs and baby crickets hatch out. They look like very tiny adults.


Oh, that's just great... now you tell me! After I pitched them! :wall:


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## Hobo

Ugh, they're phorid fly larvae. I'd suggest scooping as many as you can out and disposing them. They can infest your home if given the right conditions (the larvae can live on almost anything), and IMO are a LOT worse/annoying than fruitflies.

Just remove dead crickets yourself.


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## whitewolf

Hobo said:


> Ugh, they're phorid fly larvae. I'd suggest scooping as many as you can out and disposing them. They can infest your home if given the right conditions (the larvae can live on almost anything), and IMO are a LOT worse/annoying than fruitflies.
> 
> Just remove dead crickets yourself.


:wall: Little black larve looking like worms. Duhhh said small black larve. 

I was thinking about the large black crawly things. Dunno how to describe them but they come in with fluckers crickets when I used to use crickets. These things have a body like a pede but no pincers about 1/2" to 1" long. What are those? I was told they were good bugs?


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## Hobo

whitewolf said:


> :wall: Little black larve looking like worms. Duhhh said small black larve.
> 
> I was thinking about the large black crawly things. Dunno how to describe them but they come in with fluckers crickets when I used to use crickets. These things have a body like a pede but no pincers about 1/2" to 1" long. What are those? I was told they were good bugs?


My mistake. For some reason my mind didn't read the word "black." The phorid fly larvae I've encountered were definitely not black. Though I guess they might appear black if they are eating gross, decaying black cricket corpses...

Also... creepy crawling 'pede like cleaner bugs? From your decription they sound like some kind of millipede. That's interesting, I've never had those in with my crickets! If they are just millipedes, I don't see how they can be harmful in any way to crickets let alone infest a home, and they DO eat decaying material...  I'd say they are good bugs.


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## xhexdx

They're dermestid beetle larvae.  They will pupate, hatch as beetles, and infest your entire room.  I've been through that before.

Get rid of them.  Feed them off, flush them, kill them however you want.  Just get rid of them.

--Joe


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## Hobo

xhexdx said:


> They're dermestid beetle larvae.  They will pupate, hatch as beetles, and infest your entire room.  I've been through that before.
> 
> Get rid of them.  Feed them off, flush them, kill them however you want.  Just get rid of them.
> 
> --Joe


GAWD I HATE THOSE FREAKIN THINGS!

If those are indeed what they look like, ghrody, I'd follow his advice, and quickly! Those things cost me a very nice display of pinned insects I collected on vacation. They'll eat pretty much anything. When you kill em, say hello for me.


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## Bill S

xhexdx said:


> They're dermestid beetle larvae.  They will pupate, hatch as beetles, and infest your entire room.  I've been through that before.
> 
> Get rid of them.  Feed them off, flush them, kill them however you want.  Just get rid of them.
> 
> --Joe


Joe, I'm glad you're on this board to help correct the abundant misinformation.

And for the rest of you - dermestid beetles are sometimes called museum beetles.  They are great scavengers and will indeed scavenge the dead crickets.  In museums (on the good side) they are often used to clean skulls and skeletons.  On the bad side, they get into insect collections (dead insects) and wreak havoc.  What they will do when loosed upon your home will vary with the climate you live in and what you've got around your home.  They are not a big problem where I live (in the desert), so I tolerate them in the cricket cage.  Joe lives in a much more humid climate and obviously has different results.  Place your own bets and take your own chances.


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## whitewolf

Thanks guys I was wondering what they were I had seen the dermestid beetles and knew what those where after the coroner showed me them once but I never knew those were their larvae. I had wondered if it was their larvae but never looked it up after someone said they were ok to have. They went away with the crickets but every now and then I see one upstairs but none downstairs with the T's or Roaches. Sorry to thread jack ya. This was the first thing I thought of when ya said larvae. It's kind of a hairy funky looking worm.


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## ghordy

So the cricket farms who produce crickets for the pet trade include these purposely as "clean-up" bugs in their facilities knowing full well that they may infest the home of the end user? Doesn't seem plausible.


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## xhexdx

I don't think they're intentionally included.  I've had spiders in with my crickets before, too.  That puts me in a bind because usually they're a species we don't have here in Florida and they're also gravid.  I usually keep them till they die and remove and destroy any sacs they produce.

Anyway...


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## Nerri1029

When I had my Discoid colony I liked the Dermestids in with them, they helped keep the colony cleaner inbetween my overhauling. 

not sure if they are a hazard to a living T or roach, Like Bill S & Hobo said, I've heard of them dessimating dried displays though.

So "evil"? my vote is no.

Something you want around?  you decide, probably not.

I eventually ended up with a colony of them within my roach colony.
I rounded them up and sent them off to "Old Hag" 

Like all bugs they have a purpose. 

As for the knee jerk answers.. well


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## Zebo777

Yeah sounds like a personal choice


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## arachna-nono

OP didn't include a picture of the little things, but I'm going to assume they're are the same little stinkers that are always in my 10,000/week cricket order as well as ALWAYS in my superworm container.  I've been seeing them for 13 freaking years and never had a CLUE what they were!  Only one of my roach colonies (b. lats.) ever get them, and no matter how often I clean the damn things out, they ALWAYS come back!  Interesting enough, I always find one inside a dead adult roach... guess they DO come in handy.  I was a little worried my roaches were getting their own little "Alien" parasite!  This is all very good info for me to have!


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## ZergFront

I think I just got one of these larva in with my pinheads yesterday but it's the only one. Left it be since they're scavengers and it wouldn't be able to reproduce anyway..

 I'll post a pic later. Too lazy to..


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## dfourer

I got beetles and larvae into my Blaptica dubia roach colony and they are a pain.  Five-millimeter black beetles and brown striped larvae.  They don't really hurt the roaches, but the colony is messy and I can't separate them.  I know they came from another roach breeder.


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## Bill S

In the time between when this thread first started and now I cleaned out my cricket cage.  And unfortunately got rid of the dermestids too.  I have since decided that was a mistake, and am hoping to get some more soon.  The first thing I noticed with the new "clean" cge was that it stunk.  I'd seen messages posted here before about how much cricket cages smelled, and thought people were just being too sensitive.  But my dermestid-free cage STUNK.  I think the dermestids were performing a pretty useful cleaning service.

There were probably a few other issues also contributing to the smell - like too much humidity and not enough air circulation - but I'm still hoping to come up with some dermestids again.


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## Anonymity82

Crickets smell horrible no matter what you do. They produce those smells in their waste and maybe the dermestids will help a little you're pretty much stuck with the stink if you want a cricket colony. The dubai roaches are more nutritious and less stinky, but A: I haven't been able to find anyone who will sell me one or 2 at a time and B: You really need to start a colony of those which would only come in handy if you have many critters (which I don't). I once found a fully grown black beetle in my cricket container and now I know what it was!! Thanks for the thread! I actually just found something moving in my scorp's substrate but it wasn't anywhere near it's wastes and I could barely make it out. If I had to make a guess I would say a little black wormy thing but I mean little. I lost it the second I tried to move the substrate the tiniest bit.


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## Tarantula_Tamer

T's eat them just as well as they eat crickets! thats one way to get rid of them, just make sure they get eaten right away.


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## 1Lord Of Ants1

These can also be lesser mealworms, I got them in with my dubia and they reproduce like no tomorrow. Leave 10 adults in, and 3 months later I have 10,000 larvae. Luckily, they're relatively harmless given the roaches have room to escape them (They mainly burrow down in the frass) and the populations aren't allowed to get out of control. They do a job cleaning up leftovers and the recently deseased, as well as a bonus snack for any other of my insects/vertebrates.

Here's a random pic off google...

http://www.roachcrossing.com/SDC15705.JPG

The adult beatles are about 5-6 mms, shiny, and are somewhat active.


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## JODECS

if I'm not mistaken these things are the culprit in invading my mealworm colony.. are the beetles black or red? small?


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## 1Lord Of Ants1

Yes, the older they are the darker in color they appear, like with mealworm beetles. They're pretty small, like I said above, about 5-6mms, or half a cm. Unfortunately they're almost immpossible to get rid of when established. They don't seem to do any harm in small numbers though, and the larvae serve the same purpose of regular mealworms, but for smaller animals.


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