food or foe?

pink'n'curly

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
63
Hey guys

Ive had a container of baby crickets for about 2 weeks now and recently ive noticed some strange larve patrolling the container floor, they are about 1cm ish long and remind me of small meal worms... ive seen an all black,hairy one and one that has light stripes like a tiger...is it normal to find these things with live insect foods or do i have a problem?
Any ideas? :?
 

Derek W.

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
119
I remember hearing something about the cricket dealers putting in some sort of worm with the crickets so that it keeps the tanks clean, and I guess sometimes when they ship out the crickets you might end up with a few of those worms in the container.
 

pink'n'curly

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
63
I remember hearing something about the cricket dealers putting in some sort of worm with the crickets so that it keeps the tanks clean, and I guess sometimes when they ship out the crickets you might end up with a few of those worms in the container.
that possible i guess, thanks! :)
 

Scott C.

Arachnofloater
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2004
Messages
936
Can't see the picture, but if it is what I think it is(and have rcvd. with crickets before), it didn't hurt any of the slings I used to feed them to when they turned up.... Can't help you with the what is it Q though....
 

AviculariaLover

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
279
I can't see the pic but I work at a pet store and we get tons of those little things in our shipments of crickets. They seem harmless enough.
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
8,325
i can't see the pic at work, nor would it really help as all those things look like small mealworms to me... but i have these little beetles that are actually one of my primary feeders for very small bugs. the larva are TINY when first born (think moving eye lashes, but much shorter) and get to be a decentish size before turning into little ~3mm long beetles.

whatever i got are double tough... and they seem to breed as good as roaches.

if you are interested in using what you have as feeders i would say feed it to a few things you care less about and track them... if everything is fine after months then go for feeding to more stuff... if not, well...
 

pink'n'curly

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
63
i can't see the pic at work, nor would it really help as all those things look like small mealworms to me... but i have these little beetles that are actually one of my primary feeders for very small bugs. the larva are TINY when first born (think moving eye lashes, but much shorter) and get to be a decentish size before turning into little ~3mm long beetles.
hey cacoseraph
your spot on with this, i looked in the cricket container earlier and there was a beetle running around inside, sort of ordinary looking standard garden beetle....looks harmless :)
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
8,325
hey cacoseraph
your spot on with this, i looked in the cricket container earlier and there was a beetle running around inside, sort of ordinary looking standard garden beetle....looks harmless :)
well, unfortunatley there are probably 10,000-20,000 species of beetles that fit the "small, black, and harmless looking" category... and i expect a small percentage are demons in beetle form...

just use caution and common sense when testing out feeders. one thing to keep in mind is that a single predator eating a single beetle or larva and not immediately dropping dead really doesn't mean *that* much. i fed "my" beetles and larva exceedingly sparingly for soemthing like 6 months before i felt comfortable enough to put them into general usage. i have been using them for well over a year now with no complaints... but i suppose i should really make sure everything i fed them to reaches adulthood and can successfully reproduce before giving them an unconditional "thumbs up"

edit:
i like your fishing sig, btw ;)
 
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