Mealworm Pupa Turning Pink?

[Chloe101321]

So, I've been trying to breed mealworms and so far everything's going good. Bought some worms from the pet store, they turned into pupa, and i now have quite a few black beetles and am waiting to move them to a new tub for the next generation of worms. But for some reason, a few of the more recent mealworm pupa have been pupating into the regular beigey colour and then turning pink a few days later! I'm pretty sure the pink pupa are dead because there's no butt wiggle when i pick them up with tweezers, but does anyone know why they are pink? how to stop it? is it contagious to other pupa? Any ideas would be really helpful. Thanks!

 

[A cave cricket]

Most likely a parasite, fungus, or disease. Not sure the actual cause, but I don't know how to prevent it and I've never seen anything like it.

 

[ButterMan]

Those are most likely dead. They usually turn black a day after death but pink is weird.

 

[Chloe101321]

well I put them in a jar to watch and its been a few days... theyre still pink! I heard that some pet stores put chemicals in to stop mealworms going past the pupa stage, could that be it? it could be a parasite like @A cave cricket said but its only been on a few, if it was it should have spread to the other pupa in the tub while they were still in there.

 

[Salmonsaladsandwich]

It's pretty common for decaying dead insects to turn pinkish, I've seen it many times in different insects, especially ones that are drowned in water but it happens in dry conditions too.

I'm pretty sure its caused by bacteria, maybe Serratia marcescens since it occurs in a variety of decaying material and produces large amounts of a pigment that stains things red or pink.

 

[Chloe101321]

Thankyou everyone for the advice, I've ended up just not feeding them to my Ts now because the pink stuff has spread to the mealworms themselves. I've just ended up starting a new tub with new mealworms entirely. Thanks for the help though!

 

[A cave cricket]

You're welcome.