ID help: Brown Wriggly Thing in with Crickets

[Kurt]

Actually it was more than two books, but I wasn't going to count (or list) every book I have or read. I got the spiracle thing from a book called Mantids of the World (or something to that fact, I just can't remember the title or what I did with it.)

[Julia]

I too found these bugs in with the crickets that i bought at a pet store here in Canada. When I asked the supplier what they were, they said they did not know, but they thought they seemed harmless. I am finding so much useful information on this website!

[UncleChester]

Hi there, thought I'd give an update my feeder progress. I ended up needing to order more crickets, as my first batch was down to about 20 adults + a few stragglers about 3 weeks ago and I've only just yesterday removed my small tupperware for egg laying from the adults pen for incubation.

So 2 weeks ago I picked up 250 1/4" crickets from a different pet store (they were much cheaper), but the same cricket supplier. It's a little to cold here (-10C to -20C) for me to trust mail order from further away. The pet store screwed up and ordered 1000 by mistake, so they transferred 250 to a container for me. All were alive and there were no non-cricket passengers. This could have been because the pet store had to handle them and only live crickets were transferred to the new container. There did seem to be some very large crickets mixed in though, at least one full sized adult. That's odd, but fine by me as it gives more adults to keep the breeding up.

I murdered all my waxworms from November. Of the original 58, 2 were fed to frogs, 7 pupated and appear to be brownish/black and kaput. The remainder turned blackish and were definitely kaput. I'll try again when I have the tools to monitor the temp&humidity more closely.

My 500 mealworms are doing well, about 150 beetles so far, no young. I can't see any eggs in the substrate, but I understand they are tiny. I've been periodically replacing the beetle's substrate and putting the old stuff in a "nursery". I tried to keep the pupae container on a heating pad, but the beetles that emerged seemed messed up so I took it off. It was like their abdomen hadn't fully changed to an adult but they were walking around anyway (might have just been messed up wings). One of my frogs absolutely loves the mealworms and now attacks the tongs on sight, the other frogs will have nothing to do with them.

Cheers.

[UncleChester]

Another update, I had my first batch of pinheads hatch on Feb 13th. I've been counting as I remove them for feeding, and the 18 adults I had started with in the breeder bin produced roughly 500 crickets. Most of these 500 have gone on to be eaten, there's maybe 50 left for feeders, and a select few have laid eggs which began to hatch May 16th. So just over 3 months for a full generation cycle.

None have died from anything but frog related injuries or a few accidental squishings on my part. Of the last "250" store bought ones, I pulled 178 out alive for feeding and 96 that had died in the bin over the course of 6 weeks, so the ones I hatched seemed hardier? No changes in heating (17C-26C) or humidity, or diet.

I was getting concerned that my latest pinheads wouldn't be large enough for feeders before I ran out of big crickets until I checked my mealworm bin. I've scouring it every few weeks cursing at them for not breeding, but this time I found hundreds and hundreds of new mealworms! Some look to be a couple of molts old, so these should be ready to eat in a couple of weeks.

Cheers.

[Tropicok]

This is all good information. I have a meal worm colony going but I leave it alone and it cycles nicely. I was told not to disturb substrate. Robin, I am so envious. For some reason I can't get pinheads to hatch. The last batch was a nice line of the eggs I could see through the container but they didn't hatch. So, I'm trying again and will read more on info on this forum than advice and help from my zoo colleagues. LOL

[missclick]

I know this is super late for a response to this thread but
I instantly recognized those as carpet beetle larvae ( i accidentally introduced them to my mom's house when i was little)

unfortunately, once you have them in your house, its nearly impossible to get rid of them

[UncleChester]

I know this is super late for a response to this thread but
I instantly recognized those as carpet beetle larvae ( i accidentally introduced them to my mom's house when i was little)

unfortunately, once you have them in your house, its nearly impossible to get rid of them

No problem, once I knew what they were I did some reading and found they could turn into pests. I disposed of them as I found them in the cricket bin, and haven't seen any outside the bin. I've also sterilized the bin since as regular maintenance. I should be safe