ID help: Brown Wriggly Thing in with Crickets

[PhiliusPhrog]

Hi UncleChester. Those little critters are Hide Beetle larvae. I'm in the UK and we get 'em here too! I wondered what they were as well and looked into it. The beetles themselves thrive in abattoirs and enjoy the carcasses, hence the name "Hide". I can only imagine that they occur at some point in the crix breeding process and get dumped in along with the crix. Either that or they are added purposefully to consume any dead matter. I have fed them to my Whites tree frogs and so far so good. But I did hear that they may be able to eat their way out!! So promptly stopped. Hope this helps.

[Kurt]

I have fed them to my Whites tree frogs and so far so good. But I did hear that they may be able to eat their way out!! So promptly stopped. Hope this helps.

That is impossible. As soon as the beetle makes it way to the stomach, the frog's stomach acids start to break it down. That alone should kill it. Secondly, once inside the frog how is the beetle going to be able to breath? I find most insects drown very easily and the inside of a frog is very wet.

Insects do not breath like you and I. Most, if not all, of them absorb oxygen through numerous spiracles in their exoskeletons. Each spiracle goes directly to a certain organ and provides that organ with oxygen. So when the pores of the spiracles are covered by water or another substance, the insect is unable to breath and dies. An insect can drown easily even it's only partially submerged. If the spiracles that serve vital organs are covered, they will not be able to receive oxygen and will die.

[Tom Highum]

Whoa that is interesting. Thanks kurt

[Kurt]

You're welcome. Its amazing what one can learn when one reads a book (or two)

[1beataway]

You're welcome. Its amazing what one can learn when one reads a book (or two)

What two books did you read to become so knowledgeable in everything?

[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.)

[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

[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]

A big thanks to all who responded (and Johnny's entomologist friend). Given that these larvae could potentially eat the crickets, I'll be removing these from my cricket home. I don't think I'll be feeding them to the frogs though. I was a little concerned about the hairs, and Kurt seconded this concern, so I may as well play it safe.

I went to the reptile show in Mississauga this weekend and picked up some mealworms for a little more variety for the frogs and some waxworms for occasional treats (I'll try feeding them waxmoths as well). I've also found another cricket supplier to try in case my breeding setup doesn't work out.

Thanks again!
.

[Kurt]

You're welcome