WORMS IN MEAL CRICKETS?!?!

Hi, so I'm kind of freaking out here. So I usually get my meal crickets from the pets store, and I have never had an issue. I buy them weekly, 6 dozen at a time. I noticed this last batch I bought yesterday were slow moving, some were dead, etc. I thought maybe it's because I left them in the hot car in the bag too long (done that before, my bad) but when I fed my two baby beardies this morning, Badass and Arya, I noticed there was a small worm thing (maybe a larva of some sort? Almost looked like a miniature maggot..) crawling on the body of the dead cricket that dropped out of the feeder tube with the other crickets. Should I be concerned on my beardies eating them, or will they only be harmful to my crickets but beneficial nutrition wise for my beardies? I'm concerned about their health. Right now there is nothing wrong visibly with either of them but I only started feeding them this batch of crickets last night.

Were the crickets at the store dead/dying? Perhaps some flies got at the dying crickets and the maggots were feeding on them. The maggots themselves shouldn't pose an issue I don't think. Dead/rotting crickets could be a problem depending on what was causing them to die. You might consider just dumping this batch and ordering a fresh batch from somewhere else (either another store or online) to avoid more contaminated crickets.

I agree with Cooper. You can save a LOT of money ordering online from places like Great Lakes hornworm or Josh's frogs. [ they sell crickets + other insects as well ]