Found worms in my dubia feeder bin? What are they?

[ohmybandit]

I have two dubia bins: one feeder, one breeder. Feeders are from a seller on here and my breeders are from dubi deli. Dubi deli is doing perfectly fine with no issues and no weird worms. The feeder bin just received an order of over 2000 nymphs about 2 weeks ago in addition to the 1000 I've already had in there from right before Halloween (again from the same person). However, my feeder bins, I found small looking worms that are identical to mealworms or little supers? What are they and should they be there? I pulled out over 30, being that I started this at 430 am and it's currently 5 am, I'm going to hand pick my dubias out tomorrow (today technically) and throw out whatevers been crawling in here. They are smooth and sleek like supers and they crawl and have those legs like them too. I'm not breeding any supers nor are they even close to my dubia bins, my meal worms are in the fridge for my gecko and the only thing close is my breeder bin, which again is perfectly free of any other bug other than the nymphs. Is this a common thing?

Any advice or tips appreciated.

^Video

 

[jwideman]

I was going to say cleaner crew, but those do look like superworms. What are they doing?

 

[ohmybandit]

Just walking around in the frass and I found some huddling with the dubias. I emailed the breeder he said those are dermestid beetles but I thought those were black and fluffy and looked like caterpillars?

 

[jwideman]

Did you send him a picture? Those are NOT dermestids.
These are:

 

[ohmybandit]

Lol, I did! I send him the two pictures up there along with that video. He told me those are the demestid beetle larvae and that they're harmless and a clean up crew but I can try to remove them if I want. My response was, "Okay thanks. But aren't dermestid beetles black and fuzzy?"
And again, his response was "They turn into hard shelled black dermestid beetles"

Don't know how that exactly answered my question but okay... :roll:

 

[jwideman]

The larvae and beetles do look similar. If they eat dead roaches, leave them in. If they eat live roaches, take them out and email him again.

 

[jharveyjr54]

I found the same thing in my colony! I don't see them eating any Dub's one way or the other, but I got 125 adults and some 3/4 inch nymphs delivered Friday and I've had about 10 adult die offs over the weekend. Color me curious. Any info at all would be great!

 

[FishboneNC]

I saw something similar to the first photo in my breeder bin.
Almost looked like a meal worm.

I've seen other long beetle looking insect in my feeder orders, Angel gobbled one down before I could get a good look at it!

 

[Twobeardieguy]

They are dermestid beetles just in a later stage. There are about 1000 different kinds of them in the world. Best thing to do is just strip the bin. As in new creates, food, water and a new bin. I know its a pain but that is the best way to do it. I never use them because my bins are kept up and cleaned. Wish the best of luck to you and if you need any help let me know.

 

[jharveyjr54]

Yeah I spent 4 hours trying to separate those little worms out last night, put all my feeders(amazingly enough, I have not seen one of these things in my breeder bin), and this morning I noticed that a few still crossed over. I also noticed that some of them are so tiny that you can barely even see them, and if they're not moving, they're so tiny you'd never notice them. I have to ask, are they actually hurting anything? My colony is thriving! Scooter is large enough that he's feeding strictly off of larger nymphs now, but I have thousands and thousands of tiny Dubia. I'm at the point I'm trying to see if I have any friends who need feeders, and if not, I may try to sell a couple thousand smalls off.

To try to help get rid of them, and I know this will not work 100% obviously, because I still have them, but to kill some of them off, easily, take a small plastic container, I used a chinese carry out soup holder with a lid, and cut small holes in the top. Make sure the holes are large enough for the worm, not large enough for the small Dubia to get through. Half fill it with water, check it every couple days, empty out dead bugs, re fill with clean water. I found this out by accident, I had the water in there with the tiny holes to try to add humidity to my colony, since I had read they need humidity to help them shed, and I need larger roaches, asap.

If they are indeed a "cleaner crew" of some sort, I will say, I had about an inch of frass in the bottom of my feeder bin, but very few dead roaches or shells. Definitely more in the breeder bin, by far.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

J no they will not harm the colony at all. All they do is help clean up some sheds and the frass. They are more a PITA then anything. You need to make sure to change everything. And sometimes the larva or eggs cling to the adults. So you really need to check everything really good.

 

[allisonm]

I found one in crickets i bought from the pet store, so ive been doing research. I know westcoast roaches include a cup of "cleaner crew" with their b. Dubia starter colony, which also includes mealworms.