Mealworms reproduced in tank, can he eat them?

[RileySheffer]

Hi guys,
My sister has an adult bearded dragon named Lady, and I was just recently cleaning his tank (unfortunately, my sister named the beardie before we knew his gender, poor guy), and I noticed that when I lifted up the water bowl, there was a good amount of mealworms underneath. My best guess is that the mealworms managed to escape her beardie's jaws of death and hide in a place that could provide them with what they needed to survive and reproduce. I cleaned the tank and sifted through to collect the mealworms, all is well and fine, Lady seemed healthy and unharmed but I was curious if I let the mealworms grow a little bit more, if he could eat them. I'm sure most seasoned beardie owners should know this, but I just wanted to make sure before I fed them to him, just because I would hate to accidentally make him sick, or worse.

Anyways, thanks in advance.

 

[JessPets]

I'm pretty sure they didn't reproduce. You see, mealworms are actually a larvae for a type of beetle, so unless you tons of little beetles scurrying around that's probably not it

Secondly, you need to stop feeding mealworms ASAP. Mealworms have a very hard chitinous shell that can cause impaction, which can be fatal. Try dubia roaches, silkworms, BSFL (aka reptiworms, calciworms, phoenix worms), or crickets.