Tiny worms in dubia bins?

[jducky18]

I did a quick search on this topic and found a thread, but I couldn't really discern a straight answer. I'm raising my own dubia, and there are tiny black worms in the breeder bin, and since I separated out a few recently, now there are some in my feeder bin. Is this going to hurt my dragon? Will they give him parasites from the dubia or anything? I really don't want to have to scrap my whole colony, because that would just be a terrible waste of money. Any idea what they are or if they're harmful?

 

[Twobeardieguy]

J, they are most likely cleaner bugs. They will cause no harm but more of a PITA!

 

[JMDaniels]

I did a quick search on this topic and found a thread, but I couldn't really discern a straight answer. I'm raising my own dubia, and there are tiny black worms in the breeder bin, and since I separated out a few recently, now there are some in my feeder bin. Is this going to hurt my dragon? Will they give him parasites from the dubia or anything? I really don't want to have to scrap my whole colony, because that would just be a terrible waste of money. Any idea what they are or if they're harmful?

Are they fuzzy looking? If so, then they are probably the harmless larva of Dermestid beetles.

 

[jducky18]

They don't look fuzzy, if I was to describe them, they almost seem crunchy. I know that's not a real description, but they're barely a 1/4 inch long and black, I am a little too grossed out by them to take a closer look

 

[disastercake]

I had similar ones in my bin that freaked me out. They seemed to be exactly like yours, appeared to have a hard exterior from a distance and, on closer inspection were fuzzy with tiny little hairs. I captured as many of them as I could, put them in a baggie, froze them, sent pics to the place I had ordered my Dubias from (2mos earlier) and the said they were, in fact, the Dermestid beetles. Now that my colony has grown, I wish I had not been so through in my cleaning of the larvae, as they help keep the debris down in the bottom of the crate (just a little tip to maybe keep in mind).