Dermestid Beetles- WTF????

[HewesHort]

i went down to the feed store today to pick up crickets, typically they have robust healthy crickets. as usual i examine the bugs before leaving and notice small hairy larvae in the bag with the crickets. i ask the store clerk, and he says thats it a bug that comes in with the crickets some times... no kidding... since he was no help i asked for the name of the company that he oredred them from.

I called the breeder and found out that they are dermestid beetles, of which some species are used to clean skulls!! he couldnt tell me which type they were but he was pretty sure they came in with the cricket food. then i asked the big question, do they sell the carnivorous species? They used to, but not any more, and he couldn't tell me why. i have my suspicions...

my other concern was that they are hairy and the little hairs may become lodged in the animals mouth or intestines, potentialy harming them.

Anyway, i decided not to risk infecting my tanks with carnivorous beetles. at least i can keep the crickets away from my pets with a dish of food. i would hate to wake up to find a perfectly cleaned salamander skeleton.

does anyone have experience with these bugs? are they safe to use as feeders?

in case you are curious this is sorta what they look like Dermestid Beetle
the larve looked most like the ones in the pic, compared to the other results i got from google, and those ARE the carnivorous ones

[jclee]

You know, I've seen those come in with my crickets, and I never thought too much about it. I just killed them whenever I saw them. (I have a separate tank for crickets, so I'm not too worried about one getting into my pets' tank by accident.) It's both good and terrifying to know what they are. I really don't know how the larvae would do as feeders. (Does it specify if the beetle form only eats deceased flesh -- thus the bone cleaning -- or if, when hungry, it will eat live animals?)

[momerath]

They are most likely Dermestes maculatus. Many crickets breeders keep them in their colonies to clean up the dead crickets. It extremely unlikely that they will attack and kill an animal, they are carrion eaters. Hence their use for cleaning skulls. Also, they are more likely to just die in your tank than become a breeding colony, mostly due to a lack of food (carrion).
I've never specifically used them as feeders, but I am sure I have inadvertently fed out the occasional larvae along with the crickets. I don't believe they would be harmful if consumed. Your salamanders would consume even stranger and potentially 'harmful' bugs in the wild!

[HewesHort]

thanks for the responses!

I called a friend of mine that is really into bugs and she said that even though they rely mostly on carrion, they will eat living flesh if there is no other food source. but the conditions in my tanks are not conducive to them breeding (no food) and they are probably less dangerous to my pets than a large cricket. she also mentioned something about them being used to clean up dead crickets. it sounds to me like these little guys wouldnt be a horrible addition to the tanks after all.

[froggsong]

OMG, you scared the HELL out of me before I got to the bottom of this thread! I was like, omg, omg, omg.... I'm sure I've probably thrown a couple of the beetles to some herp at one time or another thinking that it was simply a wayward mealworm beetle... I usually kill the larvae myself when they come in with the crickets, since I had no idea what it was. Next time I think I will just let it be. It wouldn't hurt to add some critters to get rid of the dead crickets (added to all of the tiny ones that totally creep me out... various mites , springtails, worms, etc). Just so long as they aren't going to swarm out of the tank and eat my babies...

[HewesHort]

one issue i noticed with putting them in the tank to clean up crickets, they move very slowly and dont seem too concerned with hiding. the salamanders just ate them. oh well, im sure there will be more.

[beckdg]

if there is any cause for concerns there is this guy over on aquariacentral. his username is biomajorstudent. i'm pretty sure these are the beetles he uses to clean bones. after that he uses an ammonia/water solution to degrease them and they come out museum clean. anyway if you want more info i'm sure he can help.

[froggsong]

I got ALOT of these guys in with my cricket shipment this time. I didn't kill them all immediately, and I am wondering, just a little bit, if they were part of the reason that my circkets started dying. The larvae are TINY to begin with, I wonder if they would start eating into live crickets if there were no dead ones around...

Anyway, they FLY. Every time I opened the cricket bin those stupid beetles were flying in my face. I know now that the beetles I was throwing to the herps from time to time were actually mealworm beetles, not these guys, because the ones I was feeding off didn't fly and were bigger.

The fact that they fly makes them something I NEVER EVER want in my bins again.

[momerath]

Yeah, the adult beetles do fly... we have trouble keeping them contained at work (we maintain a small colony for cleaning skulls).
As for the larvae that I've had come in with crickets - mine always die off before reaching the beetle stage. My guess is that they run out of food and die because I don't get many cricket die off's and my bin stay pretty clean. I really doubt they will eat live crickets, but anything is possible.

[KODABEAR]

Wow those are some crazy lookin little guys cleaning skulls and what not. I’m glad that they are just carrion feeders. They are just a little something extra to get rid of all those pesky dead cricket bodies. I for one have never seen them before but for some reason wants to… Anyway it looks like this myth is completely busted! LO