# What the heck is this now?



## dmina (Nov 6, 2014)

Crickets... wow ... what a pain!.. first they kept dying off.. then mold (overfeeding), then fruit flies, then little beetles??? Now I have these things? What are they? How did I get them? Can I feed them to my mantis?









What next unicorns?


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## patrickfraser (Nov 6, 2014)

Those are the larva of the beetles which are a type of dermestid. They are sold as "clean up crews" as they clean up waste and debris. They eat dead things, so the ey aren't gut loaded with the best stuff, but my praying mantis don't mind. Needless to say, I feed them to my mantids and haven't had any problems.

You probably got them with a cricket purchase and didn't notice.


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## dmina (Nov 6, 2014)

Yepee.. They were free gifts... 



So someone breeds them for people... I guess we will buy ...(and breed) everything... 

 Only in America...


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## dmina (Nov 6, 2014)

So do they bother the crickets? They seem to have multiplied quickly?


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## CosbyArt (Nov 6, 2014)

Ha, congrats on the free gift.  

I might have to see how handy they are and where to get some myself, as I haven't gotten any from my cricket purchases yet.


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## dmina (Nov 6, 2014)

CosbyArt said:


> Ha, congrats on the free gift.
> 
> I might have to see how handy they are and where to get some myself, as I haven't gotten any from my cricket purchases yet.


Funny! Like I said ... they are multiplying fast... haha

I must be lucky...

Next question???? What do they turn into next???


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## sschind (Nov 6, 2014)

certain dermestids are very popular with taxidermists and people who mount animal skeletons. They will strip the flesh of bones leaving a clean skeleton behind. They shouldn't hurt living crickets and will do no harm to your colony and they will help keep it clean. With certain cricket companies I used to get a lot of them and with others I got none. They shouldn't hurt your mantids at all.

They turn into beetles roughly 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch long. The ones I usually got were black with a brown strip somewhere across the back up toward the head.

One guy sells them for 55 bucks for an assortment of 200 of them.


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## dmina (Nov 6, 2014)

Thank you... some of these critters change into more things.. 2 stages, beetles and larvae .. I can deal with it...


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## happy1892 (Nov 7, 2014)

dmina said:


> Only in America...


Haha. Actually Europe (Including UK, Germany) are doing it too, and they seem to be ahead.


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## Aryia (Nov 7, 2014)

Isn't there one species that feeds on mantis oothecas?


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## dmina (Nov 7, 2014)

That's scary... I do not know.. but I don't think it's these...


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## hibiscusmile (Nov 7, 2014)

They fly when grown


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## dmina (Nov 7, 2014)

hibiscusmile said:


> They fly when grown


What fly when grown? the beetles never did... and the larvae haven't yet...


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## CosbyArt (Dec 22, 2014)

dmina said:


> What fly when grown? the beetles never did... and the larvae haven't yet...


Curious do you still have the larvae and/or beetles? Do they help clean the tank or have you feed any larvae to your mantises?

I've got Springtails and Isopods and they are really starting to help out in cleaning up my tanks. I haven't though come across those that you've got yet.


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## LAME (Dec 22, 2014)

I've gotten those aswell, its just a larvae stage of the beetle. Which usually comes with bought crickets. They act as cleaners. When one of my budwing males were young he actually ate one in larvae form...lol

I don't know whether or not later on in its life if its harmful or will attack mantids, but my guess would be probably not.


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