Cleaner beetles over-taking Dubia roaches

Deacon · Nov 16, 2015

Ugh! So I bought some "cleaner beetles" (buffalo beetles?) to put in the Dubia roach bin. I read they wouldn't bother the roaches. I know that I sometimes get a couple of the beetles or larva in the wax worms I order so I thought maybe everyone uses them in their feeder insects.

All was well until the beetles laid eggs and now the substrate of frass and chow is a writhing mass of beetle larva (at a glance, they look like tiny mealworms)! The thing is, I started feeding my Dubia the Repashy bug burger about the same time and was so impressed how quickly they were eating it---turns out it is the beetle larva that are demolishing a burger overnite! I can't help but think this is off-putting to the roaches to have their food disappearing and writhing under them.

Anyone else use cleaner beetles? Unless someone has a better idea, I'm about to move the dubia to a clean bin with new egg cartons and try to isolate the beetles/larvae and get rid of them. (This is a case of "if it's not broke don't fix it" and I should have left well-enough alone!) I live in Washington state and I don't know if this beetle larva can be fed to the outside birds??? Anyone have a suggestion?

Salmonsaladsandwich · Nov 16, 2015

Stop feeding them anything that has a lot of protein in it. Especially if you're giving them dog food or cat food. However try to remove as many as possible first, otherwise it's possible that they'll harm molting roaches. Of course if there's that many they might already be doing so.

Wild birds would definitely appreciate them.

EDIT: when I read your post, I thought that the beetle you were talking about was the buffalo carpet beetle, which is a kind of dermestid beetle that mainly eats dry dead animal matter. I've never heard of it used for cleaning roach colonies but people use other dermestid species. However now I realize you probably mean the lesser mealworms or buffalo worm, which eats basically anything... So there's not much you can do. Just bear in mind that moving the roaches will be stressful and you might not see many babies for a while.

mantisman 230 · Nov 16, 2015

I would suggest using the larvae as feeders for mantids as well as the birds outside. People offer meals and supers all the time.

Deacon · Nov 16, 2015

S.S.S. and Mantidbro,

So, I got an answer from ABDragons.com where I got my Dubia and "cleaner beetles." S.S.S., the beetles are the adult of Tenebrio obscurus or minimealworms. Apparently, baby lizards love them but I don't have any (although I have a grandson who really is pushing me to get him one.) It's too bad the dubia don't eat them, then there wouldn't be a problem!

The reason the minimealworms are eating all the dubia food is because I don't have enough dubia carcasses for them eat. In other words, I got too many beetles for the size of my dubia colony.

Since there must be thousands of these worms in the bin, I am removing my roaches to a clean wormless bin and I guess raising yet another feeder food for the mantids (mantidbro, I'll give it a try) and the wild birds. I have five different kinds of flies, wax worms/moths, mealmoths, crickets, roaches, and now minimealworms---all to feed nine little mantid nymphs. Too funny.

Thank you both for your responses. I appreciate your input.

Nancy