cricket larvae?

[Darwin]

So, I purchased my first ever pet which happens to be a Albino Leopard gecko and they are absolutely gorgeous. However there is one problem. I bought a box of crickets and Iv'e had them for 4 days or so. They are breeding inside the plastic container. There is a black cricket larvae slithering around the container which looks bigger than the crickets themselves! How do I dispose of crickets, how long shall I keep them for? I don't know what to do!

 

[Walter H. White]

Humm Darwin this doesn't sound right to me. ( MIND you I am NO EXPERT) OK so I just did a little goggle research ( HEE HEE) Those are not cricket larvae. I bleave what you are seeing is a Dermestid beetle Or a museum beetle in larva form. From what I read you need to get rid of this ASAP. as they can infest a home in no time. They feed off of dead or decaying materials. Crickets Need a nice warm and moist soil to breed. As for how long you can keep crickets I normaly buy them in like a batch of two dozen or so and have them around for mabey a week or two with a bit of die off. by the time I am outta crickets I might have three to four dead crickets dead in the bottom of my cricket tank. As for disposeing of crickets I just feed them to my Gecko. I have never had a situation were I want to get rid of live crickets but if I did I would most likely just let them go in my back yard
. Well like I said I am no expert But I hope this helped mabey you can check out what your seeing on the internet now that you have a jumping off point to go on and see if you can ID the critter from there. Have a great day and I hope you enjoy your leopard gecko.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Crickets do not go through metamorphosis like beetles and butterflies do, they start life as eggs that hatch into super small crickets that are almost replicas of the adults. I would agree that the larvae you see are more than likely dermestids. The crickets are safe to feed your gecko as long as they are alive. I would just give them a piece of carrot or apple to snack on before feeding them to make sure they are as nutritious as possible. If they annoy you you can just freeze them or let them go.

 

[acpart]

I actually use dermastic beetles and their larvae as a cleanup crew in some of my drier planted tanks. I have not had any problems with them infesting the house.

Aliza

 

[Walter H. White]

Like I said Just what I read about them online and we all know how much static there is on the interwebs

 

[Darwin]

Thank you all. These so called "Dermestid beetles" are absolutely disgusting. How on earth do they arrive in the boxes in the first place? I bought another batch of crickets today and there's like, 5 of them in here! I asked the store owner and he told me they are not a problem, however I don't even want to go near them. I bought a special cage specially for the crickets today so they can have access to water and food. However the dispenser tubes are full of Dermestids. I really don't want Darwin eating these by accident. Also, will the crickets leap out of the dispenser while I'm blanketing them in calcium? (I need to pull the other end of the dispenser off in order to do this)

Thank you all

- Lewis