Have been finding Mealworm beetles in the house please help!

[marineBLU28]

Hi

Hope I've posted in the right area

I am new to the forum my son has just got his first Leopard gecko rather imaginatively called 'Leo' anyway a few weeks ago when we went to fed the gecko his mealworms on opening the bag they were in I noticed that quite a lot were out of the tub and then to my horror some had got out the bag and were wiggling about on the shelf underneath the cage... well you can imagine the rest panic trying to get them all from the shelf and the ones that had fallen off on to the carpet, I felt as if I had got most of them and then last week came across a beetle wandering without a care in the world across my bedroom carpet, managed to catch him ok then yesterday found another in my bedroom again (my son's bedroom is next to mine where his gecko resides) and last night before going to bed yet another wandered out from behind the cage/bookcase which was the area we I think lost some worms I had hoped they would just dry up but obviously nature had other ideas!

I am now terrified I am on the verge of a plague :main_laugh: can you give me any advice on how to get rid on any that might remain and should I treat the nooks and crannies behind the cage with some kind of bug spray or something obviously I'm worried they might have laid eggs and I'm going to have an endless cycle of the critters which is freaking me out no end in fact I hardly slept last night, pathetic I know

I'm in the UK

cheers

Carolyn

 

[VampyricAngelX]

If there's only a few that escaped I wouldn't worry too much about it, they'll die off soon enough. I've had a few escapees here and there but not enough for them to start their own little population in the house.

 

[acpart]

They are not like cockroaches or ants, and, as stated in the post above, you won't be overrun. If you want, put any beetles you find in a container with some mealworm gutload and pretty soon you'll have your own mealworms. Oh, and be grateful that you didn't spill a container of superworms. I did once and those beetles were close to an inch long.

Aliza

 

[snakegirl]

na your fine, i got beetles around here some place. they die without food within a week, And if you happen to have them breed (rare) when they are out around the house. they die before laying and its very rare to have them lay eggs. but if they did the baby's would 100% die. Dont worry meal worms are not going to take over your home. ( :

 

[marineBLU28]

OMG BEETLES AN INCH LONG!!!

I think I'd leave the house:main_yes:

Thanks for the replies it's much appreciated.

One thing I did notice was the types of food you feed your guys but no-one seems to feed what we call 'Hoppers' here I think they are locusts, do you not have them in the States?

 

[VampyricAngelX]

I've seen some videos of people using them but they seem too big to me, that and I've never seen them for sale (except for dead ones in cans/jars) at any pet store.

 

[Alusdra]

I tried to feed my gecko a grasshopper once and that did not work well at all... it was gigantic and could kick like a kangaroo and bit (me)! My gecko gave me this look like "are you serious?" when I went to put her in the feeding cage and I went "yeah, that was a bad idea" and put her back in her cage and let the grasshopper go. I don't know about the hoppers, though- do people use them as gecko feeders with success?

 

[marineBLU28]

Hi

The hoppers seem to be quite popular here I have to say tho the ones we feed are pretty small.... I would say just over a cm, but I have seen quite big ones say up to approx 4cm but I would imagine they are for larger lizards, we were told that they are more nutritious than crickets. I believe the term 'hopper' is for a baby Locust which I think are a similiar species to Grasshoppers.

cheers

 

[sleepyjones]

Hoppers, or locusts are fine.

I occasionally feed my Leo's small locusts. They seem to be more readily available over here in the UK, as strange as it sounds, they're a lot prettier to look at than crickets.

 

[marineBLU28]

Ha!

I know what you mean I don't find them nearly as creepy either, only thing I've noticed is that because they have such a huge jump (in locust terms) sometimes they can go up to the top of the vivarium where the gecko can't reach :main_laugh:

smart critters, but I'm assuming he does get them as they do disappear.