I found a bug nest in my substrate! Help!!!

[diaboliqueturtle]

Holy cow holy cow holy cow. Ok. As I was about to place the salad on the flat slate feeding rock, I noticed that the substrate around it was moving. I thought maybe I was breathing on it but when I moved away it just kept moving, up and down, as if something is underneath. So I grabbed a stick (yeah I'm brave), lifted the slate and quickly dug in to have a look-see. Well, holy $*?!$# there's a whole colony of mealworms writhing in there!!!

First off, how the heck did they get in there? I use a separate container to feed my hatchling exactly so I can keep track of the worms.

So now what? I remember seeing a thread that said the mealworms morph into a carnivorous beetle... Are my girls safe?

I'll scoop out the area of substrate around the dish but I don't know if that's enough, would they stay close to the food source or could they be all over?

Or how about if I pour water on the nest and everywhere to kill them first? I killed a whole cup of worms by accidentally spilling water in it...

I have to go pick up my kids from school and, let me tell ya, I'll be neurotic until I get back and tackle that nest :-/

 

[The4ts]

I'm not sure about an entire colony situation but when one meal worm or super worm here and there turns into a beetle my boxies usually just eat the beetle. My boys seem to even like the beetles more than the worms. I would take the worms out though for sure maybe just a gladware container with little holes or something because like you said you've been monitoring their protein.

 

[wellington]

If you feed them, I would try to keep them. Free food I would have been in a panic too. I'v had baby crickets hatch put in my tortoise indoor enclosure. I feed the, to my red eyed tree frogs, but have no idea how they are getting out and then breeding no less.

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

I may have exaggerated the colony part, how many makes a colony anyway?

 

[TortoiseBoy1999]

I had quite a few flies in my dirt a few days ago. I FREAKED out! I just went to the store got some new dirt and changed out the substrate to rid the Terrarium of the bugs completely. No more flies!

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

I may have exaggerated the colony part, how many makes a colony anyway?

Oops, I wasn't ready to hit "send" just yet... Dang clumsy thumb ;-)

I counted 6 worms without digging too much, so who knows how many I'll find... Can they self-reproduce or do they mate? I just remembered that I dropped 1 in there 2 months ago and when I saw how fast it disappeared into the substrate I decided right then to use a separate container to feed her the worms.

I'll keep them for sure though, free food!

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

So I found 13 live mealworms and 2 dead ones. Still at a loss as to how they got there, unless the one I dropped 2 months ago was pregnant... My hatchling is too small to dig for them so I put them in a cup for future free meals. And I poured water all over to make sure I killed any I might have missed ;-)

 

[wellington]

Most likely if there was one, there was at least one more that got away that you didn't notice. Happened all the time when I used to feed worms to my bearded. Now I feed frogs crickets and twice now I have found babies in my tortoise enclosure. I never even see them get out, ugh. I now just wait until they get big enough to see, catch them, them feed them to my frogs. Of course hoping I get them all so no more babies are born.

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

My biggest worry was for my hatchling's safety, in case they morph into a carnivorous beetles and she is so young and spends all of her time burrowed. Last week I put 3 crickets in there but I think they may have been too big for her, she seemed scared of them, and they "jumped ship" :-( Every night I see one jump across the living room and its too dang fast for me to catch it...

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

Well, I must've missed one because while I was tinkering in there I found a beetle! Good news is my hatchling is growing up, she caught sight of it and it was gone in a flash!