Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found 2 random food type items (bugs) in the cage that I honestly don't feed my lizards...

one was a red beatle...about a quarter of an inch long...it was living but i don't feed them beatles???????

the other looked like a deformed/evolved form of a mealworm...it had a visible head...the underbody was dissimilar and it seemd to have small scale type objects protruding from where each body-plate connected...

i have no clue what these things are and how they got in my closed cage...any help?!?!?!?

-S1N

Probably in the substrate as eggs.

could be...i use some sort of expandable forrest type bedding...put it in water for 30 minutes and you get like 9 gallons of substrate...thanks!

s1n

Have you ever fed mealworms?

The second thing you described sounds like it could be a mealworm moving into the pupa stage.

i feed them mealworms on occasion to change there diet...but yea quite a few of them burrowed into the substrate before i made a makeshift food-bowl...and i honestly have NO CLUE where the beetle came from...that's puzzling me

but yea your probably right...thanks!!

-S1N

Mealworms are the larval form of a beetle. If you lost some mature mealworms in the substrate, they will pupate and emerge as beetles.

And as a side note - the anoles should not be allowed to eat the beetles. The shells are much too hard.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
2.0.1 Uromastyx Dispar Maliensis (Tank, Turtle, and new neighbor Spike)
1.2 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser, Leeloo, and Sprocket)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)
And several miscellaneous community fish