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Answer
Aug 25, 2021 - 06:17 AM
What you have found are called "Cleaner Crew" (Dermestes spp.) larvae.
We are chemical-free and use them as a biological method of keeping our bins free of detritus or decaying vegetation and dead insects. They keep our colonies thriving by preventing bacterial or fungal contamination that might otherwise occur.
They are also widely used in the reptile industry as many people who breed insects for their own use buy from us in the thousands of them to help keep colonies free of dead insects.
We are extremely proud that we don't use any chemicals to raise our feeders (many people choose to eat them!), and so we have two employees whose sole job is to manually remove these beetles and larvae from our bins sorted for shipment using a wet/dry vacuum with a tiny hose attached.
Because we are chemical-free, we do get the occasional order that has some larvae or beetles included. They are completely harmless, many animals will enjoy eating the larvae of the beetle just as much as they enjoy the feeder insects. If you are concerned, they are easy to identify and pick out. They are considered harmless and interestingly enough are used in museums and taxidermists across the country to clean skeletons.
If your animals are averse to them, you can let us know when you order to double-check that all cleaner crew are handpicked out before packaging and we will be very happy to oblige.
Thank you so much, please let me know if we can be of any more help at all!
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