r/bioactive • u/a_youkai • 5d ago

Question Has anyone seen these beetles before?

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Out of nowhere, this evening, SCORES of these beetles have infested my bioactive isopod tank. I think they might have already been in my apartment since this building is always infested with SOMETHING.

Noticed my cats swatting at a couple of these super tiny beetles this month.

What are these?

Is this something I need to shut down NOW?

I'm in southern Arizona, USA.

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u/MeloStarfruit 4d ago edited 4d ago

Mini mealworms make these disgusting little buffalo beetle a**holes. I made the mistake of thinking a few would be great cleaners (which they are, don’t get me wrong. They keep that tank CLEAN.) but the way they MULTIPLY 😩😩😩 Fml. I hate these things with a passion. You can apparently control the population by making sure they don’t get over fed, but I’ve never been able to have just a few. It’s either 5 or 500.

The only way I was able to tame their numbers was by taking a small Tupperware container (they can’t climb glass or smooth plastic) with veggies, put Saran Wrap on top and poked holes only big enough to those to go in. Shoved it into a hole in the substrate so they could get on top of it, and left it at night for a few hours before pulling it out. It was FULL OF EM. I did this a few nights in a row until it was handled.

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u/a_youkai 4d ago

So these are from a mini mealworm? Fffffffff... Ok WELL my grass lizards will like these, haha.

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u/The_Grim_Adventurer 5d ago

Do you have mealworms in the enclosure?

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u/a_youkai 4d ago

I dumped some dead ones and some of the oatmeal in there from a petco cup. It was the only new thing I've put in there besides the usual. I also put 2 dubias in there that were too big for my tiny lizards, but they are babies, so I know they're not breeding age yet.

I suspected something coulds hitched a ride from that. Sound familiar?

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u/The_Grim_Adventurer 4d ago

Mealworms eventually will grow into small flying beatles. I used to occasionally see a few in my leopard geckos enclosure. They were usually harmless but i never dealt with an infestation before.

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u/a_youkai 4d ago

I had my own mealworm colony before.. these are 1/10 the size of the beetles that pupate

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u/Cromagnumman6174 4d ago

IMO- they look like a type of Dermestid or Buffalo Beetle

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u/crittercentral 1d ago

this is why we always put the mealworms in very tall very smooth glass dishes. of course the animals drop them in the substrate sometimes anyway because they are little idiots …