Beetles In Cricket Food

I bought a gallon size jug of cricket food from Josh's Frogs a while back, and I have been happy with it so far. However, recently today as I was putting fresh food into my cricket bin I saw small, elongated brown beetles and what looks like their larvae crawling around in the food. They just barely reach 2mm and I want to know if they are a threat to my crickets. I don't know how they got in it since I keep the lid twisted tight. There is still a LOT of food in the jug I don't want to have to throw it all away if it isn't necessary, please help.

Unless you can get a picture or find a picture of a similar insect, it's hard to tell.

However, the insects are likely just mooching off of the crickets' food rather than being directly harmful. Carpet beetles are tiny and feed on almost anything (feathers, hair, dead skin, book bindings, carpet, etc.) and the woolybears they make are active. Another culprit could be a flour weevil but their larvae are not normally too active. Just sit curled up inside a food source. Who knows, the beetles could be one species and the larvae could be millers..

Here are 2 pics of the larvae.





This is one of the beetles I took out of there.





Hope this helps

Put the food in the freezer for 7-10 days

Tribolium species. Probably. T. confusum. Harmless. They may actually be beneficial to your crix as they eat debris and grains and will help (slightly) to keep the enclosure clean. They make excellent feeders for fish, small inverts, and small herps.

man, i need tiny feeders and here you just find 'em =P

i've been pulling apart beans to find tiny grubs of beetles that are living in the beans =P

Thanks everyone :worship: , I was so worried a whole jug of food would have to go to waste.