Weird bugs in with my cricket delivery?

[Freya Louise]

any ideas, small; a few cm, brown and hairy??? there were 3 of them, never seen them before, are they livefood or just got stuck or caught in there?
They look like tiny catapillars

[Saedcantas]

Hiya

They're Dermestid beetle larvae (you may also have received some similar sized black beetles that fly?), these are a pest in commercial livefood breeding houses, while they may eat decaying matter lying around they will also decimate thousands of cricket eggs, hatchlings and up to medium crickets in a day or two if in high enough numbers

You can use them to feed to your animals, but I'd use em up first!

[Freya Louise]

ok thanks, ill get rid of them as im trying to breed my crickets!

much appreciated

[Freya Louise]

ok so i need to bring this one back up again, are these bugs eating my crickets from the insideout? we spent the weekend watching the crickets, they were sqerming and popping open and this white stuff was coming out, does that mean that the crickets are a host species and that they will turn to their next phase now?
its all quite distressing but somewhat fascinating, i can see how these pests are such a problem in larger breeding units

[Freya Louise]

bump...