Today I was getting ready to calcium dust some crickets to feed to my anoles when I noticed some little TINY worm things on the inside of one of the caps on the tubes that I take out of the cage to deposit the crickets into the anole tank. It's worrying me, because I have had no experience with parasites infesting my anoles. All of my anoles are fine so far, but I have fed them crickets from the current bath already. I purchase the crickets from Petsmart, if that helps any. I just really want to know what these things are, because I need to feed my lizards (I do have backup mealworms, but I hate giving them those). I'll describe the little worms again. They look very similar to maggots, but are way smaller, and somewhat pointy. They look JUST like the one here - I'm actually almost positive they are fruit fly larva after seeing that picture of one. Is this bad? How do I remove them? So far, I have only seen them on one little area, but I'm worried. Should I throw out all of those crickets and purchase new ones? Please, help!
They are most likely fruit fly or phoridae fly larvae (most likely phorids). They can get into your house in many ways, and they can be a pain in the butt to get rid of. You'll have to do a deep clean of the entire cricket bin. Unlike mites or other parasites, they do not parasitize on the crickets themselves, so you can keep your batch of crickets provided you are able to get them out of the way to do a proper cleaning. (One of many reasons why it's always a good idea to have an extra critter keeper on hand. You never know what you'll need it for.) I assume you have one of those Cricket Keepers with the tubes in the lid judging by your description. Luckily this is small enough that you can soak the entire thing in a 1:10 bleach and very hot water solution. Take a bristle brush or long toothbrush to the insides of the tubes to get all of the gunk out. Obviously rinse it off very well when you are done and dry it completely before returning the crickets to the container. Phorids and fruit flies are attracted to decomposing crickets (which they eat off of) and moist areas (where they lay their eggs), so it's important that you keep your container very clean in the future to prevent another outbreak. Those tubes get nasty pretty quickly, so it's especially important to keep up on their maintenance. Keeping the food and water for your crickets fresh is also important, especially the food which serves as a source of moisture. Good luck! I had to deal with an outbreak of these at work, so I know it's not fun. Just be persistent and, again, keep things clean and dry! =)
Do you see others like it? Most cricket suppliers include little hairy worms in their crickets. These are dermestid beetle larvae, they and their beetle form eat dead things, in this case crickets that die. While I've never seen a freshly molted one before, that does have the same body shape as a dermestid larve
