Beatle larvae in coop?

The bad news is that those things look like darkling beetles.

The good news is that those things look like darkling beetles.

Darkling beetles are adult meal worms!

However before you break out the Champagne read the link.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in662

I am unable to believe that intelligent men and women will indiscriminately feed these things to their poultry.

chickengeorgeto said:

However before you break out the Champagne read the link.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in662

I am unable to believe that intelligent men and women will indiscriminately feed these things to their poultry.

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Wow, I consider myself to be a rather intelligent human, however, that site used WAY to many 10 point words and overly flowery vocabulary for me! So it's saying mealworms are bad to feed to your chickens or being infested with beetles are bad...or both?

chickengeorgeto said:

The bad news is that those things look like darkling beetles.

The good news is that those things look like darkling beetles.

Darkling beetles are adult meal worms!

However before you break out the Champagne read the link.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in662

I am unable to believe that intelligent men and women will indiscriminately feed these things to their poultry.

Click to expand...

These are not darkling beetle pupas, they are a type of fly pupas. As for darkling beetles, only the adult beetles are harmful, as they can transmit tapeworm and the virus for mareks. The larvae are harmless and often fed to poultry and many other creatures.

Darkling beetle pupa - https://www.google.com/search?q=dar...ved=0ahUKEwjclYGunb_JAhXJKiYKHSs6C7YQ_AUIBigB
Fly pupa - https://www.google.com/search?q=fly...JAhXEQyYKHfKpArQQ_AUIBygB#tbm=isch&q=fly+pupa

Since these are fly pupas should I get a coop cleaner spray to prevent them. Or just feed them to my hens?

And should I be worried about tape worm or mareks from those Beatles? I've seen the ground up beadles in my yard before, and in the happy hen treats meal worm bag. :/

You can use coop cleaner spray if you want, it's okay for them to eat them though. Since the beetles in the happy hen treats are dead, and were most likely freeze dried, i do not think any live parasite or virus could be living in them. I don't know about the ones in your yard, they would have to be infected and eaten for your hens to get tapeworm or mareks, I don't know the chances of the beetles being infected, but it probably isn't high. I only had the fly larvae once, and haven't got them again. I identified them as soldier fly larvae. They are good for compost, if i get anymore i'm saving them and making a compost bin.

chickengeorgeto said:

The bad news is that those things look like darkling beetles.

The good news is that those things look like darkling beetles.

Darkling beetles are adult meal worms!

However before you break out the Champagne read the link.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in662

I am unable to believe that intelligent men and women will indiscriminately feed these things to their poultry.

Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure if this article applies, it is referring to one species of mealworm: Alphitobius diaperinus,
The type of mealworm that you get in Happy Hens I believe is Tenebrio molitor (again not 100% on this, but that is a question for the Happy Hens company)
Same family but different species. T molitor is safe and used as human food as well.
I will note that the nasty type, A diaperinus is found in the US, but this is not the kind that we would purchase.

Justso said:

I'm not 100% sure if this article applies, it is referring to one species of mealworm: Alphitobius diaperinus,
The type of mealworm that you get in Happy Hens I believe is Tenebrio molitor (again not 100% on this, but that is a question for the Happy Hens company)
Same family but different species. T molitor is safe and used as human food as well.
I will note that the nasty type, A diaperinus is found in the US, but this is not the kind that we would purchase.

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The problem arises when the meal worm larva feed on or are reared in filthy conditions. I have seen commercial chicken houses were the walls were literally eaten to pieces by boring meal worm larva. If you rear your own meal worms that is one thing but I don't trust those reared by others because of the many millions of meal worms that can be raised and inhabit (like in the OP) contaminated chicken house litter, especially underneath manure cake.

Reread the last sentence of my beginning post and notice my use of the word INDISCRIMINATE. In some situations discrimination is good.

chickengeorgeto said:

The problem arises when the meal worm larva feed on or are reared in filthy conditions. I have seen commercial chicken houses were the walls were literally eaten to pieces by boring meal worm larva. If you rear your own meal worms that is one thing but I don't trust those reared by others because of the many millions of meal worms that can inhabit (like in the OP) contaminated chicken house litter, especially underneath manure cake.

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Yes I agree with you. Contamination can be an issue with infestation of any pest. It's important to control both pests and living conditions.

I would say, though, in reference to this publication that we shouldn't fear all mealworms and Darkling beetles, it is just the Lesser Mealworm A. diaperinus that is listed as having specific problems with several poultry disease pathogens. These pathogen issues aren't listed with any other mealworm species.

Justso said:

Yes I agree with you. Contamination can be an issue with infestation of any pest. It's important to control both pests and living conditions.

I would say, though, in reference to this publication that we shouldn't fear all mealworms and Darkling beetles, it is just the Lesser Mealworm A. diaperinus that is listed as having specific problems with several poultry disease pathogens. These pathogen issues aren't listed with any other mealworm species.

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True, but no other meal worm is tied as closely to commercial poultry rearing as the lesser meal worm is.

Trust but verify.