Meal worm beetles... Are they safe

[porkchop48]

The previous owners must have fed their chickens mealworms.

While cleaning out the layers and layers of built up poop... I found all kinds of meal worm beetles. All the powerwashing, shoveling in the past few weeks and I am still finding a few stray beetles.

Will they eat them?

I thought if they would eat them it might be a good idea to quit picking out the ones I find. There was a whole mealworm colony out there in the coop. So do I think of this as a bad thing or try to keep it going for chicken treats?

I have my own meal worm colony inside for the frogs and lizards so would it be ok for the chickens to have their own in the coops with them?

 

[Sjisty]

My chickens won't eat the beetles.

 

[galanie]

Lucky you! Yes, the beetles are fine! Mine devour the beetles if they get a chance. Usually they only get the dead ones that I pick out of my colony I have here in the house.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I would be worried that those are lesser mealworms (Alphitobius diaperinus) and not the standard mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) that many of us raise to feed chickens. Lesser mealworms are bad news.

They live in poultry droppings and are considered a pest; they can carry a variety of poultry diseases: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/poultry/lesser_mealworm.htm I hope that is not what they are but it sounds like they might be, given where you found them. Since you have your own mealworm colony inside your house, can you detect any differences between the two? Look carefully and compare larvae, pupae and beetles. Good luck!