# Mealworms can be dangerous



## Luke91 (Dec 12, 2007)

I never feed my Lizards mealworms as the species with no teeth sometimes do not kill the mealworms and therefore the mealworm if not digested ccan actually eat the lizard from inside to out or even sometimes develop into a beetle inside your Lizard.


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## Barry.M (May 19, 2006)

a theory that has been banded about for years,however I and just about everyone I know uses mealworms as feeders for something,my pyxie frog for example,and I've never heard of ths actually happening in reality.


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## Dan (Jan 11, 2006)

Luke91 said:


> I never feed my Lizards mealworms as the species with no teeth sometimes do not kill the mealworms and therefore the mealworm if not digested ccan actually eat the lizard from inside to out or even sometimes develop into a beetle inside your Lizard.


Actually what happens is the animal dies and the mealies then eat the carcass. When you walk up and see the animal with mealies in the flesh you come to the wrong conclusions et voila the myth continues.


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## Drummerkid (Sep 24, 2007)

My leo kills them everytime, he aims for the head and crushes it.


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## cbr_1984 (Oct 24, 2007)

my leos go crunchy crunchy dead


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## Luke91 (Dec 12, 2007)

my mates one sorta just swallows em lol so when i got mine 12yrs back just after he got his i decided that to be on the safe side i would use brown crickets and now i use locusts and sometimes browns


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

Yeah to be fair I think we've had multiple threads on this 'theory'... Personally I've never seen an ounce of evidence to support this and I don't really believe it myself. The mealies would suffercate before they could do any damage, and the stomach acids would 'ave um as well !


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## benjrobinson (Feb 22, 2007)

What a load of rubbish! as already stated that is where mealworms eat out of a dead animal because they are not fully digested (as the animal is not alive) and people then think this is the cause of death. 

Mealworms are 100% safe as feeders.


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## cbr_1984 (Oct 24, 2007)

if mealies werent safe then how comes theyre used as foods for a huge variety of animals


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## Scoffa (Nov 23, 2006)

Yes they are very dangerous, especially when some are 8th dan black belts.


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## SWMorelia (May 15, 2007)

My Tegu doesn't have a problem with them..
Score Tegu....!000's
Mealies...........0.
MIKE


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## markhill (Sep 22, 2006)

I know they're not mealies but have you ever been bitten by a Morio worm?

I have and I now crush the little buggers heads before feeding them to my BD's


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## gazz (Dec 9, 2006)

It's a myth IF this was happening to heathy reptiles it would be way more common and there would be loads of picture on this forum of it.What's happening is loose mealworms in a viv are eating there way IN dead or dieing reptiles that are to ill to move and people are jumping to the wrong conclusion.Throw a mealworm in water they don't last long so it is VERY,VERY doubtful they are eating there way out.Ask your self if you could live being blended and then drowning & burning by acid at the same time and in all this eat you way out of the tank.There always seems to be someone that knows someone'etc blar D blar but you never seem to actally meet the person this has happened to.Every one i know this has never happened to them but they have heard the myth also.I've gave all size meal worm to all size reptiles i've never lost a reptile to mealworms eating there way out.Also mealworms are given to both wild & captive birds to feed there baby i've never heard a bird breeder saying they lost there bird due to mealworm and they only store them in there crops ????.And a lizard with no teath would be about the same as a soft bill bird.


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## gazz (Dec 9, 2006)

markhill said:


> I know they're not mealies but have you ever been bitten by a Morio worm?
> 
> I have and I now crush the little buggers heads before feeding them to my BD's


Morio's are mealworms just a differant species.And i feed these to lizards of all sizes and never had a problem.A bd will not have a problem with Morio's they are big enough to get crunched fully before being swallowed and bd's have a good set of nashers on them to do the job.


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## markhill (Sep 22, 2006)

gazz said:


> Morio's are mealworms just a differant species.And i feed these to lizards of all sizes and never had a problem.A bd will not have a problem with Morio's they are big enough to get crunched fully before being swallowed and bd's have a good set of nashers on them to do the job.


All the same I'd rather my BD's weren't bitten by a stray one while it was sleeping.


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## bugdude (Dec 5, 2007)

*mealworm,s*

hi i feed my frogs toads water dragons, bearded dragons,monitors, geckos , bell,s hingeback,s them for year,s and not one mealworm as eaten it,s way out. they may be dangerous if they all had shot gun,s and shot there way out but they are safe ok :lol2:


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## gazz (Dec 9, 2006)

markhill said:


> All the same I'd rather my BD's weren't bitten by a stray one while it was sleeping.


They won't and they deffantly won't if you put the mealies in a ceramic Dog/Cat/Rabbit/Guinea pig'etc bowl.

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/1051/25028805.JPG


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## Rainmaker (Jun 7, 2007)

Just a +1 that this is all nonsense LOL I've seen this once, and once only. It was a p*** poor pet shop with 6 hatchling Leos in a viv with no heat, no water, and hundreds of faeces everywhere. The Leos literally had their ribs hanging out (i.e. they were extremely emaciated), and had tails like pencil lead. One was lying on its back with a hole in its side, with two mealies chewing away  

I don't care how tough mealies are, after a quick chomp (even by "toothless" lizards) and a dunk in reptile stomach acid, they're not doing any chewing out... let alone feeding and growing into beetles. When you were a child, did you ever meet that other kid you heard about - the one with the apple tree growing out of them after they swallowed the seeds? :lol2:


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## pecks (Dec 29, 2007)

use them for everything, and the pupae, and the beetles and the substrate for compost. Even eaten the things myself and no harm done. Heard the story for 30 years but never seen any incident. Morio worms cause bruising.My Missus found 8 crawling around the bedroom! Trust me im bruised.


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## Zak (Jan 7, 2008)

Is this thread worth locking? What more can be said? 

Its complete rubbish and myth banded around for years that people hear and get scared then spread = this thread.


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## Storm Python (Jan 10, 2008)

my tokay love them


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## Rainwater (Apr 18, 2007)

not read everything in the thread as ive made this thread before about 4 months ago in the lizard thread...also asked three rep vets and all agreed that mealies are not dangerous unless your gecko is ill or has digestive probs where problems could but rarely occur


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## Moshpitviper (Oct 21, 2005)

i used to feed the beetles to my rough greens, they prefered them over crickets. and as we all know you just cant get rid of the buggers once they turn.


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## Reptilerescueden (Jan 2, 2006)

Just another urban myth!


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## Drummerkid (Sep 24, 2007)

I dont mind feeding them. My leo is clever and aims for the head and cruches it for about 3 seconds before swalloing. Even if it wasn;t dead the stomach acids would finish him off. and theres no way it'd turn into a beetle inside the leo.


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