# Finding beetles in the house



## NoDivision (Aug 29, 2010)

I guess this would go under food and nutrition, since these little guys were originally intended as food.... 

Over the past couple of weeks I have found several beetles in my apartment, and yes, they are definitely mealworm beetles. I'm a bit baffled, because I am always very careful with my mealies. I could concede that it might have been possible that I may have dropped one, but I generally freak out whenever I drop one and immediately find it and throw it away (I put them in plastic bags before throwing the bag away because the thought of escaped bugs freaks me out so much.) But I have not dropped as many as there are beetles D:

Well, what disturbed me the most is that today I noticed three of them crawling out of my sink drain in the kitchen. EW! Now that makes some sense to me, since I think I am more likely to drop a mealie down the sink than on the floor. Is is possible that they are somehow colonizing in my pipes? And does anyone have any suggestions for WIPING THEM OUT? I'm contemplating buying some dain-o and flushing the crap out of my pipes, because just... ew. D:


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

That is scary :lol: I don't think its really possible for them to be colonizing in the drain because if you dropped a Beetle it would have to breed lay eggs and go through the whole life cycle before you would get more Beetles. I could see a dropped mealie turning into an alien and then a Beetle. I don't have a good explanation though for how their seem to be more than you would have dropped. Another thing that would make it hard is that their would be water going down it flushing things away and babies wouldn't have any food in their to grow. 

I hope you find the cause, I know how you must be feeling cause that would be creepy


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## pooka dotted (Jan 5, 2011)

My only explanation: Beetles and meal worms alike like dark areas. They like to hang out in dark places where there is possibly a food supply. 

Now that being said. They could have escaped ie: Chewed through the plastic bag, gotten out of your hands, if you dumped ANY soil from where beetles were there could have been eggs in there that somehow spread. If you touched a container that had beetles in it you could have touched eggs and therefore transferred them onto another surface. If you put them in a bowl they could have escaped even.

Then they could have hidden in the drain and only when you flushed water down it did they realize that it was a bad hiding spot lol


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## SnufflePuff (Apr 16, 2009)

Hate to break it to you, But you will always find random bugs around your house when you have hedgehogs :lol: 

Don't ask me how they do it or how they survive, but I have found beetles around my house even when I haven't had mealworms for months. 

And one time, my cat found a cricket that had been living in one of my heating vents??!!

The worst was when the superworms chewed a hole through their container and I kept finding random super worms around the house...eek!

good luck getting rid of them  :lol:


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

You are throwing an alive mealworm that is placed in a plastic baggie away? If so, your beetles are most likely those mealworms. Mealworm worms will chew threw plastic baggies. They can survive for a very long time and will likely go ahead and pupate if they can find any kind of food/water.


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## NoDivision (Aug 29, 2010)

Kalandra said:


> You are throwing an alive mealworm that is placed in a plastic baggie away? If so, your beetles are most likely those mealworms. Mealworm worms will chew threw plastic baggies. They can survive for a very long time and will likely go ahead and pupate if they can find any kind of food/water.


I am not really aware of throwing live ones away, but it's possible. When I get my mealies from the store there are usually some skins and a few dead worms, so I sort through the container and pull out all the dead ones. But it's possible some of them were not really dead, just very dormant.


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## NoDivision (Aug 29, 2010)

Okay, this has gone beyond a few beetles - I just discovered a pile of dead beetle bodies in the corner of my kitchen, and one on the stove. Omg. I am a clean person, this is just ruining my life right now. This weekend I am giving the whole place a thorough scrubbing and I'm putting in a request for my landlord to send the bug spray guy.


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

I thought of something else. Do you ever have mealies that turn into beetles while still in the container? If this happened they can lay eggs in the bedding and that dusty frass and if some of that accidentally got dumped or blown onto the floor I could see where they could hatch and find a hiding place under the stove near where you found them. There would be bound to be some little crumbs hiding because there is usually a very small crack between the floor and the bottom of the stove and when sweeping little things can get caught and go under. I may be getting kinda elaborate here with the theory but I have been racking my brain trying to figure it out. I'll keep thinking though because I can just imagine if I was in your place and it would be driving me nuts lol


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## NoDivision (Aug 29, 2010)

Nope, I've never had any turn into beetles in the container :\ Ugh, what a nightmare.


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## Aleecy (10 mo ago)

SnufflePuff said:


> Hate to break it to you, But you will always find random bugs around your house when you have hedgehogs :lol:
> 
> Don't ask me how they do it or how they survive, but I have found beetles around my house even when I haven't had mealworms for months.
> 
> ...


Omg! How did you fix that? That is my house right now! 😆😭


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## Aleecy (10 mo ago)

Aleecy said:


> Omg! How did you fix that? That is my house right now! 😆😭


I thought I had gotten the "handful" of super worms that had escaped, but were randomly finding them on all 3 floors (escaped on 2nd floor, have found one even in basement). Help, please!


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