Breeding Mealies... On Accident

[Samba]

Ok, so for the last few weeks, I've noticed that some of the mealworms that escaped my leos' dish have turned into beetles and are reproducing. There are baby mealworms all over in my leo's substrate.

At first I thought, "How cool, now I don't have to buy them!"
I know these guys will probably be healthier than ones bought at the store because I leave food in there for them now and know they are probably less likely to pass on parasites to my leos.

I am just curious, (as usual), is there any 'side-effects' to letting mealies breed in my leos' enclosure?

Here's their home:

[Bartman]

That makes it very natural for them I would think. Mealies comming through the floor Awesome idea to just let it happen, so i hope their are no problems with that.

All I would think is would you leave carrots or anything for them to munch to gut load?

[CDN-Cresties]

Dont mealies chew on anything they can get their mouth on including your leo???

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

My only concern would be that they start eating lots of mealies which ofcourse is unhealthy for them.

C.

[Samba]

Well, first off, I'm not too concerned about the mealies chewing my geckos' toes... there are places they can go that the mealies can't, for example, their humid hide.

I keep the geckos very warm (see lamp) so digesting them shouldn't be a problem, and honestly, I think the girls may be a little tired of mealies right now (at first it was very interesting to see them digging around the substrate to recover the unfortunate worm they found).

Their diet is well supplimented with a cal/vit dish (usually contains some waxies as a treat), and crickets.

I do regularly set out bits and pieces of fruits and veggies which are quickly devoured by the mealies, so they are gut-loaded and healthy. I was concerned about the geckos' consuming the substrate with the mealies, but I'm careful to use the Litter Lizard which is digestable if eatten. Thanks for the imput, guys. If you think of anything else let me know! =)

[meow_mix450]

its actually not that bad if mealies are there staple diet, there perfectly fine, its just cause of there shell that they were, they are just as great as crickets, but with a harder shell which isnt that great. People say there bad but there really not

Meow

[alan]

I just found out recently that mealies started to reproduced in my giant day enclosure too. However, I still feed crickets and Day Gecko Diet to the gecko still. The mealies will often eat the DGD and gutload from that. =)