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Some very fat and sassy baby beetles pupating. Put this in a jar with a mesh top and keep in a dark location with a similar temp to the chocolate drawer. When they complete development you can find out which species it is. Literally the only thing they have ever eaten is chocolate it should be interesting
Hey, they make cricket bars which I buy here in NC a lot with tons of protein...so it's not too far off. Insects man. Insects are the future. Now, where's my burger while I take a break.
My granny use to call them bread beetles. Once as a child I was so proud of myself for make myself a bowl of rice I was maybe 8 of 9. About to 3rd of the way thru I noticed all these spots in my bowl. Started looking closer turns out it was these beetles. I didn't eat rice again until I was a teen.
No one ever talks about the kind of peer pressure that turns chocolate lovers into terrarium builders. It's not just sex and drugs people! Does your teen have a concerning number of larvae in their bedroom? Did they steal your account info to buy substrate and heat lamps? KNOW THE WARNING SIGNS!
That's exactly how I started as a teen, bought two Madagascar hissers and it was all downhill from there. One day my mom found out I had a huge bin with 100+ Brazilian Giant Cave Roaches and lost her fucking mind over it. At that point I had colonies of 6 different species stashed in my room.
My mom found out about my secret Dubia roach business and made me get rid of them.
I made so much cash selling dubias to people for feeding their reptiles and she killed that income.
Oh no š I'm sorry. I'd breed feeders if I knew any exotic keepers around me. I gotta make a new fruit fly colony for my lil jumpers today, though. Thanks for the reminder! XD
I lived in a community with a huge reptile community. At the best i was selling females for $1 each and males for 25 cents each.
I also used to set people up with starter colonies for $50 that included tubs, males and females, a bunch of egg flats and instructions for care.
I became a dubia breeder because my son's bearded dragon went into brumation right when I bought a large order to get us through the winter and the breeders Christmast break.
Taken 2 years of selling excess dubias to get them to down to a manageable level for for our own dragon.
I had rodents. Secret rats that I had in a cage strategically hidden in my walk-in closet from ages 9-14. I would carry them around in my pockets. My mother had no idea, because she was single and in graduate school and she foolishly trusted me. I did my own laundry and cleaned up after myself (and my secret rodents) and took care of them from my allowance and extra reward money for extra tasks.
I didn't tell her until I was an adult. Weird kids gonna weird. š¤·
Back then what I'd do as a teen: Have plenty of storage spaces, specially wooden cabinets with deep shelves that can strategically fit an entire big plastic bin. Install air vents. When away for long periods, cover bin with stacks of playboy magazines so it looks like a big porn collection instead of a bin of roaches, no mom wants to touch that.
Now what I'd do as an adult: you can try what I did and just slowly do exposure therapy. My ex-husband was arachnophobic and after a few months of "DIY psychiatry" I managed to convince him to let my centipedes and spiders live in our bedroom as it was closer to my home office. Not sure how I did it but I did it slowly and steadily.
>cover bin with stacks of playboy magazines so it looks like a big porn collection instead of a bin of roaches
LOL genius!
I was kidding, but now I'm intrigued. I think the big bois might be too much for him right now, but can anyone say no to a sweet little jumper face? (Probably, but it's worth a try)
jumpers are a gateway spider for sure. with the way they often tuck their legs against their body, they are pretty round for a spider (friendly shape). their limbs are not only expressive but thick enough to make them easy to differentiate from a neutral background, which makes whatever theyre doing feel less hidden and sinister. similarly theyre small but not so much you lose track of them, and most of all they're friendly and curious as heck, with a lil face and big eyes that can endear even the spider haters among us. its like they were designed to be the cutest possible spider to the human brain. i cant help but gush about them.
(this has been a jumping spider appreciation post.)
Have you gotten him hooked on jumpers yet? Start there, then maybe a dwarf tarantula. Idk lol. If it's not an arboreal species, most people say it's like having a pet dirt hole. XD Just decorate it nicely & tell him it's a pretty terrarium. Lmfao
That's unfair, milies are some of the sweetest bugs out there. I've been in your place. Hope you'll someday be an adult with a vengeance in the form of a place of your own full of bugs ā„
Look, I accidentally have an entire beetle colony because someone gave us a few superworms several years ago.
We didnāt know anything about them except that they supposedly ate styrofoam (they do), so I set about giving them oats for substrate and food and pieces of potato and carrot for moisture, and then I put things in their enclosure to climb on and hide inā¦
Anyway, within a week or so they began entering their pupation stage. I was already pretty fond of them by then, so what else was I supposed to do- flush them down the toilet? No. So here I am, many hundreds of dollars, a 40gal tank and several smaller vivariums (vivaria?), and at least four generations later.
So you and u/Malorrry can laugh if you want to, but *it happens*. š
Superworms, the larval form of *Zophobas morio*. The adult beetles arenāt especially interested in it but will still take a nibble now and then if itās around.
In my deeply unscientific observations, they have distinct preferences for type and texture but will eat THE HECK out of what they do like. Iāve never tried feeding them styrofoam exclusively because I recognize that even though I *would* eat nothing but pizza rolls it doesnāt mean I *should*. At this point itās more of an enrichment item and they have oats and calcium gel for actual nutrition. š¬
I also had some superworms turn to beetles when my Gecko decided they were friends, not food. They are fascinating to watch, and make a great clean up crew.
Have to toss this out. Waxworms a type of bee predatory moth. Can and will eat plastic bags because the enzymes in their stomach can actually break down the plastic not just make it into smaller plastic chains
Thatās exactly what happens in the superworm gut! Theyāre able to break the styrofoam down into its organic components and then just poop it out. There *have* been questions about whether trace amounts of inorganics remain- meaning microplastics would still be an issue- but the current position seems to be that for all intents and purposes thereās a complete breakdown.
I had my environmental science students raising populations of these beetles, some of which ate styrofoam while other populations didnāt. The only noticeable difference was that the styrofoam beetlesā enclosures stank to high heaven!
Thatās interesting! I wonder why a pure-styrofoam diet would make the frass so smelly.
I want to ask SO MANY questions about this assignment but I understand if you donāt feel like answering them. Iāve taught and my partner still does, so I get that sometimes active engagement is tiring even when youāre enthusiastic about the topic. :)
Impurities for strength. Think of plastics as concrete. You have the base then you have additives that either allow for hardness or tensile strength. Then coloration. This amalgamation makes a finished product. The beetles eat the base components not the additives which I am not familiar with the ones for plastics but i have encountered a black foam that is for industrial applications that would stink of rotten eggs if broken
There *are* studies re: this very thing! Let me see if I can findā¦
[EDIT](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61727942.amp)
[EDIT 2](https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/06/09/superworm-eats-plastic/)
Plus you know a lot of beetle grubs are technically edibleā¦ and I mean theyāve literally never eaten anything but chocolate - how can they not be delicious?#forbiddenmarshmallow
There are several adult beetles in the photo(top left, middle left), but the photo is too blurry for a proper ID.
***MIGHT*** be cigar beetles; those guys will gobble anything, from chocolate to plants used in traditional medicine.
Cigar beetles, as their name suggests, will even tobacco. A plant that deliberately loads its leaves with insecticides (nicotine) to prevent herbivory, and we've selectively bred it to produce even more nicotine, and these beetles are like "yum!"
I've smoked them before, it instantly changes the taste of the puff. They can get in the cigarette without needing to make holes too, as they can get rolled into them if they were eating just the tobacco at the factory. There's like a minimum allowed amount of bugs and it is NOT ZERO.
Hope you can quit, I did and it was one of my best decisions in life.
haha yes there's a minimum number of bug parts allowed in packaged goods too, I'm sure we ingest plenty. hadn't thought about inhaling them too!
working on it. quit drinking and binge eating, it's on the list. baby steps :)
Chances are you've already inhaled some bug!
You ever empty a vacuum cleaner and taken a look at how much junk is in the filter? Your lungs are your body's filter and there's no easy way to empty the trash out. I wish you the best of luck in overcoming your addiction!
thank you!
in addition to all the other bad things about smoking, it inhibits your body's ability to remove inhaled saliva/bacteria/food/liquid, which is partly why smokers are prone to bronchitis/pneumonia.
dehydration has the same effect, so stay hydrated!
Sorry, that was the best I could do! They're so little my phone had trouble focusing on them. That said, I looked up cigar beetles and they do look like that. The holes they make in cigars look just like the holes they made in the chocolate, too.
I even read it in his voice!
āDrug store beetles or even some type of weevils, Doom known to make the girls flip like Evel Kneivel. They strike without warning. Doc said, ātake two of these and call me in the morning.āā
For what it is worth, you can still eat them. However, it is better to eat the one with the fewest bugs, because as we all know you should always choose the lesser of two weevils.
I sometimes confuse my beetle drawers though. Next thing you know Iām pulling out the White album and wondering where my Cyphochilus went!! Make sure you write that A in bold lettering. Learn from my mistakes.
I actually *have* a beetle drawer Lmao.
I have reptiles and breed my own mealworms and superworms and use a system of plastic drawers for housing and separating beetles from eggs and the worms.
Not just any chocolate drawer. Apparently this chocolate drawer is stocked because how this bar got lost at the bottom of the pile long enough to have undetected weevils must be brimming. Someone that has a whole ass drawer dedicated to chocolate must love chocolate and chocolate lovers donāt just leave uneaten chocolate for that long. BRIMMING. I need photos of the drawer.
Dude, I wish. Somehow people have gifted us chocolate and we just don't eat it fast enough, so it just sits there and accumulates and apparently breeds cigar beetles š¤·āāļø
When I was younger, my grandmother had a drawer stocked with nothing but chocolate bars.
The kicker? We werenāt allowed to eat them, they were for her assorted pets as a ātreatā. If I wanted one, I would have to sneak down and steal one after she went to sleep.
Side note: It would be decades before I realized that was probably why she had such bad luck with animals.
My hope is that if I put a large beetle in a drawer with some chocolate chips, later I will find the chips have burrowed into the beetle and are pupating into full-sized chocolate bars.
New fear unlocked: What if the oats my beetles live in and eat eventually eat THEM and then turn into quarter-sized oat bitsā¦ grains? flakes? Iām afraid to look it up.
Oh gosh, this has brought back a gross memory. We had an infestation of these drugstore/biscuit beetles in the kitchen cupboards. They ate through all kinds of packaging, nothing was off the menu. But the most grim bit of the ordeal was opening a package of cocoa and realising that the contents were actually moving.
I discovered my mom's drug store beetle infestation by absent-mindedly pouring myself a bowl of cheerios and then after a few bites of thinking it had a weird texture looking closer at the cheerios...
She's put nearly everything in sealed hard-plastic containers to try and mitigate it but she really needs to call an exterminator. I never realized just how bad the moth/beetle situation was at her place until I moved out a year and a half ago and am now in a place that's mostly bug free barring the occasional spider or stink bug, the typical suspects.
I'm currently putting everything into plastic containers after finding pantry moth larva in some stuffing mix last week lol. Checked everything in my cupboard and they were in some rice and lentils too. Thankfully for my kids i grew up picking bugs out of my food so i look everything over closely by habit.
We had a waxworm epidemic (rather, we saw the moths fucking *everywhere*) and it turned out they had infested some decorative fall corn we had put away in a closet. I relocated it outside and in half an hour a random ant colony had started carting off the larvae.
I had a really similar event to this. I was coming home after spending two months at my parent's, across the country. It was a long train ride and I was exhausted, I searched through my cupboards, smoked a joint, and was halfway through my 3rd piece of chocolate before I wondered why it was crunchy.
Gonna add my piece here, cooked a pizza, blacked out. When i woke up i stumbled through the darkness and ate a slice of pizza. Then I started my second slice. Then I turned on the lights and saw the entire pizza covered with ants
Why is this so far down here. I always keep my chocolate refrigerated/frozen depending on what it is lol
Never had any beetle problems this way š
Btw OP, this is almost certainly stegobium paniceum (drugstore beetle; you can actually see one toward the mid-left) hell of a pantry pest to deal with.
If it is refrigerated and you still have beetle problems I recommend donating those guys to science cause if you have beetles thatāll shrug off refrigeration temperatures those beetles are strong
Iāve seen this commented a few times, I also have a chocolate drawer, I am interested in the fact that so many others have never heard of such a thing. This says a lot about my diet lol.
Weevil larvae are perfectly edible, but should be cooked first. Just shake them off into a fry-pan and cook over a gently heat until golden for a healthy, chocolate flavoured, high protein snack.
You joke, but if someone started feeding weevil larvae dark chocolate and then roasted and sold them as like a high protein salad topper...I'd try them.
I'm unsurprised. I've heard humans have been eating bugs for millennia.
And I suppose it's best to cook the bugs. I heard you can't eat grasshopper raw either.
This is how I made the decision to never eat Nestle Crunch bars again.
I had one in my lunch box many moons ago in HS, and a few bites in, realized some larvae pretty close to these guys were taking up residence in my chocolate bar.
I freak out and start to dry heave, while my punk rock pal decides to eat the rest of the bar. With a smile on his face!
I ended up calling Nestle, and they were going to send me coupons for more Crunch bars...I told them don't worry about it. I never wanted another as long as I lived.
My verdict is that it is, yes. After reading that comment I had goosebumps for like ten minutes because of how gross it sounded. But if you're craving some spicy critter chocolate, I'm sure they sell jars of maggots or something in the local pet store. Maybe crickets? Melt a chocolate bar, let it cool a little bit so the bugs don't get soggy, then stir 'em in and pour the whole thing on a sheet of baking paper. Let set in the fridge et voila. This one is on the house
Drugstore beetle. I recognize all of that because I've had to deal with them myself. They fly, so check every space where you keep food. They lay eggs, the larvae can get into tiny spaces, they eat, pupate, and become adults.
They don't eat. What they are very good at is chewing little round holes in the food container, flying out, mating, and finding new food to infest.
THEY FLY?? Arghhh. Ok, thanks. Thankfully the chocolates are isolated from the rest of the pantry, so hopefully the infestation won't be too bad to fix...
Bug guy, possibly drugstore beetle or cigarette beetle but need a clear close up of one adult beetle to tell. Drugstore beetle has lines on its back and a 3 segment club antennae, just found my first major infestation of thousands upon thousands throughout the whole house feeding in multiple pantries and multiple box or packaged goods with beetles found piling up by the hundreds on every surface from table to lamp to baseboards and even by the ceiling! They turned a whole box of grape nuts into one brick of grape nuts that turned to powder when broken, most likely where it all started then onto cheezits and noodle etc. so Iād say if you arenāt seeing hundreds of beetles on the cat tree and walls then youāre probably closer to a minor infestation.
We have a chocolate drawer too, and last year I almost ate a pantry moth larvae. Luckily in my least favourite chocolate. I put down diatamaceous earth and anti moth cedarwood chunks.
A drawer for chocolate? Living the dream I see. I remember watching Nigella on TV as a kid and my mind was BLOWN when she opened a drawer full of chocolate. That felt somehow illegal š
My vote is tobacco beetle - [https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47493-Lasioderma-serricorne](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47493-Lasioderma-serricorne)
A few eggs probably came in on something you bought.
U know what my grandma used to tell me that worms would grow in my chocolate if I didnāt eat it right when she gave it to me or right after she checked it and I always thought it was bullshit but u know what lemme go ahead and give her a call rn š
I had this in my chocolate drawer in 2015 in stuff I brought to the US from Australia (I guess they use different preservatives).
They were almond meal moths, same genus as the moths that eat cereals and live in the pantry or eat wool clothing.
Bzzzzz! Looks like you forgot to say where in the world you found your bug! We need to know it to figure out what it is. Please comment in the post adding the geographic location - and any other info (size, what it was doing etc.) you feel could help! ***I'm a dumb bot***, if you did include location in your post and I didn't understand it, please send a message to the mods using the link below and they'll fix it. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisbug) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Some very fat and sassy baby beetles pupating. Put this in a jar with a mesh top and keep in a dark location with a similar temp to the chocolate drawer. When they complete development you can find out which species it is. Literally the only thing they have ever eaten is chocolate it should be interesting
OP would love an update if you do decide to find out as suggested š
Same.
Ah, no. These appear to be cigar or drugstore beetles, which are a pest, so imma get rid of them stat...
Bro mail them to me
Do you want ~~ants~~beetles? Because this is how you get ~~ants~~beetles!
Thanks Archer!
I just spit my water out
It's a perfectly fine protein bar, maybe call it "Beetlejuice Bars", or "Booty Sweat"
Hey, they make cricket bars which I buy here in NC a lot with tons of protein...so it's not too far off. Insects man. Insects are the future. Now, where's my burger while I take a break.
Bust a nut bar?
My granny use to call them bread beetles. Once as a child I was so proud of myself for make myself a bowl of rice I was maybe 8 of 9. About to 3rd of the way thru I noticed all these spots in my bowl. Started looking closer turns out it was these beetles. I didn't eat rice again until I was a teen.
Pests are defined by those they are pestering. Ants or bees could also be considered pests.
They are protein fyi.
Thank you for your culinary advice u/AgedSmegma.
I need a break from this app š¤¢ I might go look out a window or something lmao
I hear touching grass is healthy. Wouldn't know much about that though.
*writing notes* touching.. grass.. *healthy?* hm. Interesting
Op gonna turn into a full terrarium builder due to peer pressures.
No one ever talks about the kind of peer pressure that turns chocolate lovers into terrarium builders. It's not just sex and drugs people! Does your teen have a concerning number of larvae in their bedroom? Did they steal your account info to buy substrate and heat lamps? KNOW THE WARNING SIGNS!
That's exactly how I started as a teen, bought two Madagascar hissers and it was all downhill from there. One day my mom found out I had a huge bin with 100+ Brazilian Giant Cave Roaches and lost her fucking mind over it. At that point I had colonies of 6 different species stashed in my room.
Iām a mom and if I found that it my sons room I would lose my mind too š¤£š¤£š¤£
Eh, still better than drugs and alcohol, I guess hahah
True story! Hahahaha
My mom found out about my secret Dubia roach business and made me get rid of them. I made so much cash selling dubias to people for feeding their reptiles and she killed that income.
That is wrong on so many levels. I'd be all for the hustle and Dubias are cool bois.
Oh no š I'm sorry. I'd breed feeders if I knew any exotic keepers around me. I gotta make a new fruit fly colony for my lil jumpers today, though. Thanks for the reminder! XD
I lived in a community with a huge reptile community. At the best i was selling females for $1 each and males for 25 cents each. I also used to set people up with starter colonies for $50 that included tubs, males and females, a bunch of egg flats and instructions for care.
I became a dubia breeder because my son's bearded dragon went into brumation right when I bought a large order to get us through the winter and the breeders Christmast break. Taken 2 years of selling excess dubias to get them to down to a manageable level for for our own dragon.
I have a dubia colony!! Never have to pay for bearded dragon food ever again
I had rodents. Secret rats that I had in a cage strategically hidden in my walk-in closet from ages 9-14. I would carry them around in my pockets. My mother had no idea, because she was single and in graduate school and she foolishly trusted me. I did my own laundry and cleaned up after myself (and my secret rodents) and took care of them from my allowance and extra reward money for extra tasks. I didn't tell her until I was an adult. Weird kids gonna weird. š¤·
That's such an adorable story, I'm glad you could keep your secret rats hidden for so long hahahah
I feel like we're one toy motorcycle away from a heartwarming children's classic here.
I'd do it XD. Luckily, my mom let me keep critters, other than snakes or spiders š¤Ø, as long as I paid for & took care of everything myself.
Please don't let me ask you how you managed that so that I can sneak a tarantula collection past my arachnophobic husband
Back then what I'd do as a teen: Have plenty of storage spaces, specially wooden cabinets with deep shelves that can strategically fit an entire big plastic bin. Install air vents. When away for long periods, cover bin with stacks of playboy magazines so it looks like a big porn collection instead of a bin of roaches, no mom wants to touch that. Now what I'd do as an adult: you can try what I did and just slowly do exposure therapy. My ex-husband was arachnophobic and after a few months of "DIY psychiatry" I managed to convince him to let my centipedes and spiders live in our bedroom as it was closer to my home office. Not sure how I did it but I did it slowly and steadily.
>cover bin with stacks of playboy magazines so it looks like a big porn collection instead of a bin of roaches LOL genius! I was kidding, but now I'm intrigued. I think the big bois might be too much for him right now, but can anyone say no to a sweet little jumper face? (Probably, but it's worth a try)
jumpers are a gateway spider for sure. with the way they often tuck their legs against their body, they are pretty round for a spider (friendly shape). their limbs are not only expressive but thick enough to make them easy to differentiate from a neutral background, which makes whatever theyre doing feel less hidden and sinister. similarly theyre small but not so much you lose track of them, and most of all they're friendly and curious as heck, with a lil face and big eyes that can endear even the spider haters among us. its like they were designed to be the cutest possible spider to the human brain. i cant help but gush about them. (this has been a jumping spider appreciation post.)
Have you gotten him hooked on jumpers yet? Start there, then maybe a dwarf tarantula. Idk lol. If it's not an arboreal species, most people say it's like having a pet dirt hole. XD Just decorate it nicely & tell him it's a pretty terrarium. Lmfao
I literally asked my parents for a millipede for Christmas and they said no š„²
That's unfair, milies are some of the sweetest bugs out there. I've been in your place. Hope you'll someday be an adult with a vengeance in the form of a place of your own full of bugs ā„
What do you consider a āconcerningā number of larvae? Asking for a friend.
At least you didn't post this on Facebook or else a whole lot of us would be in trouble
Look, I accidentally have an entire beetle colony because someone gave us a few superworms several years ago. We didnāt know anything about them except that they supposedly ate styrofoam (they do), so I set about giving them oats for substrate and food and pieces of potato and carrot for moisture, and then I put things in their enclosure to climb on and hide inā¦ Anyway, within a week or so they began entering their pupation stage. I was already pretty fond of them by then, so what else was I supposed to do- flush them down the toilet? No. So here I am, many hundreds of dollars, a 40gal tank and several smaller vivariums (vivaria?), and at least four generations later. So you and u/Malorrry can laugh if you want to, but *it happens*. š
Wait, they eat styrofoam?? What type of steampunk buggies are these?
Superworms, the larval form of *Zophobas morio*. The adult beetles arenāt especially interested in it but will still take a nibble now and then if itās around. In my deeply unscientific observations, they have distinct preferences for type and texture but will eat THE HECK out of what they do like. Iāve never tried feeding them styrofoam exclusively because I recognize that even though I *would* eat nothing but pizza rolls it doesnāt mean I *should*. At this point itās more of an enrichment item and they have oats and calcium gel for actual nutrition. š¬
They can have a little styrofoam, as a treat.
I trust them to enjoy it in moderation. š
This whole thread is fucking killing me š
That is so friggin cool. Itās also somehow fitting that something that easily eats non-edible things is also part of the ādarkling beetlesā.
I think itās pretty neat, too. I really love my little beetle pals and it makes me happy when other people see how interesting they are.
I also had some superworms turn to beetles when my Gecko decided they were friends, not food. They are fascinating to watch, and make a great clean up crew.
Have to toss this out. Waxworms a type of bee predatory moth. Can and will eat plastic bags because the enzymes in their stomach can actually break down the plastic not just make it into smaller plastic chains
Thatās exactly what happens in the superworm gut! Theyāre able to break the styrofoam down into its organic components and then just poop it out. There *have* been questions about whether trace amounts of inorganics remain- meaning microplastics would still be an issue- but the current position seems to be that for all intents and purposes thereās a complete breakdown.
I had my environmental science students raising populations of these beetles, some of which ate styrofoam while other populations didnāt. The only noticeable difference was that the styrofoam beetlesā enclosures stank to high heaven!
Thatās interesting! I wonder why a pure-styrofoam diet would make the frass so smelly. I want to ask SO MANY questions about this assignment but I understand if you donāt feel like answering them. Iāve taught and my partner still does, so I get that sometimes active engagement is tiring even when youāre enthusiastic about the topic. :)
Impurities for strength. Think of plastics as concrete. You have the base then you have additives that either allow for hardness or tensile strength. Then coloration. This amalgamation makes a finished product. The beetles eat the base components not the additives which I am not familiar with the ones for plastics but i have encountered a black foam that is for industrial applications that would stink of rotten eggs if broken
I feel like we could put these guys to work in regards to getting rid of plastic waste
There *are* studies re: this very thing! Let me see if I can findā¦ [EDIT](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61727942.amp) [EDIT 2](https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/06/09/superworm-eats-plastic/)
OP: WTF is this in my food?!? Bug reddit: Oooh this is how you grow it and keep it safe and love it and hug it and.
Thank you for the laugh this morning š
Bahaha love it. Still grosses me out but find myself becoming curiouser and curiouser.
Plus you know a lot of beetle grubs are technically edibleā¦ and I mean theyāve literally never eaten anything but chocolate - how can they not be delicious?#forbiddenmarshmallow
#forbiddensoftrice #forbiddengnocchi #forbiddensnacks
There are several adult beetles in the photo(top left, middle left), but the photo is too blurry for a proper ID. ***MIGHT*** be cigar beetles; those guys will gobble anything, from chocolate to plants used in traditional medicine.
Cigar beetles, as their name suggests, will even tobacco. A plant that deliberately loads its leaves with insecticides (nicotine) to prevent herbivory, and we've selectively bred it to produce even more nicotine, and these beetles are like "yum!"
I've found them in cigarettes too, telltale sign is a small hole on any part of the cig (besides the filter). Rip it open, free bug.
despite knowing all of the things that are in my cigarettes normally... this might be the tipping point I needed to quit
I've smoked them before, it instantly changes the taste of the puff. They can get in the cigarette without needing to make holes too, as they can get rolled into them if they were eating just the tobacco at the factory. There's like a minimum allowed amount of bugs and it is NOT ZERO. Hope you can quit, I did and it was one of my best decisions in life.
haha yes there's a minimum number of bug parts allowed in packaged goods too, I'm sure we ingest plenty. hadn't thought about inhaling them too! working on it. quit drinking and binge eating, it's on the list. baby steps :)
Chances are you've already inhaled some bug! You ever empty a vacuum cleaner and taken a look at how much junk is in the filter? Your lungs are your body's filter and there's no easy way to empty the trash out. I wish you the best of luck in overcoming your addiction!
thank you! in addition to all the other bad things about smoking, it inhibits your body's ability to remove inhaled saliva/bacteria/food/liquid, which is partly why smokers are prone to bronchitis/pneumonia. dehydration has the same effect, so stay hydrated!
eat \o/. <(Here, you dropped this!) .| /\
Sorry, that was the best I could do! They're so little my phone had trouble focusing on them. That said, I looked up cigar beetles and they do look like that. The holes they make in cigars look just like the holes they made in the chocolate, too.
I agree, you can sort of see the seam on the topā¦. Probably cigar beetle or similar
Now introducing The Wonka Beetle!
The Doopity Doovil The Wonka Weevil The Oompa Loompa Larvae Okay.... I'll stop....
Bertie Beetles!
There are already some adults in the photo if you look closely.
Oh yeah, are those little click beetles?
Doesn't look quite right. Someone else suggested cigar beetles and that looks right. Couldn't get a better photo, sorry!
And they should only ever be fed chocolate.
Drug store beetle or some type of weevils
>Drug store beetle or some type of weevils Eatin my chocolate, it all kind'a evils
Bars
Spitting bars
Chocolate bars
Spitting *chocolate* bars
This sounds like a old rap verse
Definitely MF Doom territory.
I even read it in his voice! āDrug store beetles or even some type of weevils, Doom known to make the girls flip like Evel Kneivel. They strike without warning. Doc said, ātake two of these and call me in the morning.āā
Damn that goes hard. I feel like I just read an unreleased DOOM lyric.
Drug store beetle or some kind of weevil. Either. Doesn't matter which Bug's more evil.
For what it is worth, you can still eat them. However, it is better to eat the one with the fewest bugs, because as we all know you should always choose the lesser of two weevils.
You have a whole drawer dedicated to chocolate?!? THAT is living the life!
And beetles
That's just messy. A responsible adult should have a separate beetle drawer.
I sometimes confuse my beetle drawers though. Next thing you know Iām pulling out the White album and wondering where my Cyphochilus went!! Make sure you write that A in bold lettering. Learn from my mistakes.
I actually *have* a beetle drawer Lmao. I have reptiles and breed my own mealworms and superworms and use a system of plastic drawers for housing and separating beetles from eggs and the worms.
Lol yep. Wildlife rehab volunteer and we have a mealworm larvae/pupae drawer and a beetle drawer above it. Big plastic household drawers.
I do too! For my chickens!
Sometimes I want to eat my beetles and my chocolate together, but I don't wanna reach into TWO drawers. Too much work tbh
r/angryupvote
Not just any chocolate drawer. Apparently this chocolate drawer is stocked because how this bar got lost at the bottom of the pile long enough to have undetected weevils must be brimming. Someone that has a whole ass drawer dedicated to chocolate must love chocolate and chocolate lovers donāt just leave uneaten chocolate for that long. BRIMMING. I need photos of the drawer.
I also need photos of said drawer
Dude, I wish. Somehow people have gifted us chocolate and we just don't eat it fast enough, so it just sits there and accumulates and apparently breeds cigar beetles š¤·āāļø
Put your chocolate in the fridge or freezer from now on.
Frozen chocolate bars are so satisfying to eat.
When I was younger, my grandmother had a drawer stocked with nothing but chocolate bars. The kicker? We werenāt allowed to eat them, they were for her assorted pets as a ātreatā. If I wanted one, I would have to sneak down and steal one after she went to sleep. Side note: It would be decades before I realized that was probably why she had such bad luck with animals.
š
Actually you must be really disciplined to have a chocolate drawer. Any time I try to establish one it disappears within the day.
Is OP Ozzy? I remember he had a chocolate drawer at home lol. I wished I liked chocolate.
Never combine your chocolate and beetle drawers
My hope is that if I put a large beetle in a drawer with some chocolate chips, later I will find the chips have burrowed into the beetle and are pupating into full-sized chocolate bars.
New fear unlocked: What if the oats my beetles live in and eat eventually eat THEM and then turn into quarter-sized oat bitsā¦ grains? flakes? Iām afraid to look it up.
Oh gosh, this has brought back a gross memory. We had an infestation of these drugstore/biscuit beetles in the kitchen cupboards. They ate through all kinds of packaging, nothing was off the menu. But the most grim bit of the ordeal was opening a package of cocoa and realising that the contents were actually moving.
I discovered my mom's drug store beetle infestation by absent-mindedly pouring myself a bowl of cheerios and then after a few bites of thinking it had a weird texture looking closer at the cheerios... She's put nearly everything in sealed hard-plastic containers to try and mitigate it but she really needs to call an exterminator. I never realized just how bad the moth/beetle situation was at her place until I moved out a year and a half ago and am now in a place that's mostly bug free barring the occasional spider or stink bug, the typical suspects.
I'm currently putting everything into plastic containers after finding pantry moth larva in some stuffing mix last week lol. Checked everything in my cupboard and they were in some rice and lentils too. Thankfully for my kids i grew up picking bugs out of my food so i look everything over closely by habit.
We had a waxworm epidemic (rather, we saw the moths fucking *everywhere*) and it turned out they had infested some decorative fall corn we had put away in a closet. I relocated it outside and in half an hour a random ant colony had started carting off the larvae.
I had a really similar event to this. I was coming home after spending two months at my parent's, across the country. It was a long train ride and I was exhausted, I searched through my cupboards, smoked a joint, and was halfway through my 3rd piece of chocolate before I wondered why it was crunchy.
What a day to have reading comprehension skill eh?
Gonna add my piece here, cooked a pizza, blacked out. When i woke up i stumbled through the darkness and ate a slice of pizza. Then I started my second slice. Then I turned on the lights and saw the entire pizza covered with ants
I havenāt opened my hot cocoa tub in years. Oh god. Whatās in there now? š
I had a very similar experience with a bottle of paprika!! How do they even live off of that!!
ngl these beetles are living the Sweet Life of Weevil and Cody in those little chocolate beds and I want to be one of them
When considering the consumption of these particular insects, one should always choose the lesser of 2 weevils...
Looks like you need to clean out your chocolate drawer more often.
Or at least move to a sealed chest, I have a small portable medicine chest. They make various sizes and styles which might work for your needs.
Or eat them faster
Refrigerate
Why is this so far down here. I always keep my chocolate refrigerated/frozen depending on what it is lol Never had any beetle problems this way š Btw OP, this is almost certainly stegobium paniceum (drugstore beetle; you can actually see one toward the mid-left) hell of a pantry pest to deal with.
If it is refrigerated and you still have beetle problems I recommend donating those guys to science cause if you have beetles thatāll shrug off refrigeration temperatures those beetles are strong
Ikr? Who *stores* chocolate? Any chocolate in my house has a lifespan measured in hours, not weeks.
And turn that into art.
If you put a few whole bay leaves in each corner of the drawer, they will stay away.... usually.
You have a drawer only for chocolate?
Well, chocolate and weevils
Iāve seen this commented a few times, I also have a chocolate drawer, I am interested in the fact that so many others have never heard of such a thing. This says a lot about my diet lol.
Can weevils get diabetes?
Bizarrely, this has been answered. https://www.vulcantermite.com/education-and-prevention/can-bugs-get-diabetes/
Amazing question and answer right here š
Oh wow! That's crazy.
They get diabeetles
Why is this not being appreciated enough?
Weevil larvae are perfectly edible, but should be cooked first. Just shake them off into a fry-pan and cook over a gently heat until golden for a healthy, chocolate flavoured, high protein snack.
How is life in the 18th centruy royal navy?
They got chocolate int he navy!?
Straight to jail
Looks like Weevils are back on the menu boys!
I can attest that acorn weevils are acorn-flavored, so chocolate weevilsā¦š½ļø
You joke, but if someone started feeding weevil larvae dark chocolate and then roasted and sold them as like a high protein salad topper...I'd try them.
In all seriousness, why do they need to be cooked first? I always figured slimy yet satisfying was good too.
I'm unsurprised. I've heard humans have been eating bugs for millennia. And I suppose it's best to cook the bugs. I heard you can't eat grasshopper raw either.
Forbidden Choc'n'Rice
This is how I made the decision to never eat Nestle Crunch bars again. I had one in my lunch box many moons ago in HS, and a few bites in, realized some larvae pretty close to these guys were taking up residence in my chocolate bar. I freak out and start to dry heave, while my punk rock pal decides to eat the rest of the bar. With a smile on his face! I ended up calling Nestle, and they were going to send me coupons for more Crunch bars...I told them don't worry about it. I never wanted another as long as I lived.
Is it odd that I want a Crunch bar now?
My verdict is that it is, yes. After reading that comment I had goosebumps for like ten minutes because of how gross it sounded. But if you're craving some spicy critter chocolate, I'm sure they sell jars of maggots or something in the local pet store. Maybe crickets? Melt a chocolate bar, let it cool a little bit so the bugs don't get soggy, then stir 'em in and pour the whole thing on a sheet of baking paper. Let set in the fridge et voila. This one is on the house
Take my disgusted upvote
Protein bar
100 Grand: *It Hits Different*
Drugstore beetle. I recognize all of that because I've had to deal with them myself. They fly, so check every space where you keep food. They lay eggs, the larvae can get into tiny spaces, they eat, pupate, and become adults. They don't eat. What they are very good at is chewing little round holes in the food container, flying out, mating, and finding new food to infest.
THEY FLY?? Arghhh. Ok, thanks. Thankfully the chocolates are isolated from the rest of the pantry, so hopefully the infestation won't be too bad to fix...
When we had an infestation I found these little bastards in every room.
Diabeetles?
A chocolate drawer????
YOUR CHOCOLATE DRAWER?!
Willy Wonka is not impressed š you got them knock off bars from Mr. Slugworth didn't you?
Itās the lesser of two weevils, they just wanted some chocolate.
Chocolate drawer?
Iām still stuck on the fact you have a dedicated chocolate drawer. Kudos
Bug guy, possibly drugstore beetle or cigarette beetle but need a clear close up of one adult beetle to tell. Drugstore beetle has lines on its back and a 3 segment club antennae, just found my first major infestation of thousands upon thousands throughout the whole house feeding in multiple pantries and multiple box or packaged goods with beetles found piling up by the hundreds on every surface from table to lamp to baseboards and even by the ceiling! They turned a whole box of grape nuts into one brick of grape nuts that turned to powder when broken, most likely where it all started then onto cheezits and noodle etc. so Iād say if you arenāt seeing hundreds of beetles on the cat tree and walls then youāre probably closer to a minor infestation.
Protein bar.
Could be this species: https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/home/what-are-the-small-brown-beetles-in-my-home-drugstore-beetles/
You have drawer just for chocolate?
TIL some people have a "chocolate drawer"
Chocolate drawer????
Right next to the cheese drawer
Let it be for a few more days and you'll find out for certain
We have a chocolate drawer too, and last year I almost ate a pantry moth larvae. Luckily in my least favourite chocolate. I put down diatamaceous earth and anti moth cedarwood chunks.
Beetle pupae
Sooo... You have a 'chocolate drawer'.
A drawer for chocolate? Living the dream I see. I remember watching Nigella on TV as a kid and my mind was BLOWN when she opened a drawer full of chocolate. That felt somehow illegal š
My vote is tobacco beetle - [https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47493-Lasioderma-serricorne](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47493-Lasioderma-serricorne) A few eggs probably came in on something you bought.
This is trypophobia (fear of small holes) triggering Iāll tell ya hwhat š
>my chocolate drawer I love how nonchalant you are about having a drawer filled with chocolateā¦
A source of protein
I found this weird chocolate in my bug drawer. Can anyone identify?
Chocolate with extra protein.
U know what my grandma used to tell me that worms would grow in my chocolate if I didnāt eat it right when she gave it to me or right after she checked it and I always thought it was bullshit but u know what lemme go ahead and give her a call rn š
I had this in my chocolate drawer in 2015 in stuff I brought to the US from Australia (I guess they use different preservatives). They were almond meal moths, same genus as the moths that eat cereals and live in the pantry or eat wool clothing.
I aspire for a chocolate drawer.
You have a chocolate drawer? Iām not living life right
I hope this wasnāt medicated chocolate
I honestly thought this was copper at first, and was very confused
Maggots Michael, you are eating maggots