Mealworm Burrowed

[DuntyDunt]

Hello,

I've just started with my first tarantula (4y B. hamorii) and I've fed her crickets, locusts and mealworms before but this time I decided to not crush the head as I wanted to see a ''battle'' for my entertainment. I know, I'm stupid. Anyways, the mealworm burrowed itself in the substrate instantly, and I've removed the T. from the enclosure, all decorations and I dug, and I dug, and I dug. For 30 minutes I dug up poop and insect carcasses but no mealworm was found, so I gave up and placed everything back in the enclosure.

Now my worry is, can this one mealworm pose any threat to a ~circa 10cm leg span T. ? She's molted already barely 2 weeks ago and if she is to molt again I will monitor her and defend her from the possible sneaky beetle. My guess is I killed the mealworm while digging and it's so covered in dirt I wasn't able to spot it.

 

[Sugar Wolf]

I've done the same thing a few times and always the mealworm either gets eaten by the T ( Which I have a few T's that love to dig the mealworms and superworms out of the ground or the mealworm will eventually come out and then I remove the mealworm or it will die from lack of food. If your T just molted barely 2 weeks ago it probably wont molt again for a good while and the mealworm would probably starve by then. So my best guess is either the mealworm dies or the T eats it but the T will defend itself though. If your really worried about it and cant find the mealworm or it never comes out then I would just replace the substrate if thats an option but it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[DuntyDunt]

Thank you for the fast response, I also thought about those options and figured it's not at that level of seriousness but I still thought making the post and asking was worth it.

 

[nellyitchabelly]

Hello,

I've just started with my first tarantula (4y B. hamorii) and I've fed her crickets, locusts and mealworms before but this time I decided to not crush the head as I wanted to see a ''battle'' for my entertainment. I know, I'm stupid. Anyways, the mealworm burrowed itself in the substrate instantly, and I've removed the T. from the enclosure, all decorations and I dug, and I dug, and I dug. For 30 minutes I dug up poop and insect carcasses but no mealworm was found, so I gave up and placed everything back in the enclosure.

Now my worry is, can this one mealworm pose any threat to a ~circa 10cm leg span T. ? She's molted already barely 2 weeks ago and if she is to molt again I will monitor her and defend her from the possible sneaky beetle. My guess is I killed the mealworm while digging and it's so covered in dirt I wasn't able to spot it.

More than likely it's going to hide in the substrate and pupate and turn into a beetle. They do that in my tarantula enclosures all the time and they don't seem to bother the tarantulas. I would imagine they probably eat the Beatles eventually. But I am new at trance was also this is just my. But I am new at tarantulas also so this is just my limited experience I hope this helps. I wouldn't worry about it