HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I'm curious as to what bugs everyone has fed their hermies? I saw someone fed their mosquito larvae & I saw a few bugs on the safe list.

I live in a heavily wooded area.. Therefore bugs. No pesticides or fertilizer in my yard (although I know... Bugs travel). We have beetles, pincher bugs, spiders, fireflies, ants and holy moly tons of moths... Just to name a few. It'd be nice to put these carcasses to good use! Lol.. Thoughts?

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Mine eat mealworms. I've seen where some people put Isopods (Rolly pollies) in their cage to help keep it clean and that sometimes the crabs eat them. I think Soilentgringa was one of them.

I personally would not feed anything that I found dead to my HCs, but that is me. I know moths die naturally after living short lives, but I still wouldn't.

Unless you can be 100% sure the insects haven't been exposed to pesticides, don't feed them.

You can get a variety of dried insects fairly cheaply. Dried crickets, mealworms, blood worms (don't touch these directly, many people have allergic reactions), grasshoppers, and also seafood like red shrimp or krill are all good choices.



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I buy my mealworms dried from the reptile section.

Bloodworms can be bought dried or frozen. I have both kinds for my fishtank, but I never knew HCs ate those! Thanks!

Mine loved baby rolly pollys (spelling?). Ate them like potato chips. I put about 15 into the tank and they started a colony very quickly. They like the same conditions as hermits and are crustaceans. I have read some hermits like hunting the adults.

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The bloodworm allergy thing is real, if anyone is wondering... I get an unpleasant/tingly rash from any accidental contact when feeding my fish. Consequently, I am not going to put thawed bloodworms in the hermit tank where I might also have to remove them. I am not someone with a lot of allergies and was quite surprised by the reaction before I read up about this obscure allergy.

LadyJinglyJones wrote:The bloodworm allergy thing is real, if anyone is wondering... I get an unpleasant/tingly rash from any accidental contact when feeding my fish. Consequently, I am not going to put thawed bloodworms in the hermit tank where I might also have to remove them. I am not someone with a lot of allergies and was quite surprised by the reaction before I read up about this obscure allergy.

It is, when I first got my crabs bloodworms a few weeks ago, I went to open the container and couldn't get the seal off, so assuming that it'd be only 3/4ths of the way full, I took my thumb and poked a hole in it. It was almost all the way full, so my thumb went straight into the bloodworms. I had trouble breathing for pretty much the rest of the night. I still feed them bloodworms though, I just use a spoon and the crabs eat pretty much all of them, and just to be safe when I clean the dish I use a paper towel to wipe out whatever is leftover in the dish, then rinse it out.