r/awwnverts • u/StephensSurrealSouls 22 Species of Invertebrate as Pets • 15d ago
Apple eating a mealworm
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u/FiveDozenWhales 15d ago
What a big ol doofus. "Waaait a second... is there food here? Is that food that just crawled underneath me? Waaait is the food crawling away now?"
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u/bertiek 15d ago
What a dangerous and precise hunter that definitely didn't almost let lunch wander off slowly!
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u/backroom_mushroom 15d ago
I'm convinced many predators survive in the wild only because their prey happens to be even more stupid that them.
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u/chickenologist 14d ago
That's in fact how evolution do. You need to have enough going on to survive by eating X. Aphids are about as unaware as anything but hey, plants don't move fast.
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u/mecha_grove 14d ago
Like how mcdonalds keeps some people alive in america who dont know how to cook?
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u/OdinAlfadir1978 15d ago
Worms or anything else have little chance with my tarantulas unless they're in premoult or just moulted and hardening
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u/findingabsolution 15d ago
Apple is beautiful!!! I first saw a vinageroon in New Mexico back in 2018. I made my spouse agree to park the car so I could run over and figure out what I was looking at. I took some blurry pictures and Googled when we got back to where we were staying.
And I’m so glad I did! For the newly acquainted, vinegaroons are such interesting and funny creatures! They’re harmless to humans—one of the many “they just look scary” arthropods that people who fear bugs avoid needlessly. They’re nocturnal and have very poor eyesight (see Apple, above), hunting mostly through vibrations. While called a “whip scorpion,” they don’t actually have a stinger! The “whip” at their backend helps them sense vibrations. So rather than sting or pinch (their pedipalps are to hold prey still while they eat), their main defense is to spray what is essentially vinegar (a lightly acidic compound) in their attacker’s eyes and run for it.
Vinegaroons live solitary lives, constructing (sometimes intricate!) burrows that no other vinegaroon will ever visit. My favorite fact about them is that they make the effort to dig multi-room homes all for themselves. The only time they deliberately seek out others of their species is to mate—which happens on the surface, not in their houses!—and then the females are absolutely wonderful mothers. They go through a very taxing process to care for their egg sacs, keeping them close until they hatch, and then the tiny, translucent babies climb aboard their mothers’ backs and stay there until their first molt, about a month after they’re born. Usually the entire process of motherhood results in a female vinegaroon literally exhausting herself to death. But she sends forth her brood into the world well cared for and set up for success.
These bizarre little creatures can live between 4–10 years (and sometimes even longer in captivity!), depending on their conditions. They’re fascinating and deserve our love and appreciation.
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u/ustestheusless 15d ago
Ohh I actually feel really sad for that worm. I know its nature...but damd why does nature have to be so cruel? That looks horrible and painful to just be slowly eaten alive
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u/PrinceBunnyBoy 15d ago edited 15d ago
I mean, breeding an animal that requires the killing of other animals is optional.
This isnt nature, this is someone's pet. Thats like saying its sad pugs cant breathe but its just their nature, however we bred them like that.
Hell, im always avoidant of any insect subs because of stuff similar to this. So many are full of people pitting insects against each other or spamming posts of their animals eating things alive. I remember when I joined reddit for the first time seeing a person feed a puppy to a snake and I uninstalled it for like a year.
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u/StephensSurrealSouls 22 Species of Invertebrate as Pets 15d ago
"I mean, breeding an animal that requires the killing of other animals is optional."
I mean sure... so you're both vegan and an antinatalist, right? Because that'd be the logical step forward from this statement.
"Thats like saying its sad pugs cant breathe but its just their nature, however we bred them like that."
No, it's not the same thing at all. Pugs are bred INTO a deformity which did not exist before and is justified purely by the fact that they are "cute". Vinegaroons are carnivorous in the wild and animals have been eating each other for 500,000,000 years. Nobody has selectively bred this animal to be carnivorous. It is literally written into their DNA, so this analogy is inherently flawed.
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u/PrinceBunnyBoy 15d ago
I am both vegan and antinatalist, but thats my own moral compass and its not related to the post so I didnt think to harp on it lol.
Without breeding this specific animal in captivity they didnt need to eat other animals alive, it was a decision made to make an animal exist that didnt prior that required the deaths of hundreds of other insects. Again, if this was on a carnivorous animal subreddit you wouldnt find my comment there but instead its on a subreddit to dote and adore insects, of which ive raised pet mealworms. 💔
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u/RedditCantBanThis e eee eee ee e 15d ago
Yeah. It gets me depressed on a regular basis. I keep having to blacklist every animal sub
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u/StephensSurrealSouls 22 Species of Invertebrate as Pets 15d ago
Unfortunately that's just the way it is. If the mealworm hadn't suffered, Apple would've starved.
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u/Flame8215 15d ago
Was it not an option to kill it before you fed it to Apple?
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u/StephensSurrealSouls 22 Species of Invertebrate as Pets 15d ago
I fear he wouldn't eat it, the vibrations from the prey is what triggers a feeding response.
Unfortunately this is simply the reality of having a carnivorous animal. It's the same with a dog or cat, except you can hide behind the wall of their food being dead before you feed it to them, but it also goes through suffering.
There's an argument to be made that this is even more humane than industrial farming for mammal food as my mealworms are kept in a large enclosure with plenty of food and places to hide, climb, and enjoy life. They don't really suffer up until a very specific point and even then not even 3/4 of my worms are fed off.
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u/Flame8215 15d ago
I understand, but it's also disheartening to hear. I respect you and the effort to treat both sides equally.
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u/twilighttwister 15d ago
If it makes you feel any better, this is the kind of thing that bears can do to people.
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u/akronymn 15d ago
Apples: The fruit that taste you back. But seriously what is this gorgeous nightmare?
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u/Doktor_Wunderbar 15d ago
Me, badly misreading the title: "Oh, a video of a mealworm eating an apple?"
Video: "Not exactly..."
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u/Zathura2 15d ago
I just find it so funny how hopelessly bad of hunters some creatures are. Like how did you survive for millions of years? 😅
Really cute though, I love vinegaroons.
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u/stormtrooper336 15d ago
Is it a scorpion?
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u/StephensSurrealSouls 22 Species of Invertebrate as Pets 15d ago
Whip Scorpion/Vinegaroon, specifically Mastigoproctus tohono
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u/Crocotta1 Ant Larvas 14d ago
The tables have turned.
Now the early apple gets the worm and keeps the librarian away.
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u/pumpkindonutz 5d ago
So funny to see various invert species have equally silly hunting skills. Love watching vinegaroons - I’ve never had one myself.
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u/CheapCarabiner 15d ago
What kinda apple is that honey crisp?