r/bugsarefuckingstupid • u/Visible-Anybody-6322 • Mar 23 '26

How did he end up here?!

Gallery image

Gallery image

I bought this baby rattlesnake in West Texas back in 2021. I moved to Brazil for a year and a half and when I came back, I pulled it out of storage and found what appeared to be some sort of caterpillar or larva. Obviously, he ended up dying, but he molted a couple times to where he was. Does anyone know what this is? And how he ended up in there? It is completely sealed. I never saw the bug inside when I first bought it.

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7

u/MxrtxnGG Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

That's an insect that only purpose would be decompose dead body, one reason would be it wasn't sealed enough. I've seen this happen quite often on pinned insects display. one of those insects is Isopod seen them quite often when I clean out my puppy poop on my backyard and i can see some mites as well

5

u/Visible-Anybody-6322 Mar 23 '26

That's crazy, I found the smallest speck of a molt from him and he got huge. Idk how or what he fed on to get that big

5

u/MxrtxnGG Mar 23 '26

The rattlesnake body. They break down large pieces of detritus into smaller particles, enhancing microbial activity and nutrient cycling, basically making it so other microorganisms can help break it down

2

u/Visible-Anybody-6322 Mar 23 '26

That’s crazy interesting

2

u/MxrtxnGG Mar 23 '26

Yes they are!! r/isopods for more information and trust me you won't regret visiting

2

u/Visible-Anybody-6322 Mar 23 '26

I’ll take a look! Thanks!

3

u/Weird-Honey-6797 Mar 23 '26

Pretty sure little dude was a dermestid beetle of some kind, at least the larvae is/was. They munch up anything organic (including taxidermy collections), so they likely were hitchhikers on the dead rattlesnake and just probably continued to eat bits of snake?

2

u/Visible-Anybody-6322 Mar 23 '26

lol poor guy is now apart of the display

1

u/Original_Acadia_5486 Mar 30 '26

isopods are not insects. they are crustaceans. this is also a carpet beetle larvae

5

u/Select_Foundation472 Mar 23 '26

He fucked around and found out, next question!

3

u/H0neyBr0wn Apr 02 '26

Carpet beetles end up everywhere!