High Cricket Death Rate

[Kajolic]

I recently purchased an order of 1000 3 week old crickets from a company in California. Order came partially death ~200 count. I placed them in a my new setup for them.

Environment
- Large Clear Tote
- Egg Crates (3x6 egg count)
- Vermiculite Substrate
- Heating bulb ~85°F

Water/Food
- Water Gels (Soil Moist)
- Ground-up Dry Puppy Chow and left over Beardie salad.

After sorting the DOA crickets I put them into their new home, and today I noticed there where a few dead crickets in the repurposed 'Cricket Keeper' tubes when I went to get a couple out to see if little Dovah would accept a small offering of crickets.
After being curious on the dead crickets I looked further into the habitat and they are everywhere... On the substrate, in the other repurposed tubes, removed the egg crates and they line the substrate...


What the heck? I have upwards to around another 200+ dead, out of the 800 that were alive yesterday...

I didn't have this issue with the 1000 I bought locally when I purchased little Dovah (3/3/12), and they didn't even have heat from above, only from the vivarium since I had them atop the viv... Never had a single one die (that I didn't accidentally kill).

Am I missing something obvious, or is this just a bad patch of crickets?
The ones that are alive are active, not lethargic. They respond to a bit of air when I blow on them. Not sure what else to think here. Food and Water is in plenty, egg crates are enough, substrate I wouldn't imagine be the cause (I got this idea from this thread (viewtopic.php?f=76&t=161426)) They have heat, everything my locally purchased ones had...

Any idea, suggestions, words of caution?


[Edit] - Just adding, hope it goes without saying, but it's not sheds either. Granted there is quite a bit.


[UPDATE] - As I'm cleaning them out, I'm noticing several more lethargic, but alive, crickets have these weird fat abdomen and usually one leg is immobile and will not try to escape once caught, but will crawl in the holding bin.

 

[doe222]

i read somthing a few weeks ago about some crickets having some sort of virus and causing them to die extremly quick? i did not hear of it causing death to the common brown cricket though. it is non harfull to beardies so dont by worried. remember 1 dead cricket = 20 dead crickets. the smell causes others to die. clean cricket cage everyday. what i found to help with mine is to not have to much egg crate in there. i feel like for some reason mine last much longer with less egg crate in ther1e. when i order boxes of 500 i use 2 5x5in (roughly) off egg crate. with more egg crate i felt like they were dying much faster.

 

[diamc]

Did you call the company that you ordered them from to make them aware?

I would worry about feeding any of them since there were quite a few dead ones on arrival and also quite a few that are acting lethargic.

 

[Kajolic]

I'm in contact with them presently via e-mail in regard to the DOA crickets, will shoot them another e-mail if by tomorrow I find a large number dead. Gotta say this isn't turning out to be a pleasant experience. If by PM I can disclose the company, but didn't find hardly any bad reviews against the company. Will state they are one of the web adverts on these forums.

 

[Kajolic]

Still found ~80 dead this evening. I removed them from their habitat with the Vermiculite substrate into my large Cricket Keeper I used with my original supply of crickets and had zero die rate. Curious on if they are just too small to turn themselves upright if flipped/fallen upside-down and just starve. If they don't die off now, then I'll have my answer...but hoped they Vermiculite substrate would be a good idea, but guessing it was more ideal for a fuller grown cricket?

 

[diamc]

Hmmm, wonder if it's the vermiculite. I always use oatmeal and never had any problem, let us know what you find out.

 

[Kajolic]

Will do, most climb over it rather well and flip upright fast, but others just lay there and become motionless after a second of trying to flip upright.

 

[diamc]

The crickets sounds a little weak to not be able to right themselves. I've used egg crates in the tank with little baby crickets and they were able to climb all over them with no problem. You have water or crystals in there for them, right?

 

[Kajolic]

Had plenty of those, still found them laying dead between them, some upright other upside-down. Heck, even found some dead upside-down on the egg crates. 1-2 dead out of ~25 crickets in the 'Cricket Keeper' tubes I had laid in to see if they would use them with the entrance butted up against the egg crates.

Food and water was easily accessible as well on either side of the habitat right by the egg crates.

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Depending on where they where shipped from and what route they took to you, sometimes crickets are exposed to high or low temps that will shock them and they die. It does happen from time to time.

Ditch the vermeculite substrate, it just isnt needed and make cleanup a bitch when you have to do it. The crickets are also probably eating it and that could be whats killing them.

Cat food has a higher protein source that dog food, and fish food even more.

 

[Kajolic]

This morning, so far, I only see roughly 6 flipped over dead, none upright dead, I'll do a clean out before work to get an actual count, but that is way less that what I've been finding.

Wish I could have tracked my package, would have been good enough to shed some light on that question.

 

[Kajolic]

Thought about trying crushed cat food instead of the dog food, but noticed something on the last clean out. It's the smaller ones that are dieing, and the larger ones keep getting larger, so it appears to me that the smaller crickets are just unable to feed on the crush dog food. So before I attempt the cat food, I replaced the dog food with my store bought Orange Cube feed to see if any smaller ones continue to die off.

Another stumping thought, I found several 2-3 slightly larger than a pin head cricket alive and moving around well. Could they be surviving on the water crystal gels alone?

Also another thought, I've only found a few crickets interested, so far, on the Orange Cube feed. It's not the response I get from 10+ feeding on the dog food, or hydrating from the water crystal gel.


At least on my next shipment, whenever that may be, I will know not to order so small, and hopefully not have this trail and error die off rates.


[UPDATE] - No luck with the Orange Cubes, they are just not interested. I went ahead I store bought some of that Fluckers cricket food that is a ground/powder feed. Put it in and they are all swarming it. I'll stick with that for now until I can make my own alternative.



[UPDATE] - Since I probably only had a week at best of these 1000 crickets, I had to place another order. This time I went with an east coast company to assure a quicker delivery. Received them over night, and only 1 DoA. It's been a few day, living in the same setup (cleaned out, disinfected, etc.) and I have had ZERO die offs since. I'm thinking I had received a virus infected bunch from the west coast company, judging by the die off rate, and the mere fact I'm having zero now with this batch.