How to keep crickets?

How to house crickets..I dont want to breed them, I just have a baby beardie who obviously needs lots and lots of protein. At the moment I only have 2 small cricket carriers that hold maybe 30 crickets each. I'd like to buy in bulk but not sure what to use to keep them in. I have been thinking about using a big tote with holes poked into it, but not sure how to get crickets out of there when I'm ready to feed without a bunch escaping lol!
Please let me know how you keep large amounts of crickets!
Thanks in advance.

If I were you I would switch to dubia roaches =-- they are a lot less hassle less stinky dont chirp and easier to care for -- get a 10 gallon aquarium you can keep 200 or more in there feed them dubia food along w/ carrots for hydration and you are good to go --- I got rid of crickets long time ago and have not fed my dragons crickets since --- also dubias are way better health wise --- crickets tend to give parasites --- you can feed the once in a while but a good staple is dubias
Karrie

Thank you for the advice Karrie, but unfortunately Dubai's are illegal where I am .

I currently buy my medium crickets in batches of 600 , and they come in a bag in box.
I deposit the egg crates in a 35L archive tub and shake the crickets off in the tub.
Then I collect 60 to 80 crickets at a time using a 9V bugblaster vacuum and deposit each group into an old recycled commercial bug tub ( with a handful of repcal adult beardie pellets and a fresh chunk of carrot , these are old tubs I use :

I'll get 9 tubs from a 600 cricket bulk order , and they are stored in the small tubs in a 35L archive tub.

The rubber bands make sure the lids stay put and ensure a nice air gap over the lid to ensure good air circulation , I usually have my tubs 9 to 12 tubs stacked 3 or 4 high in the 35L bug tub.

I could get 16 tubs into the 35L archive box ( and have had that many in it when I had 2 different size feeder crickets ( medium to large , and , 20day old - 1/3 size (for hatchlings )), but ATM there are spare stacked tubs and lids and a tub full of saved bearded dragon pellets from prior cricket tubs ( I don't waste these ==> mealworms and superworms to help feed them and make them more nutritious , and they get mixed with fresh pellets when I top up the pellets the crickets are eating ).
Beauty of the archive box is escaped crickets from the tubs ( sometimes they chew the air vent slits in the lids and escape the tub ) end up running about in the bottom of the archive box , and I haven't had ants invade the archive box ( used to be a problem in summer when I used a spare cardboard box to store my cricket keeper tubs in ) , and I can see at a glance if I need to replace the carrot , and how the crickets are faring.

My usual cricket order is either 600 , or 700 , or 1000 in medium size depending on who I order from , Biosupplies in Sydney (600x per batch), Frog Arcade in Melbourne ( a medium tube = 700 per batch) or from Livefoods in SE QLD the batch is 1000 in medium .


Works well, if some of the crickets arrive sick, you are not likely to loose every single cricket in a cricket pandemic like you might if you use a commercial cricket keeper or keep them all in a single large tub or bin.

Crickets are only smelly if your insect husbandry is poor, if you let the sick ones stay in the tub, or don't remove the dead ones, they rot like prawns do and smell the same , also helps to remove rotten uneaten greens or carrots and keep the cricket diet mainly dry .



I've been doing this for over 10 years now and rarely have mass die offs since I adopted this approach.

I've tried roaches as feeders , we have Woodies here , and they are bloody fast moving little devils and hard to keep confined. IMO crickets are easier to manage.

Thank you king of nobbys lol this was very helpful!

BaileyDee":3i0oazva said:

How to house crickets..I dont want to breed them, I just have a baby beardie who obviously needs lots and lots of protein. At the moment I only have 2 small cricket carriers that hold maybe 30 crickets each. I'd like to buy in bulk but not sure what to use to keep them in. I have been thinking about using a big tote with holes poked into it, but not sure how to get crickets out of there when I'm ready to feed without a bunch escaping lol!
Please let me know how you keep large amounts of crickets!
Thanks in advance.

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Hi there!
Like you, I have a young beardie and found my technique to be rather successful.

I keep 100 crickets in a ten gallon tank. I keep a long and easy to climb in take out container, then stack plates on top of the egg carton piece they come with as shelter.

For food, which is important because remember you're part of the food cycle now, I give them a variety: cricket meal, juvenile beardie pellets, and then some fruit (apples, raspberries, blueberries. something nutrient dense) along with some wet greens. My beardie is not about that green life, so I try to make his crickets as nutrient-dense as possible. I mist their feeding area 1-2 a day to give them some water.

Usually, this keeps them alive for a while, but of course, being bugs you will have some dead ones. I'm not about that roach life either. I live in SC and see enough of them- HUGE ones. I know it's important, but I provide a varied diet in other ways with gut loaded crickets, wax worms, calciworms, and the occasional mealworm as a treat.

Hope this helps
Selkie

Excess humidity in the keeper will wipe out the crickets very fast in my experience , as will direct exposure to sunlight.

Best to keep the keeper as dry as possible , only source of moisture being a chunk / chunks of carrot in long term keeper mode, or fresh high calcium greens & carrot in gutloading mode.