more the half my crickets DOA

Wasn't impressed yesterday when my shipment of adult and large (2/3 size) crickets arrived (only been in the mail for 2 days) and I discovered over half my adult crickets in the tube were dead, and most of the survivors that I transferred to cricket tubs , gave fresh carrot chunks (for food and hydration) and buk choi greens and adult beardie pellets to eat , had died overnight, got only a few dozen from this batch still alive and frisky.

Doubt it was the warm / hot weather while enroute , as the 2/3 size crickets (shipped together in a different mailer tube) arrived with only a few DOA , and I lost none of these overnight.

I contacted the supplier and they tell me the remaining stock of adult crickets at their facility seem fine.... none the less , I'm reluctant to use this batch of adult feeders to feed my beardies and bluetongues in case they are contaminated or have a nasty paracite or desease. I know of a guy who lost all his geckos under similar circumstances , so the survivors are quaranteened for a couple of days, if they are fine after that I'll use them.

The wild skinks outside, the local native birds and ants had feast today - they had about 20 bugs. The rest are in the fridge and will out go to the wild critters over then next few days. I'm sure Cheakie (our resident wild house skink) will enjoy a couple of the crickets each day she visits inside too.

Not happy about having to buy some crickets from the local pet shop to make sure I've sufficient feeders , I do have superworms but don't want to use as a staple for a few days once my 2/3 sized crickets have been eaten.

The supplier has added free of charge another small tube of adult crickets to my next order and was very apologetic. She thinks (the manager) that perhaps something happened to them in packing or while enroute.

That's super frustrating. I had that happen with one or two of my cricket shipments too. It's amazing how fragile they seem compared to roaches. Hopefully it was just transit conditions and nothing that can be harmful to your crew or Cheakie and his friends. This kind of thing happens quite a bit with my orders of silkworms. I still need to get to following your advice about breeding them.

That sucks. Where were they shipped or routed from on their travels to you. Depending on where it was the weather has really been turning cold and stormy all over northern US and Canada in the past week.

Australia, been hot here, into another run of heatwave days and nights actually (western suburbs of Sydney and Newcastle forecast is for another 3 -4 days of temps us high as 43degC with high humidity as well).

I don't recall it being exceptionally hot on the days they were enroute from Melbourne to me in Gateshead, and the 2/3 size crickets in the other tube (both tubes taped together) were fine and have been fine.

Down to about 30ish Adult crickets from this batch, still quaranteened.

Wife bought 4 tubs of Piscus Medium crickets this morning while doing the weekly shop. Not cheap from the local pet shop @ $5.20 per tub (of about 40 crickets).

Bunch of very fat well fed wild skinks in my yard , been keeping the dead crickets in a tub in the meatkeeper and putting 20 - 30 out onto the garden and under the back porch each couple of days.

I think the local wild skinks think all their xmases have come at once.

Yeah definitely. They all just won the lottery.

It's so cute that you're feeding off all of the "d-grade" batch to the skinks!! They probably think your the best thing since... well probably just the best thing ever!! ^_^

Zombiepanda":near1pz7 said:

It's so cute that you're feeding off all of the "d-grade" batch to the skinks!! They probably think your the best thing since... well probably just the best thing ever!! ^_^

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My local wild skinks have been known to mug me.... I sit on the steps or one of the paths or on the grass with a tub of mealworms and they come trotting right up to me and even crawl over my feet legs and under my legs to get those worms. I've had up 8 skinks doing this at once...LOL

I've been feeding my resident wild lizards (frogs and birds) since I retired (about 16 years ago) and bought tubs of mealworms just for them before I started keeping pet lizards. And since I started having pet lizards, the wild lizards have been getting the pet lizards' left overs (which they make very short work off).

I regard my resident wild skinks as defacto pets, and some are tame enough (with me) to let me hand feed and pet them.

That is too cute!!! I'm 100% picturing the "pigeon people" in New York. You are the much more awesome equivalent!!

That would be so cool! I've never seen a single wild lizard in Iowa. Saw a western fence lizard in Dinosaur National Park once and just about lost my mind. Followed him around for about half an hour. If I had them running wild around here I'd probably start up a huge compost bin and fill it with black soldier fly larvae to build a colony for them to feast on.

CooperDragon":2ds634b9 said:

That would be so cool! I've never seen a single wild lizard in Iowa. Saw a western fence lizard in Dinosaur National Park once and just about lost my mind. Followed him around for about half an hour. If I had them running wild around here I'd probably start up a huge compost bin and fill it with black soldier fly larvae to build a colony for them to feast on.

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Same here!!! In north Georgia I have maybe seen a blue tail once in the last 10 years. It would be the coolest ever to just have them running up to you

Zombiepanda":5peudl7r said:

CooperDragon":5peudl7r said:

That would be so cool! I've never seen a single wild lizard in Iowa. Saw a western fence lizard in Dinosaur National Park once and just about lost my mind. Followed him around for about half an hour. If I had them running wild around here I'd probably start up a huge compost bin and fill it with black soldier fly larvae to build a colony for them to feast on.

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Same here!!! In north Georgia I have maybe seen a blue tail once in the last 10 years. It would be the coolest ever to just have them running up to you

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Well ordinarily water skinks and delicate brown garden skinks (the most commonly seen in my garden and under around my house and in my shed) are very timid and skittish animals (you might hear them , and maybe see the leaf litter moving or grass moving, but you will be very lucky to see the lizard , BUT they are very cleaver and soon learn to trust you if you never chase them or try to catch them and especially if you toss them food treats (like earth worms millipedes catepillars when gardening, or mealworms if you have regulars.
They recognize people too , and some of mine come when I call them too or show up soon after I sit down and start calling.
We sometimes get visits from adult and juvenile eastern water dragons (a very serious lizard) and from wild bluetongues.
Used to have tree frogs and marsh frogs in the wild patch but the neighbour's cat exterminated them all in it's first year.