2000 crickets

[RichGarner]

How in the world do you keep 2000 crickets in your house without going nuts?
I bought 250 online and after a feeding, I did not tape the box back up completely and about 100 got out. We've spent the last hour on our knees in my office looking for these things. My wife is about to chop my head off.

So, without spending tons of money of little cricket visits to my local petstore, how would you feed the 50-100+ crickets a day that some people here say is required?

(Wife wants to send Ed away. I'm trying to save my Ed.)

 

[mpbrown2]

The best way to keep crickets is to use a plastic sterilite bin with a hole cut in the top for ventilation. The clear bins they cannot climb the sides. Cover the hole with a screen to prevent escapees. I put egg crates or paper towel tubes in there with them. I also use water crystals as they cannot drown in them. you must clean the bin out as often as you can it will keep the crickets from dieing... I try to clean mine every day.

I recommend buying some Dubia Beetles... Since I am figuring the wife won't like the roach brand...

 

[dawnki]

dag----i just got an order of 100 crix and i thought THAT was a lot-----lol! crickets stink, are messy and kinda gross. i keep them because of my spiders--------i also bought 100 pinheads----try to open a container full of them-----OY :? :? :? :? :? :?

 

[Chryss]

The best way to keep crickets is to use a plastic sterilite bin with a hole cut in the top for ventilation. The clear bins they cannot climb the sides. Cover the hole with a screen to prevent escapees. I put egg crates or paper towel tubes in there with them. I also use water crystals as they cannot drown in them. you must clean the bin out as often as you can it will keep the crickets from dieing... I try to clean mine every day.I recommend buying some Dubia Beetles... Since I am figuring the wife won't like the roach brand...

I was curious how you clean the bin out. I have 1000 in a 15G tall tank and I have the water crystals in there with the flukers food for crickets. I also have a few egg crates and paper town rolls. But how do you clean around all that? Most of what is in the bottom is all dried up and the only way I see to clean it is a vacuum?

I am pretty freaked out about having roaches in the house and my husband has already said no way. So I am stuck doing crickets for now until he gets older and I can do some super worms.

 

[ScooterBlenny]

I order 1500 crickets every two weeks. I keep them in a clear sterilite bin, and I only order 3/8" crickets. I've found that the "annoying factor" REALLY kicks in when I move up to 1/2" crickets, so we stick wtih 3/8".

I don't have any problem keeping that many, and it's much better (and cheaper) than ordering smaller amounts more often.

 

[mpbrown2]

The way I clean it out is remove the water crystals and food. Then shake the crickets out of all of the egg crates and remove them. I then tip the bin so everything falls to one end. Then I wipe out the other end with a damp cloth then put the egg crates back in and let the crickets move back into them. I wait a few minutes then clean out the end with the poop, dead crickets, ect. Then add then add the food and water back in. I try to clean every day so the bin doesn’t stink to bad… but I don’t think any amount of cleaning gets rid of the stink completely

 

[RichGarner]

The way I clean it out is remove the water crystals and food. Then shake the crickets out of all of the egg crates and remove them. I then tip the bin so everything falls to one end. Then I wipe out the other end with a damp cloth then put the egg crates back in and let the crickets move back into them. I wait a few minutes then clean out the end with the poop, dead crickets, ect. Then add then add the food and water back in. I try to clean every day so the bin doesn’t stink to bad… but I don’t think any amount of cleaning gets rid of the stink completely

So... you take the crickets out of the cage to clean it and put them... where? I have the beardies cage and the cricket cage and that's it. Plus, whenever I go to transfer crickets for feeding, sometimes one or two get away from me. I can't imagine trying to transfer 1500 crickets to clean their cage.

Maybe some videos on the subject will help. Any one know of any?

 

[Chryss]

I think what mpbrown2 was saying is that he shakes out the egg cartons/paper towel holders in the cricket container so all that is left in there is the dirt and the crickets. Then he tips the container so all the crickets move to one side and wipes out that side. Then he puts the egg cartons back in on the clean side and lets the crickets move to the egg cartons so he can clean the side that is still dirty.

That is what I got out of it at least.

 

[Chryss]

I order 1500 crickets every two weeks. I keep them in a clear sterilite bin, and I only order 3/8" crickets. I've found that the "annoying factor" REALLY kicks in when I move up to 1/2" crickets, so we stick wtih 3/8".

I don't have any problem keeping that many, and it's much better (and cheaper) than ordering smaller amounts more often.

Holy cow - 3000 a month? Do you have more than one Beardie? Alvin is only eating about 30 day so a 1000 will last me a whole month - at least for right now. He is 3 months old next week.

 

[mpbrown2]

I have 1 beardie named Oliver he goes through about 1k crickets every 2 weeks. He is around 17 inches at about 7 months old. Got him from the local pet store Just before Christmas. He was very small at less then 4 inches! I get him to eat a nice large bowl of collard greens or else he would probably eat many more crickets.

I can't wait for the Dubia's to get into full force... I hate crickets

 

[ScooterBlenny]

Holy cow - 3000 a month? Do you have more than one Beardie? Alvin is only eating about 30 day so a 1000 will last me a whole month - at least for right now. He is 3 months old next week.

Just one beardie - Pudge is 11 months now. I can get away with less if I feed Phoenix Worms as well, but the cost works out about the same, so I just try to mix it up a bit. Some weeks she eats just crickets, sometimes crickets and PWs, and I've started to mix in a roach here and there while my colony is starting up.

 

[RioReptiles]

I get 5000 every two to three weeks. I don't buy them any bigger than 5/8" and then get several sizes smaller so they grow as I feed off the bigger ones. The crickets with wings go first so it stays quiet. And yes, I clean them everyday.

 

[Willa]

Ok so I am wanting to try and breed crickets, any suggestions :?: I only have Kashet and he is only eating about 10 to 20 crickets a day, but I still want to see if I can do it. He also eats his veggies, (if he feels like it :? )
He is almost 17 inches long. I think he is about twelve months, I'm not really sure. Petsmart (NOT!) said he was about four months when I got him in August, but he was about 4 inches long at the time and I was learning that Petsmart employees aren't required to be Smart to work at Petsmart. In fact I don't think they are required to know anything about the animals they are selling, just how to get people to buy the most expensive products.

 

[Elora]

Crickets are stupid and I hate them but I am a student so I have to go with what is the cheapest :evil:

Methods:
So I order 1000 crickets each time and I have figured out how to get them from the box to their container. (I put them in a 10 gallon aquarium with screen lid) Make sure you have a utility knife and you just put the box in the tank and cut off each layer piece by piece. If you don't cut off the flaps when they finally come pouring out they will climb up the flaps and jump out while you are dumping them.

So I shake and shake whats left of the box and get them all out. Keep the egg crates and put them into the tank. You may want to break them up smaller so that you can put a container in the tank and shake the egg crate over the container to get some crickets for your beardie.

Take out the potatoes that they come with and replace with sliced apples and cricket food. I use Flukers cricket feed.

Cleaning:
Well I time my order so that I use up every cricket the day my order is supposed to come. My tank is empty of crickets and now my order is here so I use a mini shop-vac to suck up all of the cricket skins and dead crickets then I throw away the old egg crates. So cleaning is done in between each order.

Tips
-Make sure your lid to the cricket tank is ventilated (you may want to put the cricket tank in a room where people dont go that often because these babies STINK.
-So I learned the hard way to make sure there is ventilation. Heh. My crickets are in the back room where there isnt heat in the winter so I put a heating pad under the tank to keep the crickets alive. I also didnt have a ventilated lid. So when I put the apples in there combined with the heating pad and no lid it became a WET GROSS MUSHY MESS inside of the tank. Most crickets died from the soggy wetness and water evaporated from the apples and condensed on the sides of the tank. BAD IDEA

good luck

 

[icerinkrat]

I have had my beardie 1 year coming up on June 1st. What a learning experience all across the board! We love him and he is just apart of our family as our dog. As far as cleaning and maintaining the crickets is...I order 1000 crickets at a time. To get the crickets from the box to the 10 gallon tank I use a knife and cut on side of the box out. I do this in a large garbage bag because there will be excapee's. pull out the egg cartons and place in the bag. I don't like to shake too much, I think it damages/kills more cricketes. I wear yellow gloves, cause I still won't touch a cricket. That's why I have boys. They get em for me when they get out from time to time. I scoop they rest out into the bag. Most of the poop in the box stays in and when they get transfered to the 10 gallon tank, it's perfect. I find that it's cheaper to wet a paper towel for them to suck on for water and I replace it daily. I don't change the tank everyday. Good for those who do, but it is VERY time consuming. When the weather is good, I keep them in the garage. No smell, no noise.