Cricket cleaning

[sbattisti]

OK, so tonight I'm tackling my first cleaning of the cricket bin.

I have a second bin at hand and ready to go. Is the process pretty much this?

1. Take out the water/food and transfer to the new.

2. Transfer the crates from old to the new, with as many crickets as possible.

3. Vomit at the smell.

4. Somehow get the stragglers over to the new bin. (Put paper towel rolls in and wait for them to climb inside)

5. Clean the bin with bleach/water.

Is that about it? Any suggestions for how to accomplish 2 and 4 with a minimum of cricket escapees?

If I do this outside in the 20-degree weather (so that escapees end up NOT in the house), will they die from just a few mins of exposure?

Thanks!

Steve

 

[romanfj]

If you mean a minute or 2, no, they won't all die, but you will have very little time at that temp.

I also wouldn't put the food and water in first. They're just going to get full of cricket poo.

I caught the special on Ghann's Cricket Farm on Dirty Jobs last night and to get cricket out of the bins, they place cardboard towers (you could use the tubes) VERTICALLY in the bins. The crickets just swarm up the vertical surface. Pick up the loaded tube and shake. Wish I'd known that back when I was breeding them.

I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times, but save yourself the trouble and breed roaches.

Frank

 

[sbattisti]

If you mean a minute or 2, no, they won't all die, but you will have very little time at that temp.

I also wouldn't put the food and water in first. They're just going to get full of cricket poo.

I caught the special on Ghann's Cricket Farm on Dirty Jobs last night and to get cricket out of the bins, they place cardboard towers (you could use the tubes) VERTICALLY in the bins. The crickets just swarm up the vertical surface. Pick up the loaded tube and shake. Wish I'd known that back when I was breeding them.

I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times, but save yourself the trouble and breed roaches.

Frank

Thanks. Yeah, these crickets are strictly temporary while my dubia colony reaches self-sustaining levels. But I just started the colony, and with just 25 adults, so it may be a while...

Interesting - I've always put the tubes horizontally!