crix smell?

[Serrameth]

ok.. so im new to this entire beardie thing and i want to get it right.. i got about 100 crix yesterday and today they smell awful!! i was just wondering, is this normal? is it still safe to feed the crix to my charlie? or have they gone.. bad or whatever?

any help appreciated! thank you!
Charlie and Serrameth

 

[HumorDragon]

Crix will smell bad no matter no matter what. Their still fine to feed to your beardie.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Yes, they are ok to feed. I would however clean your cricket bin every 3 to 4 days or the smell will get worse (yes it can get much worse than it is now! ) Someone told me to put orange slices in the bin, yeah right, that didn't help either. The best way to get rid of cricket smell is by cleaning the bin, and that only decreases the smell for a day or two at best. I finally stopped getting large quantities of crickets and started a dubia roach colony-NO smell! YAY!-Now I only buy a couple dozen crickets a week for my boy (he'll eat all those in one feeding so I don't have to keep them in a bin). Now, the roaches are his daily staple. He loves them and I love the lack of smell and constant cleaning!

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Roaches all the way!!

 

[FourGremlins]

We use the big plastic totes. We cut out most of the top and glue screen on for ventilation. I do a mini sweep of debris at least once a day and find that I have to do a better full sweep out at least 2 times a week. Really, the smell is almost non existent with this method. It does comes back if I get a buunch of crickets molting at once and haven't swept debris yet.

 

[sheshe]

I must be doing something right because my crickets don't smell either. I have ordered them twice from Premium Crickets - 250 the first time and this week 500 - I also ordered the odor control stuff on their website (some vermiculite stuff you put in the bottom of the container - it's $2.00) so maybe that's helping with the smell. I have a large sterlite container. I cut a hole in the lid and put screen on. I have plenty of egg crates and a shallow dish that I put their food in. I haven't had a problem. I only saw like 5-10 dead ones from the first order. I really only swept it out once in 2 weeks. I did totally clean and disinfect the container before adding my second order.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

I was getting boxes of 1,000 to 1,500 before switching to the roaches and I used a sterilite bin, vented, etc.. I was cleaning thoroughly every 3 to 4 days and the smell starts to return after about 2 days. The problem with such a large quantity of crix, even in a large bin, is not just the molting or deads, but also the urine and poo (and lots of it) from the crix. I must admit, I had not tried the vermiculite (which I have a large bag of from a garden center that I use for my MHD's eggs), that might help. I have tried a number of other things, including the orange slices, but cleaning every few days was the only thing that seemed to really help. I don't have that problem now, since starting the dubia colony. I only buy a couple dozen crix a week, and I give them to my boy in one feeding so no more cricket bin! YAY!

 

[FourGremlins]

Yup, It is harder to keep the smell down when I have 1000+ crics, but sometimes I use Healthly Habitat spray to spot clean the bin and that does the trick. I love Healthy Habitat spray! We also have two bins, so I alternate bins and bleach the one not being used. I haven't had 1000+ crics in hot summer months yet... that might get dicey

 

[Serrameth]

ok i have another question about crickets.. the color.. i got my little guy about 100 crix the other day and made a small holding container for them. looking in the other day i noticed that some of the crix have turned a very dark brown color? is this normal.. im normaly really against bugs and all that gross stuff.. so i know nothing about them changing color or anything..so is it normal for them to change from light to very dark brown almost black?..o.o... bugs are freaking yucky!

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Yes it's normal. As the crickets grow the darken and also when they are ready to molt (shed).

 

[romanfj]

I have quit breeding crix and switched to roaches, too. However, when I was breeding crix, I routinely had 5000 on hand and only cleaned the bin every 6-8 weeks. I have found that:

1. If you're feeding them potato...STOP. Not only does a day old potato reek, it makes the crix waste smell worse.
2. If I fed mine dry cat/dog food, apple and collard or mustard greens exclusively, I had no more odor than with my roaches. Honest. The dog/cat food was an expensive holistic brand I feed my dogs, so I don't know whether something in my particular brand of dog food was helping, though.
3. Dead crix stink to high heaven. If they start dying off, they'll stink no matter what until you completely clean the bin.
4. Control the humidity in the bin. When crix respire, they release carbon dioxide and water just like we do. If you don't keep the humidity down, their waste smells way worse.

Please note that if you stick your face immediately above the bin, even roaches have some aroma despite what you may read on the Internet.

BTW: I switched to roaches not because of smell, but because I didn't have to deal with separating the nymphs from the adults. It simplifies breeding SOOOOOOOO much. Our crix never really bothered us, smell-wise.

Frank

 

[SierraandRhonda]

I buy between 100-200 crickets at a time. I rarely have any smell from my. I use a container with good air movement. When I buy crickets from a store that pe-packs their crickets and they always smell rank. The store I buy from (there is only two in town) I never have a smell and I am shocked to loose more than three in the week-week and I half I have them. It may be your supplier....not a typical smell

 

[FourGremlins]

I agree about pre-pack (small tubs from pet stores) crickets and smell. I just bought some packs from petsmart as we ran out of our Ghanns crickets till tuesday. Even after cleaning the dead ones, etc etc - they have a signature scent!

 

[kcsearle]

yup mine smell all the time i just keep cleaning the cricket keeper clean,(ie. taking dead ones out, giving them new food etc)