Getting crickets out of terrarium!

[LilCheeto]

Hello, I am new to this community and this is my first post! Excited to interact with you all

About a month or two ago, I bought my first beardie. When I first got him I fed him small live crickets, and since he grew so fast I transferred him to medium crickets. Since then it's been some trouble keeping them under control. They're much bigger- they chirp- and worst of all, they scare the life out of me! I can't just pick them up and take them out of the cage like I could with the smaller ones. They make me scream like a baby if they jump towards my direction, lol. Anyway, I asked the lady I bought my beardie from if she knew anything about getting crickets out, and she said that I shouldn't worry about it if they have a food source in there, like an orange cube (for gut loading).

And so I'm doing just that, but I can't help but worry my baby will be nipped at. He doesn't have any raw or bleeding spots yet, but I don't want to wait for that to happen to starting dealing with it. Does anyone have tips for getting big crickets out of small crevasses? Any ways that don't require touching them? Is what the lady said true, and I shouldn't worry? Thanks!

 

[kingofnobbys]

Nothing for it other than to let your free range in the room -if it's safe for him to do so - or to place him in a 60L tub - and to strip all the stuff out of the terrarium and recapture the rogue crickets by hand or using one of these = a BUGBLASTER ( https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Vacuum-Spider-Catcher-Battery-Operated-Bug-Insect-Sucker-Wand-Critter-Hoover-NEW/273014220167?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 ).
I've been using BugBlaster vacuums to sort my crickets and catch rogue crickets for years , they make very easy and fast work of gathering 70-80 cricket batches to go into my cricket keep tubs from my 1000 cricket 3 weekly / monthly bulk orders and are great for dealing with spiders , wasps, and wild roaches in the house too.

You will also find there are dead crickets hidden in there too. Remove them too. Give the tank a good clean and return everything as before and then let the beardie have his tank back.

I suggest
1) only give him his crickets 2 or 3 at time rather than dumping a handful of crickets in there for him to catch and eat - a few are lot easier for him and you to keep track of.
let him catch and these , then repeat , and continue til he looses interest = is full.
2) leave the salad in the tank overnight, the crickets who evaded the beardie will come out after dark and nibble on the greens and veg (you can catch them then) , the rogue crickets will go for the salad overnight rather than trying to bite the hatchling too.... my beardie hatchlings all became midnight raiders - the discovered the crickets were raiding their salad and I'd often heard banging and activity in the rearing tubs at 11pm, even 2am …. and when I looked a hatchling or juvenile would not far from the food dish and it would be munching on a cricket and some green , and sometimes I'd see the hatchlings stalking a cricket like a cat stalks animals and suddenly it would lunge and no more bug...

 

[Martadragon017]

I had the same problem when I fed Marta crickets. I was pretty much terrified of them and they would keep me awake all night. What worked for me was the box that they came in. I would leave it in her enclosure so that Marta could reach the crickets that I couldn't get out of it, and one of the long flaps on the box was a little sticky. The crickets would stick to it so I would just throw the box away into the forest when I decided to switch to Dubia roaches, but that bugblaster does look handy! Hope this helps!