Help! 1000 crickets....

[koco46]

I ordered 1000 crickets,they are supposed to arrive today and I was wondering if I could keep them in a dark colored 10 gal Rubbermaid tub that I previously had Dubias in or do they need to have more light?

( I did have 1500 small Dubias in the unheated tub,but Phoenix went through them in about a month,and they are so expensive at this point,so I have to alternate crickets until my own dubia colony is ready to feed from)

I do have "cricket chow" and water crystals and I am planning to add carrots,potatoes etc to the bin daily.

How do people clean out the bins with 1000 crickets jumping all over the place??? Or should I not worry about cleaning it until the next batch?

I do have egg crates left over from the dubias,I ordered 1/4 inch sized crickets and I understand their life span is about 3 weeks after they reach adulthood.

I would appreciate any cricket keeping advice,I am worried that I'll manage to kill a lot before Phoenix gets a chance to eat them.

 

[koco46]

I just found the post on cricket care and it said that crickets "thrive" in higher temperatures.

Our house gets down to about 65 at night this time of the year,would they survive in temperatures that would fluctuate between 65 and 80ish?

 

[casper31]

I've only been keeping crickets for a little over a month so someone may have better advice, but so far I haven't had many problems with them. I feed cricket chow every couple of days, put in veggie scraps daily as a water/food source and they have done fine. I keep them in the hallway because it gets the least amount of light in the house, but isn't pitch dark. I will say that I used a 13 gal plastic container and it was too shallow. I had crickets jumping out all over the dang place. I moved them to a 10 gal glass aquarium with a mesh top and its been great. I would just say make sure the container is deep not wide whatever the size.
I put in empty paper towel roll as well as egg crates. the empty paper towel rolls work great for transferring crickets for feedings.

 

[Sapphire]

I ordered 1000 crickets,they are supposed to arrive today and I was wondering if I could keep them in a dark colored 10 gal Rubbermaid tub that I previously had Dubias in or do they need to have more light?

( I did have 1500 small Dubias in the unheated tub,but Phoenix went through them in about a month,and they are so expensive at this point,so I have to alternate crickets until my own dubia colony is ready to feed from)

I do have "cricket chow" and water crystals and I am planning to add carrots,potatoes etc to the bin daily.

How do people clean out the bins with 1000 crickets jumping all over the place??? Or should I not worry about cleaning it until the next batch?

I do have egg crates left over from the dubias,I ordered 1/4 inch sized crickets and I understand their life span is about 3 weeks after they reach adulthood.

I would appreciate any cricket keeping advice,I am worried that I'll manage to kill a lot before Phoenix gets a chance to eat them.

1) They don't need light. Crickets prefer the dark.

2) You'll definitely want to clean the bin every few days or once a week, at least. They shed skins and they poop and they die. And then they smell. So you'll want to clean it. I used an index card as a kind of makeshift shovel, I suppose you could say... Sweep all of the mess to one edge or corner, and the crickets will most likely run away from it. Then scoop it out into the trash. Crickets will jump on you while your hand is in there, probably, but they're harmless.

3) Crickets aren't as hardy as dubia, so you're going to have a lot drop dead for no reason. You'll freak out and think there's a problem... there probably isn't. They just die easily.

 

[Sapphire]

I just found the post on cricket care and it said that crickets "thrive" in higher temperatures.

Our house gets down to about 65 at night this time of the year,would they survive in temperatures that would fluctuate between 65 and 80ish?

There's a difference between "thrive" and "survive." They'll survive in the temperatures you described, and they'll be fine. For optimal growth and breeding and happiness (for them to "thrive") they prefer warmer temps.

 

[koco46]

Thank-you everybody for all the advice!

Yes,I think we do need a taller tub,seems like every time we take some crickets out to feed our beardie, we end up chasing escaped crickets down on the kitchen floor,they are fast and they seem to eat so much more than baby dubias,too!!

I think I'll start serenading my dubias, maybe it'll make them produce faster! :wink: