Help on maintaining large quantities of feeder crickets?

[SaraSaraSahara]

After a bit of math, I've come to the conclusion that ordering crickets in bulk from PremiumCrickets.com would save me a lot of money. After all, my little girl goes through about 1,500 of them a month (possibly even more!).

So, alright, it's cheaper to purchase online and everything seems all hunky-dory, until I realize: how on earth will I manage to keep 1,500 crickets alive at the same time?!

Right now, I buy about 100 every other day or so. I usually have about 15-20 casualties per bunch I buy by the time I feed the last of them to my beardie.

So, my questions:
1) What should I keep all these crickets in?
I currently store the crickets themselves in these cricket keepers:

As you can see, I have two in my possession, along with a small one that I occasionally use for extras. I doubt this'll be enough for 1,500 of 'em, though, as the most I've housed at a time would probably only have been around 120 or so.

2) What should I put in there to keep the crickets from just eating/killing each other? I've been using egg cartons and empty toilet paper rolls, would that be enough?

3) Any recommendations on how to keep noise/smell down? I haven't had a problem with it thus far, but I feel that'll change now that I'm going into the 1,000s.

4) Where should I store whatever I keep the crickets in? Note that space is somewhat limited, and as of now the 2 keepers I currently have have just been sitting next to my beardie's viv, as shown above.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[LLLReptile]

We have a basic care sheet to check out for information on cricket care, especially when maintaining lots of them for a while.
http://www.lllreptile.com/info/library/animal-care-sheets/invertebrates/-/cricket-care-sheet/

A large sweater tub from Target or Walmart works well to house about 1,000 - 2,000 crickets. I suggest getting a couple of tubs so you can just clean them into the new tub. Cut open the top and replace with fine mesh.

Basically just scale up what you have in the cricket keepers to the tub size. I prefer to use pine shavings to house the crickets on as it absorbs excess moisture (means they'll live longer and smell less), but some people use just paper towel or nothing at all.

Clean them at least once a week if not a bit more often, they can get smelly fast. Egg carton and paper towel tubes work excellent to keep them from just sitting on each other and suffocating.

I'd suggest sticking them in a closet or similar little storage space. Keeping them in a small room that you can close the door to will help with both smell and noise.

Hope that helps!

-Jen

 

[SaraSaraSahara]

^ Wow, thank you so much for all the info! My first order should be coming in soon, so I'm hoping that everything goes okay... Thanks again for all your help! And I'm glad I can just stick them in the closet; I was wanting to do that, but wasn't sure if the crickets would stress out and die because of the darkness or not. Sound like they should be fine, though.

 

[BabySkales]

just make sure to put plenty of egg cartons.. i buy 1k at a time and keep them in a 15g tank with a screen top.. even then im pushing it...
over crowding + not enough air flow = mass deaths.. i clean out the cricket tank at least twice a week...
if you notice a smell with the 100 you keep at time it gets worse with more crickets :?
just make sure they have plenty of space so they dont trample each other to death and you should be fine.
Good luck!