Haha, I was (and still am!) scared of crickets too. When I first bought my dragon, I didn't really have any choice other than to feed crickets, since it was really the easiest option at the time. So I ordered 500 of them from the breeder and when I saw the box, I was like "... Great." Not to mention, they were pretty big, definitely bigger than the 1/2" I ordered. Good thing my bf was with me when I picked up my stuff, so I had him dump the crickets into the bin instead, LOL. I didn't even dare open the box myself with bare hands at the time.
But of course, I did have to deal with them myself eventually.. so what I did was place a paper towel tube inside the bin. My cricket bin is near one of our heating vents, so I put the tube near the warmest area of the bin and many, many crickets will go into the tube since it's warm. When it's feeding time, I just pick up the tube (after making sure there're no crickets on the outside -_-
and then shake some into a tall deli container that also has some supplements inside. When they're in there you can just easily shake them out, however many of them you need. So with that method, I never had to touch a cricket, ever! (Except for those rare occasions when a cricket jumped out of the wrong end of the tube towards me, which really, really startled me...!)
I don't use crickets as feeders anymore though.. I really do not like them -- they stink real bad, make too much noise, grow too quickly and die off randomly. Not to mention, they commonly carry pinworms and I suspect my beardie got those from the crickets, which I just finished treating her for. Now I use silkworms as feeders, and I really like them a whole lot more. They are way, way more work than crickets to care for, especially if you hatch them from eggs and breed them like I do, but they are worth it. One of the most nutritious feeders, and they don't make noise, don't stink, don't bite, and I personally think they're just cute little caterpillars, not scary at all. I could go on and on about them, but this post is getting too long, sorry..!