My crickets are dying?!?!

[dylankw]

I have kept crickets in the past just fine in a tote that I have. I keep some paper towel tube and egg crate in there as well as a dish of flukers food and flukers water crystals. I keep this tote outside on my back porch and in the past have had little to no problems, possibly leaving one or two out of 3 dozen that will last me a couple weeks (I have been doing reptiworms as a staple and a few crickets a day as a treat). I just got 36 crickets from petsmart on monday and I lost about 20 of them. I replenished my supply yesterday with 50 and I have already lost like 5. Its not any hotter outside then it has been in the past. I don't know what to do but I need to find out why they are dying asap because I am going back to crickets as a staple and have 1000 already on order. Please help.

Regards,

Dylankw

 

[Claudiusx]

Have you ever had any experience with keeping large quantities of crickets with success?
I don't really like the flunkers food. Its' not really meant to be used to keep crickets alive, its more of a gutload thing.
Do you clean out the dead crickets right when you see them? That is key to keeping crickets alive.

-Brandon

 

[dylankw]

I have been cleaning them out and I have kept 100+ before on the same food. Like I said I haven't had any problems until very recently . . . could I have a disease in the colony? I think I am going to move it another container when I get my new shipment. Should I keep any remaining crickets away from my new ones just in case?

Regards,

Dylankw

 

[Claudiusx]

It wouldn't hurt.
As long as your buying from a reputable cricket breeder, you should be able to keep most of them alive. However, be iffy about that flunkers feed. I'm pretty sure its very high in calcium.

-Brandon

 

[dylankw]

Yeah it is really high, but like I said I have kept them alive for weeks before. I got them from petsmart and my next shipment is coming from petco. :-/ I went with them because it was a good price. Hopefully it works out. I am trying to find the best/easiest feeder because in about a month I go back to college and my bearded dragon is technically not allowed so my mom will be doing most of the care, but that is only if I decide not to sneak her in. I have tried reptiworms and crickets. Roaches are an absolute no go! My mom will NEVER allow them. Do you have any suggestion for a good staple that might be easier or cheaper then crickets?

 

[Claudiusx]

Only one that is cheaper and easier is Dubia Roaches. Personally I would much rather have Dubia than loud stinky crickets.

-Brandon

 

[Gail]

do you keep a lid on the cricket tote? If you do make sure it has large areas cut out and covered with screen. Without good ventilation, crickets will die quickly. I also recommend plain water crystals, too much calcium can actually kill crickets.

The only other cheap/easy feed besides dubia would be superworms but they can only be feed to adult dragons.

 

[randommonks]

Yeah it is really high, but like I said I have kept them alive for weeks before. I got them from petsmart and my next shipment is coming from petco. :-/ I went with them because it was a good price. Hopefully it works out. I am trying to find the best/easiest feeder because in about a month I go back to college and my bearded dragon is technically not allowed so my mom will be doing most of the care, but that is only if I decide not to sneak her in. I have tried reptiworms and crickets. Roaches are an absolute no go! My mom will NEVER allow them. Do you have any suggestion for a good staple that might be easier or cheaper then crickets?

I know when I lived in the dorms, they had the RA's conduct random room inspections, to make sure there was no contraband (alcohol in minors' rooms, no fire violations, no pets besides fish) and they would either warn you or fine you if they find something that they're not supposed to. I had a beta while in the dorms, and can't imagine trying to hide a tank the size that beardies need in a small dorm room. Not to mention my roommate would have killed me.

 

[danab]

I've had problems with some of the petstore crickets (back in the days when I would buy crickets which I do not do anymore) having massive die offs. After my last big die off I went and looked inside their cricket bins and there were tons dead in there too. So I'm thinking stress during shipment temps. etc. with thoughts of the cricket virus lurking in the back of my head. Since they wouldn't tell me where they got their crickets from, I bought all my crickets online and they were cheaper too. I just checked and Ghanns still states the virus is still going around in the USA and Canada so that's always a possibility. Keep in mind that the cricket virus will not harm your beardie. It just means that crickets who get it die off like mad (highest percentage right before they hit the adult winged stage) and its the main reason why crickets are getting stupidly expensive.

High calcium gutload will kill crickets and is not meant to keep them alive for long periods of time. Its a feed 24 hours before you give them to your animals kind of thing. I believe I read that large amounts of calcium over time hardens their exoskeletons and then they can't molt but I can't locate that info atm. Most online cricket sellers have cricket food and water crystals that you can buy at the same time as your crickets. I had the most success with that setup.

I make my own insect chow now and use water crystals and dubia roaches. Im also working on superworms so I am not dependant on jsut one type of foodsource for my babies and I'm frugal LOL.

 

[dylankw]

Well as for hiding her it should be easy. Our RA's only do one search a semester and we are given a weeks notice. During this search they are not legally allowed to move anything, can't open drawers, cant look under beds, anything. A 40g breeder should fit nicely under a bed with risers and a blanket draped over the edge of the bed would be all that is needed during inspection. Plus my roommate is my best friend and said "well it doesn't defecate on the floor so I'm fine with it" lol

Now as for feeding my crickets. I still am not convinced that it is the chow that is causing it. I have kept them alive for weeks using just this and had no problems except that some of the crickets almost got too big to be fed to my beardie. Today she finished off her supply and before adding new ones that I picked up I cleaned everything in thoroughly. I am hoping this will solve my problems but It may not. If it doesnt I will try switching to a different chow. In that case what do I do? Just put the ones I plan on feeding in a different container 24hrs in advance with the gutload? This is all really frustrating because I had never had any problems before. I almost feel like going back to reptiworms. I cant wait till I get my own place so I can do rusty red roaches. I talked to a guy at a show a few weeks back and we discussed them. They seem like a much better feeder then dubias. The problem we saw with dubias is having to sort through the colony to find the ones that were the right size for feeding. But I can't do any roaches until I get my own place.

 

[Claudiusx]

Well there is no reason for all of us to lie to you, so why would you still be skeptical.

Crickets eating a high calcium diet often die off because high calcium in crickets causes them to not be able to molt. When they can't molt anymore they die.
The Calcium makes the skin too hard and they can't shed it off.

It's cheaper to make your own food anyways. Its a win-win to not use the flunkers anyways. Less money, less death.
However, the flunkers feed is good, like previously mentioned, for crickets that you are going to be feeding soon. If you fed it only to the crickets you were going to feed off in the next day or two, it would be much more beneficial.

-Brandon

 

[Kalyn876]

So i too have had my 5 week old crickets flipping over and dying in large numbers so I did some research. I found out that most crickets sold today have a virus that paralyzes them; many cricket farms have shut down bleached everything; opened up with new eggs and the crickets started flipping over again. I don;t remember the technical name of the virus but I remember hearing about it happening in europe, Then a north american herp specialist mentioned that very soon we would have it here as well. There really is no way to stop them from dying..this is why I tried to switch to pheonix worms to no avail!! Picky Beardies.

So instead of buying 100 once every 2 weeks I now buy 25 every 5 days.

 

[Fuzzyviper]

Have you cleaned out the cricket container recently? After a large die off, you should take everything out and clean it. Dead crickets go bad really quickly and any residue from them can get on the container and bother the other crickets. My roommates HATED me having crickets but I had to feed my tree frogs so they put up with them. We'd always have escaped crickets, chirping, and cricket smell going on. They got really mad once when I bought about 100 at once and I had to go pull all the wings off the crickets by hand so they'd shut up. If your roommate would be alright with dubias, I would try that. My mom doesn't like my dubias either. I'm post college age so I just bought a bunch and set them up far back in the basement before letting her know. Other than refusing to feed them to him when I'm gone, she doesn't care much now. She actually came in and watched Malygos chow on some today, which is the first time she's watched him eat his bugs.

I actually kept 3 reptiles in my room most of my college years and no one ever complained. I had tree frogs in a tank on top of my desk for 5 years and my ball python under my bed for about 4. It's more about who comes in and whether they're going to make a point to write you up or not. I had security guards, maintenance guys, and RAs in my room and they just asked what was in the tank and wondered if those things under my sink were spiders (they were crickets). :lol: Just make sure to turn off lights/hide him well if people you don't know well or anyone of authority comes in.

 

[Nuka042]

It also just might be the store you are buying them from. I've noticed that when I bought my back up crickets from Petsmart, they died off very quickly. When bought from Petco, they outlived the Petsmart crickets however they died off faster than the crickets I buy from a small local pet store (the major difference between all three is that the local pet store constantly gives then fresh veggies to eat and a constant water source versus Petsmart giving no food and Petco giving them no water source or no fresh food).

Like someone already stated, I also increased the frequency of when I buy and decreased the amount. I buy 5-6 dozen every week now (and since becoming a regular costumer, they give me extra crickets ^_^). I tried ordered from Ghanns (I ordered 250)...dear god did the smell just over power me, the amount of gross gunk I had to clean and the amount of crickets dying due to over crowding....never again will I get that many at once.