Really BASIC question.

[jharveyjr54]

Ok, So I got my baby today. Been working on setting up his enclosure and getting all the necessary lights and supplies and info gathered for about a month. It never occurred to me to look into one thing....I got 1000 Crickets delivered today. What do you guys think the best way to A) Get 1000 crickets out of the box their shipped in and into my container? and B) Whats a good way to get them from there into a smaller container like a shaker so I can dust them, or even just into my enclosure?

I saw something on a post about dubia's earlier saying they kept a few egg flats cut into 4's just for transferring, and that seems like a good idea for general feeding, and maybe I could use some toilet paper tubes to get some into the shaker, but I'd really like to hear a few of someone with experiences ideas. I bought one of those cricket keepers. Maybe I can use the black tubes in that and place them the storage bin I'm using at the moment fort some transferring. I don't mind grabbing them with my hands, which I thought I would, but I end up crushing half of them. Yeah that cricket keeper, probably ok if you only get a few crickets, but trying to get 1000 of them out of the box they ship in, and into it, without spilling half of them, pretty challenging. The breeder I bought from was just using a big storage tote. Didn't even have a lid on it. Decided I need me a tote that size. It's definitely getting a lid with a screen though. Luckily for me, after I ended up dumping about 100 crickets, my 2 cats were near by, and apparently hungry, so the great cricket escape was short lived for about 90% of the escapees. Any advice you can offer, please do, because if not, next time I get cricket's I'm going to have to start selling tickets so people can watch the hilarity that ensues when 2 cats see a rush of cricket deliciousness!

 

[Tonja]

I have a tube thats is closed on one end from an old cricket keeper I keep in my cricket bin..crickets migrate to it when its left in the bin...put calcium in my shaker and the open end of the tube into the shaker and shake it till the crickets fall out of the tube into the shaker.

 

[jharveyjr54]

Sweet, I did that with all 4 of mine. I hope they migrate there soon and heavily. I had about 3/4 of them in the keeper for a while, like a couple hours. The caps are clear on mine, and I only ever saw a couple inside the tubes, the rest were just chilling on the crates they came in. If they hang out in those tube's it'll make my life so much easier.