The Great Cricket Round Up, there's got to be a better way!!

[Ashpd2006]

So tonight I was cleaning Mario's tank and when I moved some stacked tile I had in there dozens of crickets emerged. Obviously I was mistaken when I thought I had removed every cricket at night. We just got him last week so I am new to all of this, but after standing over his tank trying to remove the crickets 1 by 1, I got to thinking that there has to be a better way to remove them, other than my dyson. Lol.

So, how does everyone else go about this? I should have my Phoenix worms here tomorrow and he also loves dubias, so I may just be done with the crickets....I HATE CRICKETS!

 

[lillahine]

Im a new owner but so far i found that if you take an empty paper towel roll and fold one end over than kinda scoop them up they usually crawl right in. Other than that im using my hand and usually i end uo killing them by accident. Hope that helps

 

[lilblack94gt]

The best way to avoid extra crix in the tank is to use a separate rubbermaid tote to feed in. That way you can just plce the beardie in there and not have to worry about crix eating your beardie at night.

 

[Paradon]

Yuo could vacum them up.

 

[jsnsan]

That's why I don't feed mobile crickets. I got tired of doing that very thing. I put mine in a ziplock, and then put them in the freezer for a couple of minutes...It immobilizes them for a few minutes until they warm up. Then, you can either feed them in a bowl, or hand feed them, or use tweezers, or... You get the idea
Once your beardie has eaten all they wanted, put those crickets back in the cricket keeper for next time. They warm back up in about 5-10 minutes and start moving around at that point. Just dont freeze them for too long, or you end up with dead crickets.

 

[Ashpd2006]

Thank you for all of the ideas!!! I think I'm going to try the freezer trick first.

 

[jsnsan]

Good luck!

 

[Dooter]

This is the biggest reason I hate crickets!!!

When I do feed them to Stella, I do the freezer trick too (actually, I stick them in the refrigerator for 15 min) so that they are easy to grab, then I cut their jumper legs off with a pair of cuticle scissors. :twisted:

That way when I put them in Stella's bowl, they will crawl around but they can't jump out.

Or you can just get dubia roaches...

 

[angelpaws]

I had the same scenario happen to me the other day with the carpet. I did my weekly cleaning, pulled up the carpet and found a crickets partying!!
At that time I cleared the tank, titled it and slid them all back into thier keeper.

Another blogger recently suggested to me: dropping in two or three crix at a time to assure that they are being eaten. Personally, I always try to be sure the hiding spaces are minimal to none. I know this is easier to say. I flatten the edges of the rug now and put furniture on the ends to hold it flat. My next plan is to velcro the edges of the tank to hold the carpet down. I also arrange my rocks so the spaces between them are big enough for the beardie to get into (or at least fit his head into) OR make the spaces too small to obsure the entire cricket. My beardie has yanked a few out of their hiding spots by thier a$$es - kind of morbidly funny for me.

As much as I hate crickets, I cant get myself to bring roaches into the home. The idea goes against my better judgement - lol - what would happen if a few got loose?! Lordy! I know they arent the same as the common house roach but I just shudder at the idea of the house having roaches somewhere! EEEeee! LOL

 

[victoriah8208]

Ive had this problem before and after one day spending ten minutes trying to catch one cricket in the tank with a pair of tweezers i decided to use a small fish net. It was really a desperate act but it turned out to work better than i thought! you just use the net to corral them between the net and the wall of the tank. Easy peasy