Where do you get crickets?

[smurfthebeardie]

I'm looking for the best price. I've looked at Fluker's and a few others online, but shipping costs more than the crickets. I live near Syracuse, NY.
The local pet stores want 10 cents a cricket or more. My neighbor gets crickets delivered to his door for $10 a thousand, but its a small breeder. I've called and they are already stretched to the limit with the number of customers they have.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[peera]

I get mine off http://www.ghann.com. Yes, the shipping hurts, but even with it, it's WAY cheaper than pet store prices. They also send the most incredibly healthy crickets, with most places I've lost at least 100 by the time my girl finishes off the 1000 (usually about 2 weeks) the largest # I've lost since switching to ghann's is 15, and that took about 3 weeks.

 

[Embee]

I order from Flukers because they seem to have the best shipping prices for the smaller orders (250,500). I live "way out west" and so they have to travel far, so I feel it's a decent deal, certainly compared with how much I spend at the pet store (.10 per). Flukers usually ships more than you order (for die off I assume), so I usually get around 700 (or more) crickets for a 500 order for around $22-24, so I call that a pretty good deal considering I'd only get 200+ for that amount at the pet store, and no extra for die off. Also, you can order specific size crickets which is so useful for those "in between" months when the smalls don't go far, but the larges are too large as to be unsafe.

Indeed, because crickets need to be shipped overnight or 2 day, the shipping is almost always more than the crickets themselves. That's fairly typical. Perhaps someone can suggest somewhere a bit closer to you that would charge a bit less for shipping, but I've done quite a bit of checking around myself and for most, the shipping prices are fairly uniform... but like I said, no crickets way over here and so they have to travel far (from the south, usually).

Best of luck!

Em

 

[spurlee01]

I think most people in the northeast use http://www.premiumcrickets.com. I think they are closer so better shipping prices.
Sara

 

[smurfthebeardie]

premiumcrickets.com seems to be the best price I can find. How long will they last? Smurf eats about 100 a week. He can't catch anything smaller than 1/4" and refuses to eat anything bigger than 1/2". 1/2" are doing fine now. I've read that they grow about 1/4" a week. Is this true?

 

[prickly]

the cheapest I've found is @ http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/feeder-crickets-worms-rodents-roaches-and-more/crickets/
1000x shipped for $19.95
I haven't placed an order yet though-
i plan to soon

 

[peera]

Prickly, unless you are in CA, do NOT use LLL. I'm only 2 states away and it always took 4-6 days to get my crickets because they chose to use a carrier that ONLY exists in CA, NV, and UT. When I contacted them, they claimed they have no control over that because it's their farm that makes the call. The final straw came when said delivery man decided to leave 2000 crickets outside (almost a week and a half after my order was placed), in the snow, at the wrong apartment, NOT EVEN BOTHERING TO KNOCK, and then when my boyfriend caught him before he got back into his van, tried to make us sign a paper stating we had received them 3 days before! And LLL wouldn't do anything about it because of the temps even though if they had used UPS and they had been delivered on time, they would have made it before the freak cold snap.

 

[spurlee01]

LLL's policy says that they've changed to FedEx. I havn't used them, though. Didn't trust them after hearing your story.
Sara

 

[MarcusAlan]

Ive used ghanns and considered LLL.

 

[peera]

That's good to hear Sara. I was never really happy with the quality either, but I don't know how much of that was the health of the crickets or the amount of time it took to get to me that ended up killing off a large part of my order the other times.

 

[prickly]

Well....since I'm in Alabama- I guess I may not try llreptile just yet....thanks for the advice.
if anyone has any other experiences with them since they changed to Fedex please share-

premiumcrickets seems to be fairly reasonable w/ S&H- plus they offer pheonix and super worms-
they are in Ga- about three hours from me, so shipping should be safe-

 

[prickly]

Just placed an order w/ premiumcrickets.com for: 1000 3/4" Crickets ($14.65)
50 Superworms ($3.50) and 1 Cup Phoenix Worms ($6.00)
Shipping UPS ground to Al was $11.50 for a total of $35.65

I estimate that should last about a minute :roll:

I will post a follow up when I recieve my order

 

[Loganator]

I have ordered from LLL and had a very good experience, but I am in CA. 1000 for $19.95 including shipping. They arrived Fed Ex next day and all were alive and healthy. I had very few die off over the next 3 weeks. Not sure if the results would be the same in another state, but I thought I would share my positive experience.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

I also use http://www.premiumcrickets.com ... They are great people!! :wink:

 

[Embee]

I estimate that should last about a minute :roll:

LOL, I hear ya. Hope all arrive quickly and "robust." :mrgreen:

Em