Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is there any reason to why crickets chirp as loud as they do. Also is there any way to get them to stop?
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Beardie lover

Crickets chirp to find a mate. Only the males chirp.

A couple ways to avoid that is feed off all the male crickets first. If you only have one or two dragons this isnt that big of a deal. If you have a lot of dragons its a waste of time. You can tell a male cricket from a female by the ovipositor. It is on the females and looks like another antenna sticking out of their butt.

Another way to avoid this is to use three week old crickets, also known as mediums in most pet stores. They are better for the dragons anyways because they lack wings. Only adult crickets chirp ,so they wont unless they survive that long.

good luck!

peace,
nate

there isn't any way to stop crickets from chirping. once they reach adulthood, the males sing to attract females and will continue to do so till they die. the reason their chirp is so loud is in nature, they need to outcompete other male crickets and the females could be quite far away.

nathan pretty much described the ways to limit the noise. the only other options to doing what he suggested is to not use crickets at all. switching to roaches, will eliminate the noise as would using silkworms, butterworms or hornworms.
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PHLdyPayne

a little time consuming but if you go through all the crickets and rip off the wings....they won't chirp anymore. Don't think of it as gross or in humane....you are going to feed them while they are alive to a dragon.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon