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I was just wondering what can be done to keep crickets from hiding before my leo has a chance to catch them. I have a young leo (about 4-5 months old) in a 10 gal tank with 3 hides (warm, cool, and moist), a dish with mealworms, one with water, and one with calcium. I have taken your advice and use paper towels for substrate. The crickets seem to find a way to hide under the paper towels before she(?) can catch them. I have even tried dropping them in one at a time, right in front of her. About 3 out of 5 manage to get under before she catches them. Any tips would be appreciated.
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Dcc1089

0.0.1 Leopard Gecko (Lizzy)
0.0.1 Gilbert's Skink (Eumeces Placerensis)

Well, I'm new to the Leopard Gecko thing. I had the same problem, but decided to try this... I removed all the furniture, made sure that the edges of the paper towel were as close to the tank as possible and dumped in 6 crickets. Since crickets tend to "walk the perimeter" all my gecko had to do was "set up camp" in one corner. Eventually, all of them walked to their doom.

With the furniture in the way, the geckos line of sight was disrupted and his feeding response decreased. Without the furniture, he was able to see them coming and ambush them one at a time.

Hope this helps!
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4 Corns - Aphrodite (Normal), Freya (Normal), Peyton (Amel), and Kal-El (Lavender)
2 Florida Kings - Thor (Axanthic Brooksi) & Lilith (Normal)
1 Leucistic Texas Rat Snake - MacLeod
1 Taiwan Beauty Snake - Mushu
1 W/C Banded Cal. King - Meridian
1.1 Leopard Geckos HET for Blizzard - Baldur & Nanna
0.0.1 SHCT Baldy Leopard Gecko
2.0 W/C Western Banded Geckos

I've heard of a few folks relocating their gecko to a tank with the targets (er... I mean crickets) in it with no furniture of any kind. Kinda a feeding box.

Haven't done so myself but it sounds feasable in concept so long as the gecko doesn't mind the temporary relocation. A few advantages would include knowing exactly how much your gecko has consumed food-wise and would also keep those pesky crickets from later nibbling on the gecko's toes while he sleeps.

Does anybody use this technique?

I remove almost all cage furniture. Then I release a whole bunch of crickets or mealworms. I keep my juvenile geckos on cage carpet, so the crickets can't really get under that. All of my leopards love hunting!

Kelly
1.1.6 Leopard Geckos
1.2.1 Hedgehogs
1.0.0 Mediterranean Gecko
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon