Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, I have a strange question...I seem to have a cricket infestation in my "snake room"; are they a threat to any of my snakes (thus meaning I need to clean all substrates now), or should I just wait until they are adults and remove them from all cages?? Apparently a cricket laid some eggs in the fire skinks cage, and now I have tiny little crickets showing up all over the room. Most are in the fire skinks cage, but I've also found a couple in about every snakes water bowl. And yes, they are crickets, not mites; I've looked at them with a magnifying glass and they are clearly baby crickets. Should I be concerned?
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-David

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)

Well, free crickets for yer skinks is cool but... I would worry about them biting your snakes, nasty buggers to geckos
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Theres no need to ask directions if you ever lose you mind...

yeah, that's what I'm worried about...I know in the wild snakes live under rocks, logs, etc. and probably always have bugs and crickets crawling over and around them, but it's different in captivity, and I don't think the crickets have anything to feed on in the cages. I've not seen too many yet in any of the snake cages, just one or two dead in the water bowls every couple of days. I don't even know how many eggs a cricket can lay; certainly seem to be a lot in my fire skinks cage!
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-David

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)

I wouldn't be concerned I have been there as well from same lizards no less, I no longer keep fire skinks, but I have kept and bred them, very interesting captives, wish the babies kept that intricate blue tail with the black markings. First skinks I bred where broad headed skinks I caught in Alabama, first skink I ever had was a gold skink I purchased at a flea market in NJ as a child, I broke his tail off on the way home when he escaped in the family suburban lol. Was like 8 years old and couldn't not peek at him and he escaped and I broke off his tail and learned about autonomy at a early age, even knew about the regrowth ( not as pretty as original tail )before I read it in a book many years later. Good old days lol.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research