Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i buy crickets at the petstore, i take them home n put them in a 10 gallon to eat sum vegies n gut load and then around before i go to bed or the next day there all dead....??????

I don't keep or breed crickets, so I may be making a completely wrong guess here.

Is it possible that they're succumbing to some kind of toxic fumes in the atmosphere? I'm thinking of teflon cookware coating. The fumes from teflon cookware will kill pet birds, and I think it could do the same to crickets.
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tricia

ventilation issues?are they climbing all orver one another? Give us a few more details

the crickets ask normal, they crawl around and seem fine, i put them in a clean 10 gallon and sumplies in a plastic cage i have thats bairly smaller than a 10 gallon, then later in the day there on their backs w/their legs twitching, if they are rolled over they try to crawl but seem like there dieing and most of them are already dead.

Sounds like they are being poisoned or reacting to something in the environment. Are you always buying from the same supplier, or have you had the same reaction with Cricks from different sources?

I would try housing them in a different (new) container, and/or in a different location and begin to eliminate some of the possibilities. In any case.... I wouldn't feed these to any reptiles until you determine the cause.

There is definitely something strange in this equation that we don't know about. Here is what I do and it works great for me. I order 500 3/4 inch crix from American Cricket Ranch. I put them in a 10 gallon glass tank with a metal screen lid like you would use to house a small snake. I cut the egg flats that they were shipped with in half and put a few in the tank with some paper towel tubes to make it easier to get them out. I just pour some of the cricket food on the floor with some sliced veggies/fruits. Mine live for several weeks. When I get a new batch in, I don't use anything out of the ordinary to clean the tank, just 409 and water, rinse it out real well so no 409 residue is leftover. I know this was long winded but maybe it helps in some small way.

I had problems with my crickets dying within a couple of days and I found two things that were killing them was temp. over 80 and poison. If your home has been sprayed or you have pest strips anywhere that will do it. They dont have to make contact with it. I found an old pest strip in the next room and once I removed it I never had any more problems.

Perhaps "Febreeze" is causing it?
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tricia

if over 80 degrees can kill them then that must be it bcuz i keep them in my herp room which is usally 95-100 degrees

>>if over 80 degrees can kill them then that must be it bcuz i keep them in my herp room which is usally 95-100 degrees

curious as much as anything. My room is low 80s and the cages have supplimental heat of their own to make it that. But why so hot?
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Sonya

well see, we had a garage but we fixed i up as an apartment for my sis n her bf and 1 room is my herp room. the apartment duzn't have vents for ac or heat so they have to use the window air conditioners and my room is hot bcuz of the outside temp being in the 90s and up to 100 plus all the heat lamps, but becuz its o hot, 3 of my cages dont even neet heat lamps or mats and their temps r just about perfect in the cages.

>>well see, we had a garage but we fixed i up as an apartment for my sis n her bf and 1 room is my herp room. the apartment duzn't have vents for ac or heat so they have to use the window air conditioners and my room is hot bcuz of the outside temp being in the 90s and up to 100 plus all the heat lamps, but becuz its o hot, 3 of my cages dont even neet heat lamps or mats and their temps r just about perfect in the cages.

Yikes. I gotta say the best thing I did was put my herp room in the cellar. I have to contend with water now and then but the temp is even most of the time. I will have to heat in the cold of winter but it maintains itself otherwise and DOESN'T overheat.
Course, in upstate ny you don't have much time when it is 90-100s anyway.
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Sonya

I had a problem with the Petsmart here trying to do that. If I didnt pay attention they would automatically dust them. All the crickets would get hard and die.

hm i'v never had that happen, i can get crickets a the 2 pet store i usually go to or pets mart n they dont do n e thing to them nor to n e of the other insects.