Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok,

this is really getting old. I thought I would ask you and see if this is normal. Everytime I order crickets they have bugs in them. Black worms with hair, bugs that fly and every 4th order has spiders... (about 2" in diameter)

I HATE spiders! They give me the willies...sorry to all of you who like spiders I don't mean to offend...But I was traumatized as a child and they make me wanna crawl out of my own skin.

Anyhow...I wanna know if this is normal. Everytime I dump them into their container I dump one box of 1000 and then clean and then dump the second ....and so on. I have had to fumigate and moving this many reptiles from one place to another is alot of work. I have lost some chameleons to spider bites and I don't want to lose any more. Not to mention how tacky a room looks with spider web on everything you touch including the gecko tanks....

Sorry about the venting....could anyone tell me if this is normal and I just have to clean them each time or does anyone recommend someone else. Right now I pay $15 per thousand (no shipping, box fees or "weather" fees). I normally order about 4-5 thousand every other week and sometimes every week depending on how many babies I have. Sometimes more...

If you could, E-Mail me with who your getting your crickets from. Most the places I've got them from will have a few of the flying beetles and the black fuzzy worms, but when I ordered from wormman.com there wasn't 1 of these with them. Also, I don't think there was 1 dead cricket. I don't think I've ever seen spiders in with my crickets before (besides when I got them in town) but if you're getting them, you should E-Mail whoever you're getting them from and tell them. It's one thing to include a little beetle, but to have something potentially dangerous is another thing.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV

I think you should definately find a new supplier. Its not OK to get garbage thrown in with your order. Im going to try wormman myself for superworms. My last supplier sent wrong sizes and probabally not as many as I ordered.

Theres no shortage of bug suppliers and we should be awarding our business to the ones who do it right.

ya i had spiders in my crickets once or twice i just killed them but i house mine in the garage so it dosnt matter
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2.3 beardies 1.0 uromastyx and more to come

The fuzzy worms and bettles are probably carrion beetles and their larvae. Alot of cricket breeders use these to clean up dead crickets (they feed off carcasses) and are not in themselves harmful to your reptiles. I don't know about the spiders..they probably are looking for easy meals.

Thank you Everybody for your words of encouragement.

I will look into other options.