Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i buy crickets by the thousand at reptiledepot, and i have tried everything to keep those darn things alive.

what do u guys use as hiding places so they dont kill eace other,food and water. iv been feeding my crickets oatmeal with fresh lettuce every once and a while. and that gel water that has calcium and says gutload on it.

for the substrate, iv tried the big egg cartons in a fish tank, they died and it smelled bad, iv tried soil and they died and it smelled bad, iv tried building a screen cage and they chewed through it and now i have a thousand crickets at work.

what im trying now is a tubber wear container with tons of holes on the top for fresh air and i was thinking of using moss so they can hide better then using the egg cartons. and use coffe filters to put the food and water gel so i can throw it away every other day and put a fresh one in.
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1.0. Vield Chameleon(Jessy James)
1.1.3 Sugar gliders(Bonnie & Clyde)
2.0 Ferrets(Butch & Sundance)
1.1.3 Parakeets(Prettyboy,Sassy)
1.0 Doberman (Aries)
1.1 Cats(Riley, Zoe)

I used to have that problem as well (only not by the thousands so might be different). I have mine in a 30 gallon tank, bed a beast peat moss stuff on the bottom and tons of egg cartons and a few big sticks. I know a lot of people say the bed a beast will mold but so far mine hasn't. There is little to no smell in there. I put their fresh food on a plastic take out lid (McD salad top). Keeps the food clean and easy to toss out later. Grain gutload, water, and water bites are put in some fake stone dishes (small). I last had 250 crickets in there. I think about 4 have died in there (that I know of...3 were whole bodies and found one head lol) and I have a ton of baby crickets now. Try stacking the egg crates more vertical.

im not going with the tank idea any more, i have those tubba wear that are only about 6" high maybe a tad bit highr. but i was thinking of that SPHAGNUM MOSS that reptile depot sales. im not going to wet it at all though so it shouldnt mold then, but with the lid on the container it might. i think another problem i have is that i put 1000 crickets together at one time. maybe i could buy about 4-5 containers and put 200-250 and see if that works.

do u know anything about that SPHAGNUM MOSS?
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1.0. Vield Chameleon(Jessy James)
1.1.3 Sugar gliders(Bonnie & Clyde)
2.0 Ferrets(Butch & Sundance)
1.1.3 Parakeets(Prettyboy,Sassy)
1.0 Doberman (Aries)
1.1 Cats(Riley, Zoe)

If you have a thousand crickets in anything less than a GIGANTIC holding area, you are going to experience deaths. I've found that the closer the crickets are packed in together, the more they canibalize each other.

I use that crushed walnut bedding for birds. It doesn't trap moisture - it's dry as a bone. Bacteria love moisture. I use plastic lids to hold my gutload and gel water, and clean them every other day. I have a 20 gal or so rubbermaid container with a modified screen lid, and I usually have 75 or so circkets in there at a time. I've tried everything as far as hiding places, and believe it or not less crickets die when I have NO hiding places (egg carton). I think this is because there is nowhere for the more aggresssive ones to pin the other ones down and kill them. The open ground allows them to move around more, and get away. If the crickets have plenty of space to move around, they can escape the bullies easily. I have almost no deaths now that I use no egg cartons or tubes. I recommend as big a container as you can get with alot of ground space, using no hiding places.

I don't recommend moss. I think it would harbor mold, fungus, and bacteria. Try the pulverized walnut shell bedding for birds. I'm telling you, it stays dry as a bone and acts as a great "litter". And you may wanna try keeping fewer cickets at a time. A thousand sure is a lot.

Good luck.

I house mine in a 66qt rubbermaid (or sterilite).
I use newspaper for the bottom.
I use a water container with paper towel inside for water.
I use another container for food.
I use paper towel and toilet paper rolls for hides.
I use heat tape or black light if heat is needed (they like dark).
I would buy 2000 and could count the number of dead.
I don't use bed a beast or any other substrate as it's not needed and only makes it harder to clean.
Crickets live an average of 6 weeks. If your buying them at 5 weeks old then most will die before being used. I buy mine at 3 weeks and raise them up and never have more than a few die.
The smell comes from rotting crix, and damp housing.
Make sure your supplier ships healthy crix (try American Cricket Ranch).

thats probably my problem. im buying them at 5 weeks old. and i just placed an order on monday for another thousand. o well.
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1.0. Vield Chameleon(Jessy James)
1.1.3 Sugar gliders(Bonnie & Clyde)
2.0 Ferrets(Butch & Sundance)
1.1.3 Parakeets(Prettyboy,Sassy)
1.0 Doberman (Aries)
1.1 Cats(Riley, Zoe)

At Bassett you can specify that they send out non bred crickets, and this way you could have them in the holding area, place a few laying sites in the bin and after 4-7 days the laying site will be filled with eggs at which time you could transfer this to another rearing container(smaller rubbermaid bin) to hatch out. A lot of cricket places will breed them out and send them out at the last minute then the ones you get sent to you probably will be spent and be unable to breed. You could place the rearing container on top of the bigger rubber maid container with a heating pad under it. That will provide the rearing container and the larger adult container with heat in one compact area. Then, you will have a rearing container with all similar sized crickets instead of having to sort out the larger from the smaller if you had them live, breed and hatch all in the same container and have a better go at having a continuous supply. Also if you keep the temps lower that is said to slow the metabolism and keep them alive longer, but then they won't breed as prolifically. Maggie
P.S when you choose a screen for your rubbermaid container, don't use fiberglass-they chew through that. Aluminum or Stainless steel will work for keeping them in. Mosquito netting or a product called no-see-um from REI will keep the pinheads in.