Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone know of a company that I can order wingless crickets from ? The chirping keeps my family up at night so I thought wingless might be the way to go.
~scott
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I like my women the way I like my coffee, Ground up and in the freezer!

Scott@texassnakes.net

To my knowledge there are no wingless crickets sold or available as feeders. There are a couple species of wingless crickets out there but whether they are good to feed to reptiles I don't know. The Camel cricket is one wingless species that occures naturally in North America. However more there are more than one kind of cricket that is called a Camel cricket.

From the little bit of research I did (link to the site I also included below) mentioned one particular kind of camel cricket known to be a real pest indoors. (Tachycines asynamorous). The site I found deals mostly on how to get rid of the crickets but it does indicate what areas they like to be in and what food they like.
Camel Cricket

What kinda critters are you feeding? I've pretty much given up on crickets, and switched over to silkworms.
A little pricier...more nutritious...easier to maintain...no noise...no smell other than the silkworm chow, which is still better than crickets.
I feed 'em to my Beardies, my Frilleds, Leos, and now that I see it works...my Pixie Frogs, and baby turtles.
I dont see me using crickets again.
Next I want to try roaches, but I cant get past the idea of having roaches in my house.

>>Next I want to try roaches, but I cant get past the idea of having roaches in my house.

Now that was a real big deal for me! But I now have 3 species of roach and find that they are a lot less hassle and smell than crickets. My hubby didn't like the idea even more than I didn't but when my animals can consume 3-4 dozen nightcrawlers in 2 days the roaches seemed to make good sense. I know I have had an escapee here and there but I have sticky traps in my reptile room to catch them. So far besides the escapees I have found spiders, moths, gnats, pillbugs, and millipedes. I also have 2 cats and I know a roach would never get past them!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

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Signature file edited. [phw 9/13/04]

Hissing Cockroaches are the way to go. Best feeders around.
Hissing Cockroaches

Where do you order yours from ? I was under the impression that other insects were less nutritous then Crickets but if thats not the case it seems like silkworms or roaches are the way to go. I'm feeding bearded bragons.

-scott
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I like my women the way I like my coffee, Ground up and in the freezer!

Scott@texassnakes.net

I recommend you reference www.angelfire.com/oh2/Roaches/ and possibly buy their book. Then, on their links page you will find some breeders.

I purchased my roaches from James Tuttle. He has posted several times on this forum and can also be found on the arachnoboards at www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?s=281f1740e4c2a000c60b953da5da95f4&threadid=16784.

I don't have much use for hissers as they are way to large for my animals, they breed slower and they climb glass. My animals couldn't eat anything larger than a lobster roach, which is a little larger than a large cricket. The orange head and orange spots I have are too large too but I can feed off the immature roaches and the babies are perfect for my babies!

The lobsters can climb glass but are pretty easily contained with a band of petroleum jelly and the other two species I keep don't climb glass so they are easily contained. I really would like to eventually have nothing but non-climbers! They just take longer to establish than the lobsters who will actually have a population explosion in short order!

Good luck!
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

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Signature file edited. [phw 9/13/04]