Cricket cages

[jarmst4]

Anyone have any good ideas for cricket cages that keep large quantities? I keep 500 at a time in Large Rubbermaid containers with egg crates. Maint is a pain with all the crap and waste that falls to the floor. Thinking of something like a rabbit cage so it all falls out of the bottom into a pan. If I have time this weekend I'm going to put something together, just looking for some input. I'll post some pics if anyone else is interested.

 

[SpidaFly]

Since you specifically mention P.I.T.A. maintenance, I present my mega cricket keeper:

Now mine is big (45gal) because I have several herps in addition to my tarantulas, so I order around 4000 crickets at a time. And I have a little calcium gutload box that I refill daily for my herps. However, you could adapt the concept to fit your size...

This design is nearly ordorless. If I start with 4000 crickets, odor doesn't start until a couple months have gone by. At this point, I just scoop out the poo and dead, and it is odorless again until it is time to buy more crickets.

So maintenance is easy, and I go a long time between maintenance. Airflow means that the whole thing stays dry, and even leftover bits of food don't mold.

The design is pretty simple: bolt a couple computer fans on either side of the box. Wire so that one flows into the box, one flows out. I wire them in parallel to an adjustable-voltage transformer so I can change the speed of the fans at will. Then I took a toilet flange and a couple 45-degree PVC elbows, secured it to the outflow fan. Therefore the majority of air leaving the box is forced through the PVC contraption. I pipe-clamp a chunk of nylon screen around the open end of the PVC contraption and fill it with the cheapest activated carbon I can find (jug of petco activated carbon used for fish filters is what I'm using right now).

As I said, odorless. The crickets have little problem surviving provided plenty of water crystals. I've even squeezed a bit more out of the investment by providing damp coco fiber for them to lay eggs in, and then moved the eggs to a ~80-85F incubator for a while. Hatched out a couple hundred crickets this way, was fun to watch my slings go after them.

 

[donniedark0]

So its pretty basic. Air flows in one direction, gets sucked out on the opposite end with carbon filter.

 

[Stan Schultz]

Anyone have any good ideas for cricket cages that keep large quantities? I keep 500 at a time in Large Rubbermaid containers with egg crates. Maint is a pain with all the crap and waste that falls to the floor. Thinking of something like a rabbit cage so it all falls out of the bottom into a pan. If I have time this weekend I'm going to put something together, just looking for some input. I'll post some pics if anyone else is interested.

There's nothing wrong with the Rubbermaid containers as long as you keep screen covers on them to prevent the crickets from jumping out. We used 29 gal (110 L) aquariums (12" X 30" X 28", I think. - 30 X 76 X 71 cm) and commercial screen lids.

To aid in cleaning and to also act as food, we used common bran (as used for bran muffins) from the bulk food bins at a local grocery store (cheap!) as a substrate in the cage. It worked like a charm. Since crickets are basically detritivores, they thought they were in Heaven! "Wow! Around here the floor is PAVED with food!"

Water was supplied by quartering an orange and laying the quarters PEEL SIDE DOWN, directly on the bran. Make sure that one cut is ACROSS the internal sections so the crickets can easily get at the moist pulp. Crickets can be SO stupid! These were traded out for fresh orange slices every few days, when they were nearly completely consumed, when they began to spoil, or when they became too dirty even for the crickets to eat.

I alternated between two such setups, cleaning one whenever it was empty while using the other for the new batch of crickets. We cleaned the cage(s) approximately every 2 or 3 weeks depending on the number of crickets we ordered and how much spare time I had with 1,300 tarantulas to care for.

Enjoy your little 6-legged munchies!

 

[BrettG]

Since you specifically mention P.I.T.A. maintenance, I present my mega cricket keeper:

Now mine is big (45gal) because I have several herps in addition to my tarantulas, so I order around 4000 crickets at a time. And I have a little calcium gutload box that I refill daily for my herps. However, you could adapt the concept to fit your size...

This design is nearly ordorless. If I start with 4000 crickets, odor doesn't start until a couple months have gone by. At this point, I just scoop out the poo and dead, and it is odorless again until it is time to buy more crickets.

So maintenance is easy, and I go a long time between maintenance. Airflow means that the whole thing stays dry, and even leftover bits of food don't mold.

The design is pretty simple: bolt a couple computer fans on either side of the box. Wire so that one flows into the box, one flows out. I wire them in parallel to an adjustable-voltage transformer so I can change the speed of the fans at will. Then I took a toilet flange and a couple 45-degree PVC elbows, secured it to the outflow fan. Therefore the majority of air leaving the box is forced through the PVC contraption. I pipe-clamp a chunk of nylon screen around the open end of the PVC contraption and fill it with the cheapest activated carbon I can find (jug of petco activated carbon used for fish filters is what I'm using right now).

As I said, odorless. The crickets have little problem surviving provided plenty of water crystals. I've even squeezed a bit more out of the investment by providing damp coco fiber for them to lay eggs in, and then moved the eggs to a ~80-85F incubator for a while. Hatched out a couple hundred crickets this way, was fun to watch my slings go after them.

That is awesome,and exactly what we need to do.