Crickets

[CHIPJVELOZ]

Hello everyone! Last night I was watching my G rosea eat and I noticed things moving around in her tank. I was scared at first because I thought they were ants. But after a closer look I could see that they were tiny crickets! There are lots of them! I'm assuming that before it's demise a cricket was able to lay eggs in my tarantula's tank of course. But what should I do? Should I move my tarantula to another tank? I have an extra tank. Then I could feed the crickets where they are at and I would have a new supply of those. I don't think removing all the crickets is feasable as there are tons of them, and they seem to be hiding in the substrate. I'm afraid to just leave them there because I've heard bad things about leaving crickets in too long with tarantulas, also if some of them start dying off, I know I'm going to have a mite problem!

 

[JonPaul]

That'd scare me at first....

But yeah, I'd move the Tarantula and smile that I would have some
food for my slings.

 

[juggalo69]

I tried breeding crickets, I couldn't get past the smell. My suggestion is dry out your tank and most of them will drown in the water dish. Another option is to catch a small wolf spider and throw it in the tank it will eat a lot of the pinheads. I had the same problem three different times. I finally stopped leaving mature females in my tanks, if they don't get eaten in the first five minutes I take them out and try again later.

 

[connor3k]

Does that wolfspider thing really work? That would be interesting to watch.

 

[juggalo69]

Does that wolfspider thing really work? That would be interesting to watch.

Worked for me.

 

[Snipes]

one thing to note for in the future CHIPJVELOZ is that cricket eggs cannot hatch unless the substrate is pretty moist and rosies like it bone dry. I would for now put the rosie in another cage and maybe try a wolf spider in the infested tank. So a water bowl is just fine and make sure not to mist the substrate of the rosie and problem solved!

 

[juggalo69]

If your going to move the Rosea anyway why bother with the wolfspider just change the substrate. The spider thing was just if you plan to leave the Rosea in its tank.

 

[CHIPJVELOZ]

I think Snipes is right, the tank must have been too moist. Whenever I filled the water dish, the water disappeared by the next day. I thought it was just evaporating because my house gets really hot these days. Now I wonder if the dish is leaking.....but I don't see how, because it's one of those molded rock-like dishes. I will have to check that out tonight. I was thinking about saving the crickets for later, I really like the wolf spider idea though. Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

 

[juggalo69]

Whenever I filled the water dish, the water disappeared by the next day. I thought it was just evaporating because my house gets really hot these days. Now I wonder if the dish is leaking.....but I don't see how, because it's one of those molded rock-like dishes.

Check if there is any substrate or web acting like a wick drawing the water out of the dish. I have that problem with my Rosea's water dish.

 

[CHIPJVELOZ]

Ok, I'll check that also.

 

[Lorgakor]

one thing to note for in the future CHIPJVELOZ is that cricket eggs cannot hatch unless the substrate is pretty moist and rosies like it bone dry. I would for now put the rosie in another cage and maybe try a wolf spider in the infested tank. So a water bowl is just fine and make sure not to mist the substrate of the rosie and problem solved!

Au contraire, I've had pinheads hatch in a bone dry cage. And they lived for quite a while in the bone dry conditions.

 

[Socrates]

Au contraire, I've had pinheads hatch in a bone dry cage. And they lived for quite a while in the bone dry conditions.

As did I.

Whenever I have to feed a big female cricket now, I also make sure it gets eaten pretty much right away or I'll remove it as I don't want to have another pinhead outbreak in any of my enclosures.

I found the pinheads may have bothered my T, as they were pretty restless during that time (it happened in my Genic's tank AND in my B. smithi's), and I ended up cleaning out the entire thing after a few days.

---
Wendy
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[Melmoth]

Check if there is any substrate or web acting like a wick drawing the water out of the dish. I have that problem with my Rosea's water dish.

Yes,I have that problem often with my L.parahybana.she webs a lot and it forms a wick,leaching water from dish to substrate.

 

[Melmoth]

As did I.

Whenever I have to feed a big female cricket now, I also make sure it gets eaten pretty much right away or I'll remove it as I don't want to have another pinhead outbreak in any of my enclosures.

.

---
Wendy
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Yes,me too,Wendy,anything with big ovipositors only gets fed to my greediest girls

 

[juggalo69]

Another thing I have been told is that if you take and bend the ovipositer in half they won't be able to lay eggs. Kind of like a kinked hose. But if you cut it off or break it completly off they can still lay. I did it for a while but found it to be too much hassle for me. Now I just watch when I feed a female cricket it either gets eaten right away or removed.

 

[Socrates]

Yes,I have that problem often with my L.parahybana.she webs a lot and it forms a wick,leaching water from dish to substrate.

I've also found that those gravid crickets are slick enough to waddle through the Ts water, and even seen them pushing up some substrate into the water - thus making the area moist before they go into action with the egg-laying.

I'll fix their butt! (At least I'll try to)

---
Wendy
---

 

[Gesticulator]

It's happened a few times to me as well. Even if a drop of water splashes, those damn cricket's eggs can apparently hatch. I wish I could ask for only male crickets. I can tolerate chirping more than the invasion of the tiny crickets! I just dump the substrate and put fresh peat moss in. Thought of breeding roaches, but as much as I despise crickets, I would HATE to have "escapee" roaches roaming around my house.

Can the tiny pinheads actually harm the tarantula???

 

[odinn7]

Stupid me but I have to ask...
How can you tell male/female with crickets?

I have an outbreak in my lividum tank and I really don't want to uproot her now that she's made such a detailed burrow. The water dish idea has been working pretty well.

 

[juggalo69]

Stupid me but I have to ask...
How can you tell male/female with crickets?

Mature males are the chirpers, mature females have a long tube (ovipositer) coming out of their butts.

 

[David DeVries]

Check if there is any substrate or web acting like a wick drawing the water out of the dish. I have that problem with my Rosea's water dish.

Thanks. I have good sized water dish in with my C. Fasciatum and it was loosing lots of water daily compared to other smaller dishes in other cages. Wallflower had webbed a lot around one edge of the dish. I could see the substrate was wet so I changed it out to check what was going on. Under the water dish was damp but where the webbing met the substrate was soaked. I would not have thought of that.

As for the cricket infestation. I would move the T and sanitize the cage, new substrate, move T back. It might be hard for her to rest (much less moult) with scores of hungry baby crickets bothering her.