pinhead crix and molting!

[luckie_couture]

I was looking in on my VERY premolt T today(she finally decided to take a stroll outside her log), and to my horror I found little crickets(clear to white, and very tiny) crawling and jumping on the substrate. I'm assuming a female cricket laid eggs... Since She's getting ready to molt, I'm not sure what to do. Do I take her out and nuke the substrate, or let her be until after she molts?

Thanks!

 

[satanslilhelper]

I would imagine if you left it alone that by the time it does molt there would be a lot more little crickets jumping around that could cause harm to your T. What size is your T? If it's a good sized juvie I would clean out its enclosure and put it back.

 

[luckie_couture]

She's about a 3 in legspan smithi.

 

[satanslilhelper]

Seeing as though premolt can be anywhere from a couple weeks to possibly even longer I would personally take care of the baby cricket problem now. Now, I would also wait until this thread fills up a little more and then make your decision. I just think it would be best to take care of it sooner than later. You wouldn't want to lose a T to some pesky crix. I don't think moving it for a short period of time will cause any problems.

 

[luckie_couture]

just as a comparison, this never happened to my Rosie, and she's on the same substrate...

 

[satanslilhelper]

Well apparently there was a gravid female cricket that had enough time to lay her eggs in your smithi's enclosure before it got eaten. It's really not a big deal. Just something new you've experienced now with keeping T's.

 

[lunixweb]

hi, the best solution is easy to do... fill the waterdish with clean water and in two or three days all the pinhead crix will be dead into the water dish... if you wish to eliminate them faster put two or three dishes with water... all the waterdishes with easy access... good luck, cheers

 

[spiderfield]

Seeing as though premolt can be anywhere from a couple weeks to possibly even longer I would personally take care of the baby cricket problem now...You wouldn't want to lose a T to some pesky crix. I don't think moving it for a short period of time will cause any problems.

To echo these sentiments, in my experience terrestrial Ts won't make a molt mat until right before they flip over. So unless your T has made one, you can gently remove her from her enclosure, nuke or replace the substrate, then when its cooled off, put her back in. This should only take, what, at the very most an hour? If she's flipped over in her temporary holding container, then leave her there to finish molting.

To avoid this in the future you should keep the substrate bone-dry, as this is how G. rosea prefer it. Secondly, remove crickets (especially adult females) from the enclosure if they're not eaten. At most, i'd only leave an adult male in the enclosure overnight, and if he's still alive the next morning, take him out. Good luck!

 

[Rindy]

To avoid this in the future you should keep the substrate bone-dry, as this is how G. rosea prefer it.

Just to clarify:
I believe it is a B. smithi not rosea. smithi's are desert types aswell and don't need substrate wet enough to breed crickets either.

 

[luckie_couture]

it is a smithi. Thanks everyone for all the help! I decided to move her into a KK and then microwave the substrate. It was dry, except under her water bowl, which is where I presume they must have came from...

On a side note, I wish they would have done this in the crickets own enclosure, because raising my own would sure beat going to the LPS anyday.

BTW, If I were to remove the females ovipositor, would that prevent this from happening in the future(as well trying to keep the area under the WB dry)?

 

[Exo]

BTW, If I were to remove the females ovipositor, would that prevent this from happening in the future(as well trying to keep the area under the WB dry)?[/QUOTE]




This is what I do with my crickets, just snip off the ovipositor as close to the body as you can,it dosen't seem to affect the crickets and they can't lay eggs.

 

[spiderfield]

Ah...ok, reread the thread and found "smithi" in post #3...sorry.

I raise my own crickets as well, and whenever it looks like my supply may be dwindling, I go to the LPS and purchase a couple bucks worth of adults. I put the females in a separate deli container with dirt and let them do their thing. After a couple weeks the eggs will hatch and I put them into a rearing bucket.

As to removing the female's ovipositor...i've read that a bunch of people on this forum do that. That may work, although I myself have never tried that.

 

[WelshTan]

i remove the ovipositor now as much as possible and also snip the wings off the crix to avoid the loud chirping lol

 

[MizM]

i remove the ovipositor now as much as possible and also snip the wings off the crix to avoid the loud chirping lol

Wish I had time to do that!

Glad you solved the problem! If it should happen again and the T has already flipped, the waterdish idea works wonderfully. For some unknown reason, crix would rather drown themselves than be eaten by a T!

 

[mxslanksta]

ne one have advice on how to breed crix or a link i can get the info from?

 

[MizM]

ne one have advice on how to breed crix or a link i can get the info from?

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=139244&highlight=How+to+breed+crickets

If you need more information, try the search function. You'll get TONS!

 

[satanslilhelper]

To the OP, I'm glad you went ahead and fixed the problem. I learned something new myself though about willingly suicidal crickets.;P One hell of a way to go. Fangs and venom or self drowning... I think I would try and live and kill the T when it molts. I really love being human and being able to reason.

 

[luckie_couture]

To the OP, I'm glad you went ahead and fixed the problem. I learned something new myself though about willingly suicidal crickets.;P One hell of a way to go. Fangs and venom or self drowning... I think I would try and live and kill the T when it molts. I really love being human and being able to reason.

Higher cognition is one of our many interesting features!

 

[MizM]

To the OP, I'm glad you went ahead and fixed the problem. I learned something new myself though about willingly suicidal crickets.;P One hell of a way to go. Fangs and venom or self drowning... I think I would try and live and kill the T when it molts. I really love being human and being able to reason.

LMAO, that was just me projecting... I'm sure the reason they do it is simply because when you bring them home, they are so dehydrated that they can't resist getting a drink. And our T water dishes offer them nothing to climb on to get out.

 

[luckie_couture]

:wall: :wall: :wall: well, despite my best efforts, they are back. I microwaved the substrate, cleaned her tank decor, and done everything I can think of. I'm trying the water dishes now. I'm using pill bottle tops (4 of them) filled with water. So far I've caught close to 10 of these crix. Any other ideas? Moving her out of her hide REALLY stressed her out...that was the first time I've EVER gotten a threat display from her, and hopefully the last. And her butt is JET black! This couldn't have happened at a worse time.:wall: :wall: grr....:evil: