# Cricket dead or not?:confused:



## melanie5 (Dec 8, 2007)

(not sure if this is right place, but couldn't think of anywhere else)

Weird thing just happend. I was all out of tiny crickets for my babies, so I decided to cut up some bigger crickets. Never done that before, so I was amazed about what happend.
I cut the head off and the back legs too. Divided it among the babies. I gave the body to my A. versicolor. It was still twitching at that point.When I looked again half an hour later, it was still moving! And not just twitching, but it actually looked as if it was trying to free itself from the web. At one point it fell out of the web and kept moving around.
Then the spider grabbed it and ate it. Wonder how long the cricket had moved around if it hadn't been eaten.
How does this happen? (know things move for a little while after the die, but this took about 45 minutes).


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## PhormictopusMan (Dec 8, 2007)

I often crush heads of crickets and put them in the enclosures.  I figure while its still kicking, its not rotting and that gives my spider a little extra time to take some action.  

--Chris


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## Moltar (Dec 8, 2007)

Crickets can live a very remarkably long time without their head. With the head and back legs removed i guess their pretty much harmless for even the frailest of teeny tiny slings.


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## melanie5 (Dec 8, 2007)

Makes you wonder though, if the head has any other purpose than to eat;P 
It's now well over an hour and a half and it's still wriggeling.


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## Paramite (Dec 8, 2007)

If my crickets are too big for some of my spiders, I cut their heads off. They'll live for hours. But you need to be accurate. Just the HEAD, nothing else. Otherwise they will die too soon.


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## Frédérick (Dec 8, 2007)

The nerves makes the cricket move for a long time, besides it is not the head that say to the legs or other body parts to move, it is some other organ than the brain which is located in the thorax, just like roaches. I think the cricket could actually be dead but still move...


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## Paramite (Dec 8, 2007)

Frédérick said:


> The nerves makes the cricket move for a long time, besides it is not the head that say to the legs or other body parts to move, it is some other organ than the brain which is located in the thorax, just like roaches. I think the cricket could actually be dead but still move...


Be as it may, I've used the "cut the head" technique for a long time. If I accidentaly cut too much, the cricket will die too soon. So, the head is definitely a critical part.


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## Frédérick (Dec 8, 2007)

Paramite said:


> Be as it may, I've used the "cut the head" technique for a long time. If I accidentaly cut too much, the cricket will die too soon. So, the head is definitely a critical part.


"cut too much" means that you cut too much of the head or you cut the head and a bit of the thorax too? if so, then it is normal since important organs can be found in the thorax, hence the quicker death...


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## melanie5 (Dec 8, 2007)

I still think it's weird. Getting ideas of making a zombie cricket army 
But, anyway, how come that small baby spiders will eat parts of the crickets and older ones don't? My bigger spiders won't eat something that doesn't move, whereas the babies will take what I give them, dead or alive.


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## Moltar (Dec 8, 2007)

melanie5 said:


> But, anyway, how come that small baby spiders will eat parts of the crickets and older ones don't? My bigger spiders won't eat something that doesn't move, whereas the babies will take what I give them, dead or alive.


Instinct probably. There aren't as many bugs hoppin around that a 1/4" sling can overpower as a 3" juvie can.

Ultimately it depends on the individual what they'll eat though. I recall a thread or two about someone who fed her G rosea peas. As in a fresh green pea vegetable. She didn't have to wiggle it or anything.


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## melanie5 (Dec 8, 2007)

etown_411 said:


> I recall a thread or two about someone who fed her G rosea peas. As in a fresh green pea vegetable. She didn't have to wiggle it or anything.



Haha, a vegetarian T. Can't be good for them though. I mean if you only feed them green stuff. But I guess you're right about the size thing. They probably adapt their meal to their size.


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## smrich (Dec 8, 2007)

Whoever said the cricket moves but is not alive was def right. I've watched a frogs heart beat for at least an hour after it had been decapitated and had it spine removed.  I have also seen animals move quite a bit after no breathing or heartbeat had taken place for at least 20 minutes. So its seem freaky but is actually not surprising that a cricket might move for a while after death.


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## xjak3yx (Dec 9, 2007)

i bought a box of crix once and one of them didnt have the abdomen part ...or w/e its called and it still survived up until it got fed


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## CFNSmok.PL (Dec 9, 2007)

I do not agree that cricket without a head which moves is definitely dead.
Also beating frogs heart for an hour after frog itself is dead does not prove anything about state of a cricket without a head. To compare bugs body functions to any cold or warm blooded creature is somehow out of place.

Smok.


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## Arborealis (Dec 9, 2007)

The reason a lot of insects do well without their head has to do with the way their nervous system is set up.  We only have one brain in our heads, but insects basically have several tiny brains along their body, plus a main brain in their head.  Some insects do quite well without a head, being able to walk, react to stimuli, etc. So that's why if you poke a headless cockroach in the rear it will still run away. Basically, they can still do  everything except eat and see.  Some scientists were able to keep a headless roach alive for quite a while by injecting food into its gut.

It pays to have an entomologist boyfriend.  :worship:

Reactions: Informative 1


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## imjim (Dec 9, 2007)

melanie5 said:


> I still think it's weird. Getting ideas of making a zombie cricket army
> But, anyway, how come that small baby spiders will eat parts of the crickets and older ones don't? My bigger spiders won't eat something that doesn't move, whereas the babies will take what I give them, dead or alive.


Crickets (insects) are amazingly tough?

An Asian Black Bird Eater (thats the name given at the time purhase?) bit the cricket and it turned snow white and still walked around for hours until the tarantula decided to finish it off.  Weird and creepy?


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## CFNSmok.PL (Dec 9, 2007)

babyegypt said:


> The reason a lot of insects do well without their head has to do with the way their nervous system is set up.  We only have one brain in our heads, but insects basically have several tiny brains along their body, plus a main brain in their head.  Some insects do quite well without a head, being able to walk, react to stimuli, etc. So that's why if you poke a headless cockroach in the rear it will still run away. Basically, they can still do  everything except eat and see.  Some scientists were able to keep a headless roach alive for quite a while by injecting food into its gut.
> 
> It pays to have an entomologist boyfriend.  :worship:


Yes. Thank you for your brief explanation.

Smok


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## melanie5 (Dec 9, 2007)

What about feeling then? Does the cricket sense any pain or anything? As far as they can anyway. I know there has been research on this with fish, but I just wonder if they can feel any pain when they've lost their heads.


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