Any tips for keeping feeder crickets?

[nuisance]

I need to buy more feeder crickets at the moment, but I know to keep them in a well-ventilated container, make sure they aren't too humid, and get them slightly smaller than you'd like them to be. Of course, I also know to supervise my spider while a cricket is in the enclosure.

 

[goofyGoober99]

In my experience crickets can be a bit of a pain in the butt lol. When I do get some, a well ventilated enclosure (although don't let the ventilation be too big because they will find a way out and you will find crickets around your house for weeks ), some cut up egg cartons, and the flukers orange cricket food will keep them going for a while.

Have you thought about getting some mealworms too? They can live in the fridge for months and my jumpers love them.

 

[TheraMygale]

For the crickets its all about your batch, and care.

not too many for a small enclosure. Egg grates, carrots, some oat flakes and wheat bran/cornmeal. Make sure the food is close to the crates.

old crickets die quicker. They like warmth. Winter months in cold areas can be harder on them. I was having a super summer/fall. And the last batch i got: really bad.

i also farm mealworms. Its a slow process but i have almost 1 hundred beetles now and already three “layers” that are seeded.

once those eggs hatch, i will have hundreds of worms.

i keep buying 50 mealworms once a month or two, to keep it rolling. When my “farm” runs on autopilot, i will never need to buy mealworms again.

i read the bio nutrient sheet on mealworms. I feed those almost exclusively. But i add crickets here and there. For variety.

the fun part with mealworms is they come in pupa, beetle and worm. So sometimes you can give a pupa, or a beetle. And fresh white new pupa are juicy and soft.

 

[MorbidArachnid]

I've been kinda cracked on cricket care tbh.

I wrote this care guide which talks more in depth about some of the stuff I've been researching/looking at.

High ventilation is definitely a must, I use a Kritter Keeper with extra holes drilled in the sides. Fabric interface works really well for me as a cheap breathable mesh to put over the holes, I just tape it to the outsides with masking tape. Not sure if they would be able to chew through it but I haven't had any issues so far. Also agree with keeping it warm, not to be on the 80F again but 80F seems to work well. They will grow slower and live longer if kept colder, will grow quicker and live shorter if kept warmer. From what I've seen anywhere from 75-85F works and depending on where you are in that range is gonna affect growth rate and longevity. Shouldn't be kept below 75F though, the eggs wont hatch if they're too cold and IME they tend to not live as long. I've mentioned this before but I've also heard of them doing "behavioral fever", where when they're sick with certain strains of bacteria they'll seek out warmer than normal temperatures to mimic a fever to help fight off the infection. From the study I saw it seems to not be for every illness so a bit inconclusive, but I've pretty much been on the warmer temperatures train for all of my inverts for that and other reasons.

Behavioral fever in Crickets study (really only found a difference in behavior and survivability in crickets infected with Rickettsiella grylli but interesting nonetheless) There are some other studies on this in different animals but this is the one I read.

Humidity is also a huge factor, air that is too wet or stagnant is lethal. I use cricket crystals personally, I don't mist or provide an open water dish at all (except for a cup of moist substrate for the adults to deposit eggs into). I've even heard anecdotally from other cricket keepers that feeding excessively wet food such as fruit or cucumber can cause their frass to be excessively wet, which can cause excess humidity (especially between egg cartons where frass tends to collect) which can also cause sickness. Crickets that die in humid environments tend to rot (and stink!), and this rot seems to be lethal to other crickets. IMO this is the main reason people will have all their crickets suddenly die overnight. Crickets that die in dry environments simply desiccate, and do not smell or cause problems. I don't use substrate at all, this also makes it way easier to clean as crickets do produce a lot of waste. Every week I can just remove the egg cartons, feed off any stragglers left in their enclosures, dump out and wash the enclosures with soap and water, then replace the crickets.

As far as food, I go a lot more in depth in that care guide but I'm definitely being extra. I've heard chicken mash works well (and has a lot of protein), personally I think a lot of commercial cricket diets and what most people feed is either entirely or mostly carbohydrates. Most commercial diets are basically just corn or bran, or people just feed them pieces of veg. I think the need for protein is vastly overlooked, they will seek out and seem to prefer fish flakes over almost anything else I give them. I also haven't personally seen any cannibalism or wing biting, to which I think the extra protein they get makes them less likely to chomp on their tank mates. They also seem to really like sweet potato, pumpkin seeds, carrot, and almond, I also give them a commercial mix boosted with flaxseed and beef liver. Carbohydrates are definitely important and that and veggies should make up a good portion of the diet, but I think like a third protein is beneficial. I also personally don't add any extra calcium but I feed them to arachnids, not reptiles, and excess calcium can cause issues with arachnids. I also give them a UVb light which is definitely extra but I have heard they can synthesize vitamin D3 from UVb so I provide it just in case for that and as their light source for day/night cycles. Them synthesizing Vitamin D3 is supported in some studies but other studies say UVb exposure doesn't make a difference so take that with a grain of salt.

Can synthesize UVb
No difference

Overall, I'm definitely on the cricket train and think they're one of the best feeders for arachnids. I think they're generally pretty maligned by people who don't properly care for them or leave them neglected in a corner then blame the cricket for high die off rates and sickness.

Left is before I added an extra egg flat and changed out the old one, right is them now (bad phone pic). The smaller enclosure in the back is for the second batch which are about 2 weeks behind the first one. Once the older ones grow up I'll hold back some adults for the next gen, I don't have a ton of bugs and scorpions don't eat very often so I don't need hundreds of crickets.....

 

[fcat]

I love how well you treat your feeders

How do you prepare the seeds for them? Ground or whole?

 

[MorbidArachnid]

I love how well you treat your feeders

How do you prepare the seeds for them? Ground or whole?

ground, its honestly hermit crab food i had leftover, i got a hermit crab food sampler for my isopods but they didnt like it too much.

also this is just a side rant but i love crickets so much, orthoptera as a whole are my favorite insect order (katydids alone are cracked) so here's my cricket truther soap box rant

"they smell"
- ventilation, also rotting mealworms also smell awful

"they give your tarantulas disease"
- largely misinformation, pet store crickets don't have horsehair worms because horsehair worms need open water to breed and most pet stores and chain suppliers are either using crystals or just food as a source of moisture. crickets also don't tend to carry nematodes because their environment is too dry for nematodes to live very long (so dont really spread) and again most people are keeping them without substrate which nematodes need to survive.

"crickets are dirtier because they live in their own frass and eat each other"
- every mass farmed feeder cannibalizes, roaches and mealworms also eat each other. crickets tend to stay up on their cardboard and their frass tends to fall to the floor of their container. they don't live in their frass like mealworms and most roaches do, also again most people keep them without substrate and dump out the enclosure every once in a while, how often do you replace the substrate to your feeder roaches or mealworms?

"they're noisy"
-they SING FOR FREE AND YOU HATE THEM??? free white noise generator i sleep like a baby, skill issue/get good

"they can chomp your tarantulas"
-so can mealworms or red runners (probably other roaches too), dont feed your bugs when theyre molting and dont leave live feeders in there with them for too long. mealworms honestly kinda worse on this front because if you leave them in the enclosure they'll burrow and come back later right when your tarantulas molting

"they escape and get in my house"
-fair, only other feeder this is really an issue with is particularly flightly red runners

"they aren't as nutritious as other feeders"
-literally propaganda, if you compare nutrition charts theyre better or the same as pretty much every other feeder. also have heard people say they have more chitin than roaches so are less digestible which literally isn't true (especially not with dubia) and isn't a think for arachnids since they don't really eat the chitin anyway. also all feeders have pretty poor nutrition profiles generally, thats why gutloading and dusting is so popular. you should be doin that.

"they die really quickly"
- either care issue or just talking about their shorter lifespan overall, shorter lifespan doesnt really bother me too much because they also grow up super quickly so it's very fast to get a lot of different sizes

"why wouldnt i just keep roaches and mealworms, theyre a lot less work"
- i mean yea you could

"i still hate them"
- skill issue, i'm sending a Schizodactylus to your house to get you

source

 

[fcat]

You would be the perfect person to ask, would there be any way to give them a natural setup and still coexist peacefully (the smells)

 

[Introvertebrate]

The batch I get from the pet store often lives only long enough to lay eggs. The ones that are born in your home are way healthier. I suspect they're quarantined from any diseases. I kept a batch of adults for 6 months, just to see how long they'd live. They would have lasted longer, but I decided to feed them off. They weren't banded crickets either. Just plain old Acheta domesticus.

 

[MorbidArachnid]

You would be the perfect person to ask, would there be any way to give them a natural setup and still coexist peacefully (the smells)

not sure with feeder crickets, i know some people keep them bioactive

This is Aquarimax Pet's video on it, i think humidity would be an issue but obviously it works for him.

The batch I get from the pet store often lives only long enough to lay eggs. The ones that are born in your home are way healthier. I suspect they're quarantined from any diseases. I kept a batch of adults for 6 months, just to see how long they'd live. They would have lasted longer, but I decided to feed them off. They weren't banded crickets either. Just plain old Acheta domesticus.

The ones I keep are A domesticus! def had more of a problem with the gen 0 straight from the petstore batch, although i would assume stuff like environmental and shipping stress (i get from a smaller pet store so they dont breed them there, they get a new batch shipped in every week), and general poor husbandry also contributes.

 

[Introvertebrate]

You would be the perfect person to ask, would there be any way to give them a natural setup and still coexist peacefully (the smells)

Granted, I don't have the keenest sense of smell, but I never found it to be a problem. I get more funkiness from my dubia colony, when the frass starts building up.

 

[Ramen]

It is key to use banded crickets. SO much better than common pet store crickets.

 

[Introvertebrate]

It is key to use banded crickets. SO much better than common pet store crickets.

I'm not great at identifying them. I was at Petco on Saturday, and peeked into their cricket bin. They looked smaller and darker than I remember a few years ago, so maybe they've switched to banded.