Busy Week!

[Rigelus]

I can only imagine the smell

Actually it doesn't really smell that much at all....Keep the adults hot and dry and remove them as they die and you'll have no problems with smells.

I bought adult crickets for the first time ever the other day, and very quickly the bag had excrement EVERYWHERE

As soon as you get any crickets home that you've just brought get them out of their bag/deli cup and into their housing container.
They'll smell less and live a lot longer.

do you think if I did that whole setup that I could get away only maintaining it every other day

I'm in my Arachnoroom every day so it's no problem for me to deal with sprayings and feedings. However if you can't find the maitenance time every day then Marks capillary action system would be ideal.

I've heard crickets need a lot of maintenence

Don't know where you heard that Ed but it's not right.....It's all A,B,C stuff.......just ask the crickets

 

[EAD063]

Thanks for such a detiled resposne(s).

I read a thread once that implied they ere a lot of work, things like if you don't change the paper towel with water on it everyday all the nymphs will die and if you can't shake all the live ones from one bucket to a fresh one every few days they'll die... I don't know I guess sometimes people just exaggerate and a lot havbe said they smell, but maybe its the people who smell, lol.

 

[Mark Newton]

I read a thread once that implied they ere a lot of work, things like if you don't change the paper towel with water on it everyday all the nymphs will die and if you can't shake all the live ones from one bucket to a fresh one every few days they'll die

I'm slack, I just keep the lot together, all ages and they seem to be okay, there is some cannibalism, but hey, Darwins at work in there, cant be all that bad. I use egg cartons for hiding places. I stack the cartons up and the small ones can get well away into places the bigger ones cant go.

Ed...at 37C(100F) it takes 7 days for the eggs to hatch. You'll have zillions of pinheads in no time at all. I found the most important thing is heat @ ~100F and highish humidity.

They do smell a bit..especially the way I keep them, but I have mine outside in the shed and its not really noticeable unless you stick your head inside the container. Clean it all out about every 4 weeks and keep food and water up...thats all I do.

Rig...I was using desert sand as substrate because thats where I got my first crickets in a desert area, brought back about 200 from one night. It dries out fast with a 150W IR lamp burning away above it. I havent been breeding any for a while, I'm about to start a new population. Think I'll use a peat/sand mix this time to help hold the moisture.

 

[~Abyss~]

What is a good alternative for crickets. They are becoming a hassle for me and umm I'm actully scared of roaches. It's a weird phobia I can't seem to shake off. So an alternative to roaches and crik would be nice. I was thinking silkworms????

 

[Rigelus]

What is a good alternative for crickets

Springtails (Collembola) are good if it's small food items you need or Trichorhina tomentosa (don't know the common name) if you can find a start culture.

What i used to do when i was short of food for my critters was to wet up so largish pieces of bark and lay them out on my lawn and garden overnight. I could always collect a good assortment of various sized food items the following morning..

 

[EAD063]

Springtails (Collembola) are good if it's small food items you need or Trichorhina tomentosa (don't know the common name) if you can find a start culture.

What i used to do when i was short of food for my critters was to wet up so largish pieces of bark and lay them out on my lawn and garden overnight. I could always collect a good assortment of various sized food items the following morning..

Thats a good idea. In between the bark of dead trees yeilds some come centi's and stuff which I'm sure would be good food. Everything is small around here so I thikn I could find a lot of things. Basically here in the north east we have a mix of what the rest of the country has.... Very few things are native only to up here.

 

[JungleGuts]

man im lucky i have access to buying crickets of every size, i wouldnt want to breed my own inless i had a mega collection