Cricket maintenance for Ts?

[SpookySpooder]

I see a variety of ages in there. Looks like some breeding is going on.

Keen eye, but I'm much too lazy for that.

This is what's actually happening...

If you got time to wait this is how I get cheap pinheads...

- Purchase a mixed assortment of adult crickets at your pet store*, they're usually a couple cents each. Several will be female with long ovipositors and round gravid bellies.

- Feed off all the males right away, trust me and do this, they're annoying and will scream all night long.

- Place a shallow dish with moist substrate in a container with the adult female crickets overnight. You should be able to witness them laying eggs in the substrate. The eggs look like tiny grains of rice.

- After a few days, feed off the females or rotate the little dish of substrate to another empty container and wait a couple weeks. You should have hundreds, if not thousands of tiny little black crickets emerging from the dish.

Rinse and repeat for as long as you need teeny tiny little crickets.

Then when your slings grow up just throw away the whole colony and get some roaches.

So my claim is not that they breed and reproduce at lower temps, it is that they can survive and will easily weather a frosty week. They just won't survive an extended freeze.

Though to be fair, my floor temperatures can reach 59-60°F on a normal night and eggs do hatch. The crickets outside are also breeding so, there's that.

*My LPS purchases from an online vendor that I have used, they just save on wholesale and shipping so I buy from them because the price makes sense. The quality and health of your LPS cricket will depend and vary on their sources.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

Keen eye, but I'm much too lazy for that.

LoL, I hear that...even when it would have been practical for me to do so, LoLoL.
There are just some things that are worth paying not to do.
The only thing I buy crickets for anymore are my Ts, & I'm not as particular about them now as I was when I was feeding thousand(s) dollar geckos; whatever the local has is what they have, unless they lack a size, then it's to the chain down the road. I have only rarely seen crickets sor sale that I'd call "sickly," but they honestly don't last long enough to thoroughly assess, LoL..
I see you're from California (I'm sorry ), I'm from NY (), so maybe it's a regional distribution thing, I don't know. All I know is if they start seeing mid-40's, the ones I get (& have always gotten, LoL) start going to sleep, & it's not long before they're not waking up ..

 

[SpookySpooder]

LoL, I hear that...even when it would have been practical for me to do so, LoLoL.
There are just some things that are worth paying not to do.

I see you're from California (I'm sorry ), I'm from NY (),

And there are some things not worth paying for. But I'm also the kind of guy who likes to build things and produce stuff myself.

In my quest to be a master of being lazy and saving pennies, I do things in advance to save myself the effort, time and cost later.

I see you're from NY, (I'm so sorry )

Hopefully not NYC... in which case, I'll pray for you the next time I'm at the gas pump.

Honestly I wouldn't min/max pennies on crickets, hence why I freeze the ones I don't use. But lately I'm thinking I should give them back to the store in exchange for AF to keep the cycle going.

They buy babies by the thousands anyway--they don't think it's worth the effort of keeping a moist dish of substrate in a box with some crickets apparently.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

And there are some things not worth paying for. But I'm also the kind of guy who likes to build things and produce stuff myself.

In my quest to be a master of being lazy and saving pennies, I do things in advance to save myself the effort, time and cost later.

I see you're from NY, (I'm so sorry )

Hopefully not NYC... in which case, I'll pray for you the next time I'm at the gas pump.

Honestly I wouldn't min/max pennies on crickets, hence why I freeze the ones I don't use. But lately I'm thinking I should give them back to the store in exchange for AF to keep the cycle going.

They buy babies by the thousands anyway--they don't think it's worth the effort of keeping a moist dish of substrate in a box with some crickets apparently.

Juice ain't worth the squeeze...LoL

 

[SpookySpooder]

Juice ain't worth the squeeze...LoL

Speaking of juice... I'm working through like 20 pounds of finger limes for a limeade not available on the market. The flavor's delectable.

To each their own. Somebody's gotta make stuff otherwise we wouldn't have nothing nice.