Cricket Warning

[MizM]

Oh-mi-God... you guys won’t believe this! CRICKETS are a danger to your Ts! Yes... it’s true! My H. lividium has been sluggish to the point of not moving. She just pushed her face in a corner and wouldn’t eat, drink or move. All she did was clean herself... obsessively. I was wondering if she had mites or something so I called my pet store guy to find out her origins. (She was a Christmas gift from my fiancee last year!) He said she was a WC import. I told him I was wondering if I had any little buggies from the wild and he said it’s possible... and sometimes even cricket larvae could be the culprit. (My pet store dude is cool, if he knows something, he’ll tell you... if he doesn’t he won’t make up some dumb story!!) So, I put her in her lucite box and took her outside... and saw a tiny one sixteenth of an inch cricket in the box. I checked her water dish and sure enough, billions of tiny little cricks! I put her in the freezer for five minutes, then examined her carefully and found an open wound behind number 3 right leg. She’s now in ICU rehydrating and safe from critters. I never thought of examining my crickets for pregnancy before feeding them... how would one tell if a cricket is pregnant? I don’t leave them running around in the habitat for weeks, so this one had to be ready to pop! I feel guilty for not catching it sooner, but I know that old patience rule. I just hope I saved her!

Oh, and if you already knew about this... forgive the long winded story. (Be nice Jacen! Don’t say “Duh!!”) I am blonde, after all!

 

[Jesse607]

It can be safely assumed that all adult female crickets are gravid(pregnant), therefore do not feed your T adult female crickets. The adult females have wings and a long egg layer that looks like a spear coming off their posterior.
hope that helps.

 

[Code Monkey]

It's *possible* that pinheads can injure an already ill or stressed T, but the only real danger they pose to an otherwise healthy T is causing stress.

If you purchase large crickets as food then you can either throw out 50% or more of them, or accept the fact that they are going to lay eggs in your tank. The easiest way to avoid any potential problems is just to keep your tanks on the dry side and/or let your moisture dependent species dry out a bit every couple of weeks. Your Ts will not be harmed by this but the cricket eggs will be as they dessicate rapidly and die.

Similarly, if you do find yourself with a pinhead explosion, just let the tank dry out and keep a water dish in there. Any pinheads that don't drown themselves will die within a few days. If you're really paranoid, move your T into a temporary enclosure while you exterminate.

My personal recommendation if you're paranoid about these things is to take up raising alternative food sources. I'm slowly switching over to an all roach diet as my colony gets established. Not because I think crickets are a health threat - I think that aspect gets way over emphasised - but because they smell, are noisy and expensive for feeding 40 Ts.

 

[MizM]

So THAT'S what that big old long thing was!!!

I was associating that with a male one because the ones with the "stinger" as my son calls them are so much larger than the other ones.

No, I am not at all paranoid, it was an isolated incident. But you're right about them being smelly, noisy, pain-in-the-butt creatures. I do try to give the Ts a variety of foods, but rely mostly on crickets. Grubworms are the most relished, most pounced-upon prey I have tried to date, but they are few and far between.

I suppose I should take your advice, I have two more Ts arriving from Swift soon, my girlfriend has to get rid of her Curly slings so is giving me 2. She needs to clear them out because the redknee and redrump are BOTH sitting on sacs and they're coming soon... she is giving me a couple of each.

The snowball grows.... tell me, I thought I saw a roach breeding kit on the web somewhere, do you know where one is? These were different roaches, not the kind that would infest your home if invaded.

 

[Jesse607]

Swift has reasonable deals on several species of roaches, so if you have not already ordered your T's from him, then add one of his roach colonies with your order, that is, if you truly want some roaches. I would reccommend any of the species he has.

 

[JacenBeers]

Originally posted by terridumonte

Oh, and if you already knew about this... forgive the long winded story. (Be nice Jacen! Don’t say “Duh!!”) I am blonde, after all!

HAHA. OK I will keep my mouth shut.

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by terridumonte
I thought I saw a roach breeding kit on the web somewhere, do you know where one is? These were different roaches, not the kind that would infest your home if invaded.

I'm rearing Blaptica dubia (Orange spotted roach), which Kelly does carry. Most of these "kits" are for hissers, decent enough a feeder but there's much better choices out there.

Here's a recent thread about rearing roaches.

Here's an older thread about the pros and cons of various species.

And here's some more photos of my colony setup prior to me expanding the roach motel section of it.

 

[Lycanthrope]

what i usually do is feed the female crix to my speedy t's, the ones who grab them as soon as the hit the substrate. for my obligate burrowers, or others who make take a while to catch them i use only males. may be of no use to someone with a modest collection, but it works in my crowded group .

 

[MizM]

ALL the info is of good use!! My scorpion can have all the females!

Thanks for all the info, dudes (In CA, dude is now used when speaking to our GIRLfriends too!) I REALLY appreciate it since my collection is growing by leaps and bounds!

I printed out the threads and am goung to read them tonight and talk it over with my Ts. They have the ultimate say of course!

Where on earth do you get the lizards that you feed? Anoles are expensive out here and exclusively sold for pets!

 

[Godzilla2000]

My tarantulas don't leave any crickets left after feeding time. My Rosehair and now my Cobalt Blue eat 3 all at once.

 

[MizM]

OINK!!