Currently in level 4 lockdown due to covid-19 and all my crickets are 'contaminated'.

Mister Senpai

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 4, 2019
Messages
24
Hi,

A few weeks ago, I panic bought like 100 crickets as I feared they would quarantine and go into lock down. I thought about breeding them so I provided the crickets a decent enclosure and gave them lettuce and damp paper towels to drink and eat from. I only feed with crickets every 10 days, so today I opened the cricket container and found dozens of crickets dead on the ground with mold and MAGGOTS in the enclosure. I probably forgot to take the lettuce out and it got moldy. Anyways, I took all the remaining the crickets out and put them in a new container, but a little hesitant on using them as they were living with mold and maggots, which could effect my tarantulas.

Could I still use these crickets or should I dispose of them? I also have like 15 tiny meal worms that I feed to my slings, but I doubt, they will be enough for all my Ts. We recently went into lockdown in New Zealand the other day and they closed all stores except the grocery store. They say we'll be in quarantine for 4 weeks, but its very likely they will extend it to 6-10 weeks. So basically, I have a few dozen 'infected crickets' and 15 meal worms to last the next 6-10 weeks for a dozen hungry Ts.

Do you suggest I should YOLO and use the crickets, not worry as the 15 mealworms will last or should I scavenge my pesticide free but not parasitic free garden for bugs?
I'm no newbie, I understand T's can go months without food, but some of them have recently molted and didn't eat months prior to that molt, so I worried these guys will start to get hungry.

In one of my earlier posts I talked about some crazy guy feeding beef to their T's, could I possibly feed beef? :rofl:
 
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Vanessa

Grammostola Groupie
Joined
Mar 12, 2016
Messages
2,423
If the crickets are still alive, then I would be feeding them to my tarantulas.
 

Vanisher

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
2,533
If you gave lots of crickets or other short lived feeders and few tarantulas a good way is too freeze them and feed them dead when you need to feed the tarantulas
 

Pepper

Arachnosquire
Joined
Mar 27, 2018
Messages
131
It sounds like you just got complacent with your cricket setup. If youre expecting to be out of feeders that long, i would try again to breed them, and make sure you read up on it a lot before you decide you know enough. Then again, crickets produced in 6 weeks probably wont be big enough to feed to adult Ts. How well fed are your Ts? Mine could stand to skip a few weeks but i have a colony of red runners. Just some thoughts.
 

Goopyguy56

Arachnoangel
Joined
Nov 16, 2017
Messages
830
If the crickets have covid-19 they can pass it on to your t's. Usually this virus only causes issues with older tarantulas or ones with preexisting conditions
 

Tfisher

Arachno-Geek
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
251
The only way to cure DKS is going to your local veterinarian.... this is common knowledge.. lol jk jk
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
Is that the same person who thinks that eating disorders/mental health problems are symptoms of "DKS" by any chance? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Hahah...MAYBE, I don't know. To be fair this person learned this information from other people. Not like s/he woke up and said "crix nooooooooooo"
 

Polenth

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 29, 2018
Messages
460
Mealworms are a lot easier to breed than crickets, so you could quickly have a big supply of mealworms.
 

T Lurksalot

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 3, 2018
Messages
21
I can definitely believe pet store crickets might lead to DKS, since it’s really systemic poisoning and flea and tick treatments have been suspected in a lot of reports. I watched an employee at my local Petsmart pet a group of dogs then immediately stick his hands into the cricket tubs to fill someone’s order, and that’s when I stopped feeding them to my T’s.
 

draconisj4

Arachnobaron
Joined
Apr 11, 2017
Messages
455
I can definitely believe pet store crickets might lead to DKS, since it’s really systemic poisoning and flea and tick treatments have been suspected in a lot of reports. I watched an employee at my local Petsmart pet a group of dogs then immediately stick his hands into the cricket tubs to fill someone’s order, and that’s when I stopped feeding them to my T’s.
I agree, I watched an employee do the same at our local Petsense. I wasn't going to buy crickets that day anyway but right then and there I decided that I wasn't ever going to buy crickets from them.
 

The Grym Reaper

Arachnoreaper
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
4,835
I can definitely believe pet store crickets might lead to DKS, since it’s really systemic poisoning and flea and tick treatments have been suspected in a lot of reports.
Poisoning is just one of a number of causes. Also it's dyskinesia, not DKS, the former is the symptom of an underlying problem, the latter is a misnomer based on extremely outdated information.
 
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