Feeding your scorps black crickets...
- Thread starter Mr. Quick
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Don't have any black crickets by me (in NYC), but I know what you are talking about and I totally would if I had them outside. There will be some that say it's a bad idea cause those cricks could have been exposed to pesticides, but scorpions are naturally resistant to most pesticides anyway from what I've read so I don't see the issue there. Might introduce mites or fungus though in a humid set up. Not sure. maybe it depends on the scorp set up (I have desert scorps)?
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Dont do this. One word parasites. Dont believe me? Find a bunch of crickets or grasshoppers in your yard, cut them open you will see worm like things inside them. No idea what they are but i wouldnt want to risk it personally. If you do decide to do this play it safe... get some large black crickets and put them in a tank with damp peat substrate, let them lay there eggs and then take the adults out. Dont know how successful this would be, but i imagine it might work like it would regular pet store crickets. Try it out and let us know... Also, pesticides are a risk. Why would you even want to bother with all the problems that this could arise? Just get you some lobster roaches.
-Nate
-Nate
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Are parasites that common? And are they transferable to the predators who are chewing them?
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they are pretty common and not to mention the pesticides that come with them. Better play it safe than sorry.
-Eddy
-Eddy
Source? Or just something you read somewhere on the internet?
If anything I would expect these imported exotics to be more vulnerable because they haven't had a chance to build up tolerances like our local bugs may have. And pesticides can build up in the system, so poisoning via that method may not be apparent for a while, by then it will likely be too late.
Thanks for the info. I was just curious. I have never seen the black crickets for sale. I don't have any scorps yet but I am trying to "learn up on them". I may eventually try to raise/breed my own feeder crix. Don't like the idea of roaches, actually I barely like the idea of live crickets indoors.
I tried crickets for a while, they stink pretty bad, jump everywhere, eat each other and die off all the time. The dubias can't climb glass or plastic, don't jump (mostly), don't fly, don't stink, have a lifespan of 2 years so I very rarely have deaths. It's nice having a self sustaining colony of 1/4"-2" feeders that are as hardy as roaches are.
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What were your experiences? Did you lose any scorps due to the above concerns?
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I moved from crickets to blaptica dubia roaches and am 100% satisfied... no jumping, chirping, smelling anymore.. just calmly grab one (no kicking or biting) and throw it to the appetite. I must say its easier aswell to take care of Dubia.. I haven't had one die yet.. and I had about 50 crickets and on average 2-3 deaths a day.. you can watch em bite each other...
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My two cents worth...
I was watching an episode of 'survivorman' and he was eating wild grasshoppers before he would cook them he would pull the heads off and the guts would come out too, this was to rid it of parasites. Even though he was going to roast it he got rid of the parasites. So they are common is crickets and grasshoppers and can cause a problem.
But in the long run it is your choice.
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The sources are many here is a couple but google "scorpion control" and you will see several articles by exterminators and entomologists:
http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/l-1678.html
http://www.e-bug.net/pests/scorpion_control.shtml
They all say that controlling (i.e. killing) scorpions with pesticides is not effective on account of their natural resistence to most forms of poisons. There are specially developed pesticides just for them, but even those don't appear to be that effective. The basic strategy for controlling a scopion problem is always changing the infested environment to be less scorp friendly, and targeting the scorpions food supply rather than the scorpions themselves (kill the insects they eat and they leave or die off).
I would expect that too if the resistence were acquired rahter than natural. But who said anything about imported exotics? I mentioned potential exotics in the wild in the "Interesting scorpion story" thread. but there I was not implying that exotic species (that may have escaped into the wild) would be more resistant. I was offereing a possible explanation for the uncle who claimed the scorpion that stung the patient was 8 inches and maroon. There simply are no native US species of scorpion that size and color (but it's not outlandish for say a 6 inch Pandinus cavimanus to get loose and sting someone who was allergic thus giving serious swelling. To an untrained eye, the scorp would look like 8 inches if they were measuring extended claws to tail. And their stocky bodies could easily lead to an overestimate of size)
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Thanks everyone. The parasite issue alone will keep me from feeding wild insects to my scorps (if i ever see any around my apartment in the city). I was really looking forward to feeding any insect invaders i found in my apartment to my scorps though 
Not sure what you were talking about in your second paragraph, but all my scorpions and T's are imported exotics and I do everything I can to keep pesticides and parasites away from them. I breed my own roaches and use those almost exclusively.
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Also, those black monster crix are very tough and aggressive. I have them here in the summer and the kick and bite like none other. It be fun to watch a smaller species scorpion try to take it down.
To be redundant, its best to just stay away from live wild not bred to be feeder insects.
To be redundant, its best to just stay away from live wild not bred to be feeder insects.
In SC where I live, grasshoppers and these black crickets are in abundance. If I tried hard enough, I am sure I could catch 20-30 crickets and atleast 100 grasshoppers a day if I tried (during the warmer months). Lately I have been looking under rotting logs and bark,etc. I have found about 15 crickets this week and about seven black widow spiders.
I am not too worried about pesticides where I live, but I guess parasitic creatures etc. might be present. I know that I could raise many scorpions and keep them well fed from my yard.
I am not too worried about pesticides where I live, but I guess parasitic creatures etc. might be present. I know that I could raise many scorpions and keep them well fed from my yard.
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To quote shammer "If you do decide to do this play it safe... get some large black crickets and put them in a tank with damp peat substrate, let them lay there eggs and then take the adults out." It sounds reasonable assuming the parasites do not infect the substrate (which I imagine is a danger)
That's a suggestion. It should be easy raising the outdoor black crickets too. I have seen the funny looking cave type crickets. Does anyone know if say the regular black crickets can mate with the light brown crickets that you can purchase from petshops and baitshops?
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I one fed a house fly to my G. Rosa sling and there were worm things in it. Once the sling had decapitated the fly the parasites were everywhere. I had to clean the encloser and i also made my sling drop it's meal. They are quite common. Anything wild should not be fed to you scorps or spiders.