Has anyone heard of the cricket virus?

[lunashimmer]

If Bat's "bored"...why'd she respond? :?

So, anyways, I amend my earlier statement: I do believe that you cannot irradiate something that's alive. Unless it's with super low radiation levels ... and the level low enough to NOT kill an insect would probably be impossible to calculate. I am NOT a mathematical genius and never claimed to be! Nor am I a biologist or entomologist. I am a T keeper and a new one at that.

The point I wanted to make, but I didn't, was that the crix I get at my LPS (not my PetSmart but a locally owned place) are not irradiated to be sterilized because they constantly reproduce in their containers at the LPS. That's how I'm able to get crix at all lifestages--juveniles less than 1/2" long up to adults with wings that are near the end of their natural life cycles.

The whole point of this thread was about the cricket paralysis virus and not about irradiation or anything else. I apologize to everyone that it got so out of hand.

 

[Malhavoc's]

The links centipede freak wouldl ead to cricket irradation and otheri nsects certianly being done, however. done on a regular basis to sterlize feeders is doubtful, we need to think of the costs. the costs of irradating in itself then the losses of those that get too high a dose, and there will be. It would see the cricket price rising a great deal then just one or two cents per cricket.

 

[4202cvinc]

cricket virus

Don't see any updates since May. The cricket virus is here. Several commercial breeders in SoCal have gone down completely and a major supplier in Southern Forida was recently infected and it now out of business. Europe and the UK have faired better because they were not breeding exclusively brown house crickets. The lack of insect diversity in the US makes these breeders particularly susceptable. I fear it is but a matter of time. The transportation of the virus is yet unknown and there is not a method of cleaning the facilities to restart the colonies.
The virus is extremely species specific and does not appear to affect anything but the brown house cricket.

 

[TheTyro]

Yikes, well good thing I started breeding my own crickets a few weeks ago. Just in case. I had read through this thread when it was active, but I forget how they said the virus was being spread?

Oh, and the crickets I bought for breeding were from Petsmart, I was curious about the whole radiation debate. I am happy to say that the crickets I have are definitely capable of reproducing. I've got my first few pinheads as of yesterday.

I hope it doesn't get any worse, and if it does, that commercial breeders expand their cricket species!

 

[evicton]

I've been buying in bulk though I end up wasting crickets but most of my frogs don't seem to go after roaches like they do crickets so I like to have a steady supply. In the intrest of breeding them I ended up getting a large amount of pinheads from one supplier like 1k and they are doing awesome. I also got some larger ones from another supplier which i was going to breed as they matured.

This batch of 250 is what I would call infected of course I can't confirm it for sure but there is something wrong here. First few days I did not have any deaths then boom on the fourth day I must have had 50+ deaths I know it took me a long time to clear the corpses out of there container. The next night I go to check on them and found another massive die off, not as many but still like 30 crickets. Night after that and each night since they I have lost close to 20 and would estimate I have around 40 left if that. I have fed at most 60 since I got them.

 

[patrickbull]

I've found some new articles about this disease spreading in the U.S. It seems cricket farms are thinking of switching to the Jamaican Field Cricket. Here is what I found:

From: http://www.geckotime.com/jamaican-field-cricket-gryllus-assimili/

Attack of the Feeder Crickets

The common house cricket (Acheta domesticus) may soon be a thing of the past. The deadly Cricket Paralysis Virus (aka Acheta domestica densovirus, AdDNV) that decimated the specie in Europe around eight years ago has essentially wiped them out to near extinction here in North America as well. The feeder insect producers have not even had a chance to recover from the devastating financial losses of the mealworm shortage that wreaked havoc on the reptile community in 2008, and we are now faced with yet another feeder crisis.


There is a new cricket feeder being introduced. It is the Jamaican Field Cricket (Gryllus assimilis), and it’s being marketed as the “Super Cricket”, or Black Super Cricket. They are totally black when they are young, but as adults they have dark bodies, and light brownish legs. Their heads are a variegated orange-brown color. The males have short wings, and the females have much longer wings. They are native to the Caribbean, but are now indigenous to Southern Florida and Southeastern Texas.

Top – male G. assimilus , bottom – female (photo by Diana Heideman / Siren Fish & Reptiles)

These crickets are very robust, much bigger and meatier than the former cricket so you don’t have to feed as many. They don’t jump as high, are quieter, and are resistant to the densovirus (AdDNV). These crickets are like our ‘domestic’ crickets on steroids.
Sound too good to be true? Well…

These Jamaican Field Crickets are not only big in size, but they have H-U-G-E mandibles (jaws) designed for chomping heavy vegetation. They are aggressive, and can be vicious. They will chomp your fingers (drawing blood!) AND chew on your geckos. These crickets bit my Nephrurus. milii and Nephrurus. levis, stressing them to the point of one dying, and several others to the point of mobilizing all the fat reserves in their tails literally overnight. I woke up to a dead, half-eaten N. milii and there were only 2 crickets in the tub. I have several other rare Australian geckos that have not eaten since they were fed these crickets a month ago, and I expect to lose at least two of them. Even my leopard geckos stayed on top of their hides for days to avoid these vicious bugs, even after I removed them.

Bite from adult Gryllus assimilis

After this devastating situation, I contacted at least a dozen major cricket breeders recounting this experience, and soliciting more information regarding the Jamaican Field Cricket. I obtained detailed facts from Timberline, Ghann’s, and Armstrong’s, a short email from another company that simply stated, “Having these crickets is better than having no crickets at all”. I did not even receive the courtesy of a response from the other cricket suppliers. I also contacted the USDA for information on the potential for environmental affects, but have not received a response from them either.

What I learned from those that did respond is that the cricket farmers are aware that the Jamaican Field Cricket is aggressive and is not an appropriate feeder for many animals, and they have known this since the Europeans first started working with them eight years ago. I was informed that raising and breeding this species of cricket requires a permit from the USDA, and as of the most current information I received, they are illegal to ship across State borders at this time. One cricket grower said flatly that shipping these crickets is “breaking the law”.

I posted this information on Facebook and to online forum communities as a warning to others, and since publicly sharing my tragic experience I have been contacted by a few other reptile breeders that also had negative encounters with the Jamaican Field Cricket. One Bearded Dragon breeder reported that an entire clutch of hatchlings was maimed by these feeders, having their feet, toes, and tails chewed. Another claimed several African Fat-tail babies being injured as well. Both of these breeders were shipped the Gryllus assimilis in lieu of their regular A. domestica crickets without notice. One pet store reported to me that they also received the “super crickets” without being prepared for them, and they actually chewed through the shipping boxes they arrived in. I urged them to contact the cricket suppliers with their reports, but they were reluctant to do so.

Businesses and livelihoods are being affected by this feeder crisis. Not only do reptile breeders and keepers have to deal with another blow, but the cricket feeder supply companies are taking astronomical financial losses and employees are being laid off in a challenging nation-wide economic crisis. There are rumors that the cricket breeders are attempting hybridization of the A. domestica and G. assimilis in hopes of creating a less aggressive yet pathogen resistant cricket. We can hope this will be a successful venture.

In the meantime, if we are forced to use the “Super Cricket” as a feeder for our geckos, I can offer the following suggestions:

be specific when ordering crickets, asking for A. domesticus

order a size smaller than you usually do

feed these crickets good, nutritious food… they are savage eaters

don’t leave any uneaten crickets (even two!) in your animal’s enclosure
if you must leave crickets in with your animals, put some cornmeal or carrot pieces in with them so the bugs have something else to chew on

Finally, ask questions, do your research, and develop an affirmative communication relationship with your feeder suppliers. Report all issues, and provide them with constructive feedback with your experiences – both positive and negative.

We must present a united front, and remain optimistic that together we can overcome this obstacle.

From:http://bamboozoo.weebly.com/feeders-cpv-cricket-paralysis-disease.html

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Janet Mcconnaughey, Associated Press – Wed Jan 12, 3:50 am ET

PORT ALLEN, La. – A virus has killed millions of crickets that are raised to feed pet reptiles and zoo animals, putting some producers out of business and disrupting supplies to pet shops across North America.

The cricket paralysis virus killed 60 million of the insects at an operation in Canada, forced a Florida farmer to declare bankruptcy and prompted a Michigan grower to close until spring.

The virus led Elizabeth Payne to declare bankruptcy in June, and a bank foreclosed on her property in Leesburg, Fla., in November. She and her husband, who died three years ago, bought their farm in 1987 and built up sales to a million crickets a week, but it was ruined by the virus.

She finally gave up after closing the facility four times and spraying the walls and equipment with a strong chlorine solution, then pressure-washing the walls.

"There is no cure for that virus, and there is no way to get the virus out of that facility," Payne said.

Cricket farms started in the 1940s as a source of fish bait, but the bulk of sales now are to pet supply companies, reptile owners and zoos, although people also eat some. Most U.S. farms are in the South, but suppliers from Pennsylvania to California also raise crickets.

The virus had swept through European cricket farms in 2002. It was first noticed in 2009 in the U.S. and Canada in the only commonly sold cricket species — the house cricket Acheta domesticus.

The virus doesn't affect animals that eat crickets or even other cricket species, said Peter Tijssen, a virologist at the University of Quebec in Laval, Canada.

David Fluker, president of Fluker's Cricket Farm Inc. in Port Allen, estimated there are 10 major U.S. farms and many smaller operations. Fluker, who created a limited access blog to discuss the problem, said he thinks four or five farmers are now fighting the virus.

Despite the problem, untainted operations seem to be largely meeting the demand. Some retailers noted, though, that they have had to search a bit for crickets.

Raymond Lambrecht, owner of The Pet Zone in Shreveport, La., said he had to switch suppliers this summer.

"All of a sudden, they told me they didn't have any large crickets," he said. "I could get small ones, but no medium to large crickets for several months."

Jeff McFarlane, owner of Aardvark Pets in Winnepeg, Canada, said two farmers he bought from have gone out of business. McFarlane previously relied on one supplier, but now splits his orders between three to ensure he doesn't become too reliant on one operation.

Barry Garrity, a sales associate at Upscales Fish and Reptiles in Tualatin, Ore., said for several months from midsummer to fall, his store had a hard time getting crickets, and many died within a day or two after delivery. His supplier said he changed distributors and hasn't had a problem since.

For those operations infected with the virus, getting rid of the problem can be a long and frustrating process.

The virus forced Top Hat Cricket Farm in Kalamazoo, Mich., to close until spring while officials "re-invent the way we operate," according to a notice on its website. General manager Bob Eldred declined the comment on the matter.

Canadian grower Bill Duckworth, owner of Krickets Un Ltd in Lacombe, Alberta, said more than 60 million crickets at his operation died within 10 days.

In response, he's been sanitizing his barns since August and hoped to reopen "real soon." When they reopen, Duckworth will institute procedures to prevent entrance of the virus, such as requiring workers to wear protective suits and step onto chemical-saturated pads to kill any viruses on their shoes. "It'll be a $100,000 ordeal before I'm done here. When I'm done, I'll be 100 percent biosecure," Duckworth said.

From: http://www.tophatcrickets.com/2010ShortageINFO.htm

Top Hat Cricket Farm
1 (800) 638-2555

Since our last update we have had a few new developments that we would like to tell you about.

I’m sure you’re aware of the trouble in the cricket industry. Also at this time it is public knowledge that Top Hat has fallen victim to what we believe is the cricket paralysis virus (CPV).

We continue to clean our facility top to bottom and sterilize every surface, several different ways. We believe that our methods have weakened the virus substantially but still not enough to warrant a stable environment for production.

Most recently, Top Hat has made the decision to remove all of the crickets that we were observing for experimentation from the growing facility and begin a period of idle time. We believe this to be necessary step in our process both to help us continue to clean and to remove anything that may be living in our facility and could potentially re-infect a new stock of crickets upon a potential restart.

Our plan at this point is to allow our facility to sit empty until the springtime, giving us the time we need to re-invent the way we operate so that we may provide everyone with clean and healthy crickets when we return to normal production.

We hope that all of our customers will make an effort to clean any cricket operation they have as well to help in stopping the spread of this virus. We strongly recommend that customers clean all of their cages, watering devices packing/counting instruments… anything in contact with crickets. We need your help to stop the spread of the cricket virus. Any cleaning will aid the cricket industry in returning stronger and healthier.

Our recommendation for cleaning is that you first scrub all equipment with a cleaner such as simple green to loosen all dirt and other particles. After a good rinse to insure all loosened dirt is gone a 10-minuet soak in bleach water is necessary to kill off any life forms that could be hiding. Bleach should be mixed around a ½ cup to one gallon of water.

As always I need to reassure you that we are not going to give up, we strongly believe that we are on the path to success and we continue to do everything we can to get back up and running as quickly as possible. We appreciate everyone’s support and concern through this challenge and look forward to supplying our customers with the clean and healthy crickets that you are used to seeing from Top Hat very soon.

If you hadn’t already heard, there was an article published in our local newspaper that has more information about the cricket virus and what it’s done to the industry, check it out at mlive.com

If you have individual concerns you can still reach us in our office or via e-mail at bob@tophatcrickets.com

Please continue to monitor our progress from our website www.tophatcrickets.com

Thanks again for your concern,



Dave Eldred

President/CEO

Top Hat Cricket Farm INC.

1919 Forest Dr.

Portage, MI 49002

 

[patrickbull]

From: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/08/insect_virus_creeps_into_north.html

Insect virus creeps into North America, shuts down Portage commercial cricket grower
Published: Sunday, August 15, 2010, 6:00 AM Updated: Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 11:05 AM
By Rosemary Parker | Kalamazoo Gazette

PORTAGE — An obscure virus studied by only a handful of scientists is sending ripples of alarm through this country’s zoos and reptile-breeder communities.

The virus doesn’t hurt reptiles or any other animals. But in Europe, it wiped out a staple of the captive reptile diet.

Now it’s here.

“It moved through this factory like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Bob Eldred, general manager of Top Hat Cricket Farm Inc. in Portage, one of the country’s largest wholesale suppliers of crickets.

“We were seeing dead crickets everywhere within a matter of weeks. We dumped 30 million crickets we had right in the garbage.”

Until last year, cricket paralysis virus was Europe’s problem.

An outbreak of the pathogen swept that continent in 2002, essentially rendering the common brown cricket commercially extinct there.

But the virus found its way across the Atlantic Ocean and into Canadian and U.S. cricket-rearing facilities.

“My Canadian contact said it is spreading through the cricket industry there like wildfire,” said Suzanne Thiem, insect virologist at Michigan State University.

In April, it reached Eldred’s 58-year-old family owned business on Forest Drive. Despite the company’s best efforts, it has been unable to get rid of the virus.

When it first hit, workers culled out crickets that appeared sick, but that didn’t slow the wave of illness.

“So we made the decision to clean out the hatchery,” Eldred said, disposing of all the crickets.

“We went crazy with bleach and explored various sterilization methods,” then started production again, he said.

By early June, “we were bringing in fresh eggs from a hatchery, and (they) hatched normally,” Eldred said. “Then the new crickets began to show signs of the disease.”

Diseased crickets will flip over on their backs, unable to move, and die.

Again the company disposed of the dead crickets, production stopped and Eldred got out the bleach. “Due to the situation, we had to lay off all of our 30 employees,” he said.

Top Hat had been shipping up to 5.5 million crickets every week to zoos, local pet stores and distributors.

“We’ve gone on total lockdown. No one is allowed in the facility,” he said, except Eldred, his brothers, Tom and Charlie, and their father, Dave, who are continuing to clean and sterilize while they explore other possible solutions.

“The only option now may be to take advantage of a Michigan winter and let the place freeze out,” Eldred said. “ Being as it is a virus, it’s incredibly difficult to kill.”

The virus
Thiem said cricket paralysis virus, or Acheta domesticus densovirus, belongs to a type of virus that is notoriously persistent.

She said colleagues in France and Canada have told her of cricket producers there using bleach, ozone treatments, even replacing all of their equipment to eradicate the virus — “but to no avail,” she said.

The virus was first discovered in France in the 1960s and has caused problems in Europe’s commercial cricket industry for the past several years. It surfaced in North America last September.

Thiem said the virus doesn’t affect people, or the animals that eat crickets. The virus also doesn’t infect other species of crickets, such as the wild black ones chirping in Michigan backyards this time of year.

Better to switch than fight?
Because the virus affects only the brown house cricket, and because the virus is so hard to wipe out once it’s established, European producers solved their problem by switching commercial production to different cricket species and other insects, Thiem said.

That’s not an easy option in the United States because the brown house cricket is the only variety approved for commercial production, Eldred said.

Alyn Kiel, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the import of any insect that might prove a threat to U.S. agriculture or the environment is prohibited. Any proposal to import insects is scrutinized through a permitting process.

“Our scientists here have been exploring domestic alternatives (to the brown house cricket) that might fit the needs of the industry,” Kiel said.

A growth industry
The $45 billion pet industry needs answers. Reptiles are hot and the success of raising them in captivity depends on the availability of a proper diet. Crickets are the food of choice for many reptiles.

Pet food wasn’t an issue when Bob Eldred’s grandfather, Grant Eldred, started Top Hat Cricket in 1952. The demand then for crickets was for fish bait. Today, fish bait makes up less than 10 percent of the company’s business.

“When the economy was going down, our business was going up” as interest in pet reptiles and amphibians grew, Eldred said. A survey conducted last year by The American Pet Products Association showed 4.7 million U.S. households kept 13.6 million pet reptiles. Feeder crickets are the preferred food of frogs, toads, other reptiles and lizards, according to the survey.

Crickets are a staple for the reptile and amphibian exhibits in zoos and theme parks, said Barb Snyder, general curator of John Ball Park Zoo in Grand Rapids. Frogs and lizards at the zoo eat about 8,000 crickets every two weeks, at a cost of about $90, she said. Top Hat has been the zoo’s supplier for years, she said.

Wayne Hill, director of the National Reptile Breeders Expo in Daytona Beach, Fla., said cricket paralysis virus is sure to be a hot topic at this week’s show, which is expected to draw exhibitors from 15 countries. The show is billed as the largest reptile meeting in the world.

Hill said big money is tied up in the animals that eat crickets. “I have had animals at my show go for $40,000,” he said. “The first year, an albino Burmese (python) went for $25,000.”

He said one breeder, The Gourmet Rodent, “may feed 12,000 to 15,000 (crickets) every week. “He supplies 800 stores with lizards and snakes.”

Hill said an expo presenter three or four years ago lectured about the cricket virus then in Europe, and warned to prepare for it because it would hit this country at some point. No one was too concerned, he recalled. “They said, ‘Nah, there’s an ocean between us,’” Hill said.

Then this year, Hill said, “I started having (cricket suppliers) call and say, ‘I won’t be at the show this year, we had to cut out our entire business.’ They just shut down.”

Many of those who are coming have hired outside companies to set up rental booths and equipment that will never enter their facilities, and have told Hill they will not bring any stock back from the show.

“They are taking precautions,” Hill said, “saying ‘It don’t matter what goes out of here, it’s what’s coming back in."

“The only way they know of to get rid of the virus is to shut down, clean everything out, so not even an ant is left on the premises, and to prevent it from ever re-entering.”

How far has it spread?
It is difficult to assess how far the virus has spread in the U.S. cricket industry, or the economic impact it might have.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t track brown cricket production. Cricket growers are not represented by farm or commodity groups or included in records compiled by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

And not every producer has been as forthright about the problem as Eldred.

Because people’s livelihoods are at stake, they may be reluctant to discuss the issue openly for fear their customers will misunderstand the nature of the disease, Thiem said.
Lucky Lure, one of Florida’s oldest commercial cricket farms supplying theme parks and zoos, was driven to bankruptcy by the virus, the Orlando Sentinel reported in June. The virus struck there in February. Attempts to reach its owners last week were unsuccessful — the telephone has been disconnected.

Eldred declined to disclose how much money his family’s business has lost this summer. “I don’t even want to think about it,” he said.

But he is confident the problem will be solved and the business survive.

In a statement on the company’s website, his father, Dave Eldred, assures customers: “We are not going to give up. We have too many years of success at Top Hat to allow this virus to defeat us.”

 

[BobGrill]

Jon Coote? Haven't heard that name in forever. He's the guy who wrote that horribly outdated T-rex book on keeping tarantulas in captivity. Said there was no antivenom for the bite of the sydney funnel web spider and that indian stick insects and snake steak sausages make good food for captive Ts.

 

[BobGrill]

This is extremely bad for me as I live in Florida and can't use dubias or any roaches. So if there are no crix left, then there are no alternative feeders.

 

[ilovebugs]

wow, this is crazy.

My question is this, (note I didn't read all of the 5 pages, so forgive me if this has been brought up previously) would Field Crickets (Gryllus sp) be a viable option to switch too? I've never really understood why they aren't widely used as feeders. They actually grow a bit larger than Acheta domesticus.

As for the virus, I really wish I was already well into studying Entomology so I could look into it more myself or point some other bright minds to the matter.

 

[lunashimmer]

Since I originally posted this a year ago, I haven't had any trouble buying crickets in FL. My LPS might be out on the particular day I stop in, but not because of the virus.

I did a quick Google search and no new articles have been written about the virus. I bolded new because I did find some articles posted but they were rehashes of the original article from last summer (above as posted by PsychedelicTs).

Either the virus didn't spread as widely as people originally thought it would (myself included) or it was stopped or minimized. Whatever happened, I'm glad.

 

[fantasticp]

Either the virus didn't spread as widely as people originally thought it would (myself included) or it was stopped or minimized. Whatever happened, I'm glad.

All the pet stores by my house now sell the freaky red headed crickets. I'm pretty sure the brown ones got wiped out. Look closely. They don't look the same.