Help! Bugs on my spider!

D-Man

Arachnochicano
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Joined
Feb 27, 2003
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356
I went to "tuck my spiders in," you know, the last check before bedtime. I saw my A. chalcodes in a corner of its cage that it NEVER goes to. I figured it was out to take a quick poop, but it always blows its loaf in 3 other areas of its cage. I thought this was odd, so I looked around and I saw a little bug on top of Chico's (or Chica's) PVC hide. In my angered, alarmed haste, I thought it was a friggin' ant! Ahhhhhh! I smashed the little bastard with a chop stick, but there was more....... A LOT MORE! My poor baby was getting away from these crawling, filthy maggots!

After closer inspection, I saw that they were baby crickets! Some little ass-wipe adult cricket dropped a gift for us before becoming a tasty ball of suck-wad. I quickly moved my beautiful 3" blond to a deli cup and poured all the substrate and fleet of bastard crix in the toilet and flushed!

Dad cleaned the cage, whipped up a new batch of verm/sphagnum peatmoss, checked Chico/a for any cling-ons and put him/her back in. Of course, now s/he has to re-acclimate to the cage, but no more koodies. :p

Whew, no time for bed.....

Dario
 

luther

Arachnodemon
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Apr 8, 2003
Messages
679
Originally posted by D-Man [/B]
poured all the substrate and fleet of bastard crix in the toilet and flushed! [/B]
LOL, if one of my kids filled the toilet with a tankfull of substrate I'd make them eat a cricket. (j/k)
 

SpiderTwin

Arachnoangel
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Mar 17, 2003
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910
Hey D-man
Sounds like they were being a pest to your blondie in this situation, but normally new born crickets won't hurt anything. I have had them in many of my set-ups and they go away on their own( they just die off ).
I guess the only reason I just left them was to not stress out the T, but cleaning the cage out and putting in new substrate is always a good thing.
 

TheSpiderHouse

Arachnosquire
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Apr 4, 2003
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Easy way to kill baby crickets.. make sure there is a water dish. They will drown within a couple of days. Pretty easy huh? :)
 

Cyprinus01

Arachnopeon
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Mar 25, 2003
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11
Today I came home from school and I found the exact same situation you describe.
My G. Pulchra hiding in one of the corners of his cages, in which I've never seen, him before.
After I inspected the cage I found 14 little baby crickets.
I noticed 2/3 weeks ago that one of the crickets was putting something with it's back-end deep inside the sand/peat moss, back then I thought he was just sh#tting or something, now I know he was not :p .

When I noticed the little devils, I moved Eleanor (when I bought him I that he was a she, therefore the girl-name) in another cage and I flushed every baby crickets I found.

Now Eleanor looks a bit angry with his new substrate, but (as you said) I think he likes this better than the little devils.
 

Tamara

Arachnosquire
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May 20, 2003
Messages
148
female crickets

Hi Dario
I'm new to this forum. In the past I've had two G. roseas and now I have a brand new young A. geniculata (its very beautiful and I haven't even named it yet). I learned with my first T that I hate baby crickets wandering in and around (and outside!) the T's house. So now I always get only male crickets. Alternatively, if I put a female in I push it towards the T so its eaten right away before it can lay eggs in the substrate. To tell males and females apart is easy. Males look they have two tails in a V-shape, whereas females have a third "tail" that is a dark brown tube or ovipositor through which they lay their eggs. This ovipositor is really obvious on mature females. Usually the people at the petstore let me catch my own crickets so I can get only males or immature females (ie. their oviposter is non-existent or very short).
Hope this helps.
Tamara
 

D-Man

Arachnochicano
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Feb 27, 2003
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Tamara-

Thanks for the tip, I appreciate that!

Dario
 

RugbyDave

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Apr 5, 2003
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I do the same thing -- that big long brown thing on the back of the cricket is a female -- eggs go down that chute :)

If you watch, alot of female crickets will go into the T's cage, dig a teensy hole, and bend the ovipositor into the substrate...

there's some other ways if you cant get your own crickets..
some people say "cut off the ovipositor", but it seems that doesn't work..

some people say "burn it off", but if you dont seal off the ovipositor,it doesn't work.

If, for some strange reason, i can't pick my own crickets out (new store or something), i'll get the ovipositor down to the very end and burn that sucker shut...

no bleeding-hearts please :)

but once you find your pet store, they'll let you pick your own crickets.

though they usually die fairly soon after if theyre in the cages.

peace
dave
 

DiStUrBeD-OnE

Arachnoknight
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Jan 23, 2003
Messages
202
All i do is grab the cric by the ovipositor and when im about to drop it, just pinch it with the tweezers at the bottom of it.. comes off and its a good way to grab crics w/o smashin em ;P
 

RugbyDave

Arachnoprince
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oh, but they can still lay eggs though. Seriously :) You may not get mini crix in the cage, but they can still lay eggs.

peace
dave
 

RugbyDave

Arachnoprince
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haha...

thats what I do my friend :)
some people rip the legs off to feed em.. some people cut em half... but i say join the 'legions of lighters'!

peace
dave
 

D-Man

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Feb 27, 2003
Messages
356
I'll go with the lighter next time.... a little cajun style cric for my T's....yum, yum.

Anyone ever eat a cric???
 

Tamara

Arachnosquire
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Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
148
Hi Dario
Yep, I've eaten them. And a whole host of other insects and inverts too. Never go to the entomology bake sale on campus, unless you're prepared to ask what those crunchy things are in their cookies. I've travelled a fair bit and I've eaten scorpions in China (true! deep-fried in a hot pot!), enormous locusts in Thailand, and enormous ants in Ecuador that taste like mints when you eat their abdomen. I'm fairly certain that this will leave you with images of what a creepy person I am, no doubt, but really, I'm not that kinda gal. I'm pretty well-adjusted, but I'll try anything once (and twice if I like it).
So all you with your lighters - why not just get male crickets instead of burning the hind end off the poor females. Yes, I'm sentimental, but it does seem like less effort.
Tamara
 

D-Man

Arachnochicano
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 27, 2003
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Tamara-

No, I don't think you're creepy, quite the contrary, you sound like an interesting woman; nothing shocks me these days! Your menu sounds intriguing - I wouldn't mind having a taste of those finger foods.

I don't bag my own cric's, so if I get a female....

Dario
 

Arachnopuppy

Arachnodemon
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Jul 22, 2002
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Hey guys, I don't want to be the guy that disagrees with everyone or anything, but shouldn't crickets get a little more respect than being tortured like that? Removing the ovipositor will not prevent the female from laying eggs. I know that we use them as food for our tarantulas, but torturing them like that (ripping out the ovipositor, ripping out the legs, etc...) is unnecessary and only causes more suffering than is needed.
 

D-Man

Arachnochicano
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
356
Lam-

You have got to be kidding. In honor of you, I just got done putting about 100 crix in a bucket with gasoline, let them marinade for a bit, then added flame! Of course, I pulled of their jumping legs and poked their eyes before the cook-off ;P
 

jper26

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
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Apr 5, 2003
Messages
383
I have had this happen 3 times once with a t twice with scorpions every time i had too change the substrate because there were so many crickets and too small to pick out. I know it had too be stressing them too:8o
 
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