Help with Crickets

[Normski2020uk]

Calling anyone who has experiance with breeding/keeping Black crickets. I breed crickets for my scorps main source of food. Just recently i have noticed a few odd things:

1. Mors dead than normal, normaly they make short work of any dead so i do not need to remove the dead.

2. Odd pink swellings in the fleshy part of their abdomen.

3. Diformed limbs, this could be due to fights, not sure.

Fearing the worst i have cut one of these infected open and a health one on the site of the swelling. Not sure what i was looking for, but there apears to be a white tubulare subsatnce in the infected, that is absent from those that are healthy. I fear a parasitic infection. Where did it come from, these are 5th generation, never came into contact with the outside world???? Anyone able to confirm this or shed some light, and more importantly are my Scorps in any danger. I have stoped feeding them these crickets as soon as i noticed the odd pits n piceses.

 

[kahoy]

might be eggs?
mine sucks because they eat new molts, thats a lot of deaths

 

[Dark Raptor]

Ok. I've read the text again and realised that I wrote something stupid in PM (I've got terrible flu... but not H5N1 ).

I think that Gryllus bimaculatus (this is your black cricket) is probably the worse choice as feeder insect. They are very agressive and really stink. I'd choose Acheta domesticus or Gryllus assimilis. Gryllodes sigillatus is also very easy to keep.
I always remove dead specimens, this is the best way to avoid mould, mites and parasites. Canibalism can spread every disease among insects that are still alive.
Your description could be a food poisoning, parasite attack (probably Protista or Bacteria). Without specilized equipment and without help of parasitologist or entomopathologist it is almost impossible to say what had killed your crixs. Few fungi species can be ID macroscopically but I believe it is not fungus. I had the same problem with my G. bimaculatus in the past and I don't keep them any more.

 

[Normski2020uk]

Thanks, I dont think it is a fungus, as i keep the enclosure bone dry. I have started to feed fish food to them. Supose it could be some contaminant in that. Do keep em clean, remove dead ASAP etc. I have got ride of them all now anyway and have a new batch, so i will keep an eye on them.