I hate crickets!

[Driller64]

I friggin HATE them! Especially when the T doesn't eat them. Then recapturing them becomes a game of cat and mouse where everytime you think you have the cricket and you will be able to recapture it, it just leaps away on its legs to another section of the cage and sometimes to where the T is located, stressing out further an already frightened animal. And then I have to gently prod the cricket out, making sure not to touch the tarantula, only to have it leap away again! :wall: It's even worse in an enclosure such as my GBB sling's enclosure, where the uppermost layer of the substrate is webbed together, creating a little skin for the crickets to hide under and create more possible ways to stress out poor Velvet! (Velvet is the GBB sling's name)

 

[pyro fiend]

ahahahaha i hear you thats y i used to tear of the hind legs. and now i only use dubia and b.lat. but agreed 112% crickets suck lol

 

[Jones0911]

ahahahaha i hear you thats y i used to tear of the hind legs. and now i only use dubia and b.lat. but agreed 112% crickets suck lol

Depending on the species, how their burrow is made if they have one and the size of the T determines if I break off the hind legs.

I break them off for all my slings so their easier to catch and also for me so I don't stress the slings out too much when taking food out.

If its a defensive species and a juvenile or bigger I just leave the legs on because they'll end up killing and eating it or killing it and leaving it.

if my Ts have a deep or awkward burrow/hide I might leave the hind legs on so it has a chance to jump out and I can grab it with a catch vial.

 

[Bipolar Spider]

Tis why I switched to locust, have unfortunately learnt recently that you guys across the waters are not able to get hold of them. I feel for you because crickets are evil little bastwrads

 

[Beary Strange]

We have a multitude of other feeders, the loss of one is no biggie.
Anyway crickets are pretty awful. B.lats fill the size void of crickets nicely IMO. Although...they also stink not much less than crickets.

 

[Bipolar Spider]

No, it is, a massive biggie, end of world type biggie.

 

[Poec54]

recapturing them becomes a game of cat and mouse where everytime you think you have the cricket and you will be able to recapture it, it just leaps away on its legs to another section of the cage...And then I have to gently prod the cricket out, making sure not to touch the tarantula, only to have it leap away again!

Outsmarted by a creature with superior intelligence? We can put a man on the moon, but can't catch a cricket in a box? Perhaps we haven't evolved as much as we had thought.

 

[Oreo]

Tis why I switched to locust, have unfortunately learnt recently that you guys across the waters are not able to get hold of them. I feel for you because crickets are evil little bastwrads

But locusts can leap and fly whereas crickets just sit on the ground and eat each other. You can keep your locusts haha.

 

[Driller64]

Outsmarted by a creature with superior intelligence? We can put a man on the moon, but can't catch a cricket in a box? Perhaps we haven't evolved as much as we had thought.

The trouble is not getting the cricket out, its getting the cricket out without giving the tarantula PTSD.

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[klawfran3]

when I left for Missouri for a few weeks (doing it again in a month! can't wait!) and had my parents care for my tarantulas, I always told them that when getting a cricket out of a tarantulas cage to just crush it and pick it up. it's better to lose a 15c cricket than have a $45 tarantula escape.

 

[Amaruca Sun]

when I left for Missouri for a few weeks (doing it again in a month! can't wait!) and had my parents care for my tarantulas, I always told them that when getting a cricket out of a tarantulas cage to just crush it and pick it up. it's better to lose a 15c cricket than have a $45 tarantula escape.

I don't have to remove them often, as my only spider that eats them live right now, slams them pretty good = )

But when I do have to remove them, I'm with Klawfran. Better than your spider getting out, or scaring the beejeebus out of them.

 

[Poec54]

The trouble is not getting the cricket out, its getting the cricket out without giving the tarantula PTSD.

We should still have the advantage in that situation, given our opposable thumbs and enlarged craniums and all. Here we are, talking about this on a computer that our species invented, and we're bested when we go up against an invertebrate with and infinitesimally smaller intellect. Besides, you can usually tell which spiders are fattening up and approaching a molt. Back off on food, skip a feeding or two with them. Normally, they instantly grab crickets. If it's fat and sluggish, give it one cricket and if it doesn't go after the cricket, you could take it out right then. This is not an insurmountable problem.

 

[FrancesP]

Then recapturing them becomes a game of cat and mouse where everytime you think you have the cricket and you will be able to recapture it,

I've always felt wierdly proud when I can snag one of the little stinkers with a pair of tweezers, like the Karate Kid. "When you can catch the fly with the chopsticks, grasshopper..." But I still HATE crickets. In particular, I hate when I get a chirpy one in the mix. It's a great sound in the wilderness, but in my living room, not so much.

 

[jthorntonwillis]

Hee-Hee @ poec. My sentiments exactly!!

 

[elliotulysses]

Don't worry. I think the hobby over all is not cricket friendly.
I'm looking into doing my own feeder colony this summer, since I have a lot of time on my hands.
Now only to pick which roaches to use!

 

[vespers]

The trouble is not getting the cricket out, its getting the cricket out without the tarantula biting the oop: out of you.

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Fixed that for you.

 

[klawfran3]

Don't worry. I think the hobby over all is not cricket friendly.
I'm looking into doing my own feeder colony this summer, since I have a lot of time on my hands.
Now only to pick which roaches to use!

Dubia are cheap and breed fast, but they aren't that small when young. Turk roaches are too fast and can climb. I have dubia, and even though they're a great roach, I'm still longing for a better one with smaller babies. I'm in the same boat as you sort of...

 

[Micrathena]

Crickets suck. They smell, they're annoyingly fast, they're loud if they escape, and they are uncannily good jumpers. I would like nothing more than to switch to dubia roaches, but my mother loathes cockroaches of any kind (which is why I don't have any).

 

[BobGrill]

Not all tarantulas will take roaches, where as almost all will take crickets. So in that aspect, crickets are better.

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[elliotulysses]

Dubia are cheap and breed fast, but they aren't that small when young. Turk roaches are too fast and can climb. I have dubia, and even though they're a great roach, I'm still longing for a better one with smaller babies. I'm in the same boat as you sort of...

The colony I wanted to start would have cost way too much. I'm still searching for the best feeder

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