Mass cricket death

[Introvertebrate]

They most likely change out dead crickets everyday so it just looks like they're able to keep them alive.

That still means that some are surviving.

 

[Jeff23]

While any big box store is probably not a good choice. I have been buying almost all of my crickets from Petco. I am about to start breeding my own out of costs rather than quality issues.

Most of my Petco losses have been from the person putting them in the bag getting sloppy and causing injuries to them. Petco sells a huge number of crickets so I doubt they are this sloppy on the cleanliness, etc from a corporate level. But there could be a problem at a single store. Having said this, until you know the cause I would include a phone call or visit to the store to find out if anyone else has contacted them regarding this problem.

EDIT* Modified post above to correct comments

 

[Chris LXXIX]

A thing I have to say that I wasn't able to understand well after a lot of reading here.

Why buying crickets (or for that matter other live preys for your inverts) from Petco and such?

At least 90/95% of those keepers wouldn't buy a Theraphosidae from those, there's a lot of threads/posts that don't exactly put Petco under a good light. Everyone knows this.

So it's not better to buy crickets online, directly from reputable breeders, and have those FedEx at your home within one day?

 

[Jeff23]

A thing I have to say that I wasn't able to understand well after a lot of reading here.

Why buying crickets (or for that matter other live preys for your inverts) from Petco and such?

At least 90/95% of those keepers wouldn't buy a Theraphosidae from those, there's a lot of threads/posts that don't exactly put Petco under a good light. Everyone knows this.

So it's not better to buy crickets online, directly from reputable breeders, and have those FedEx at your home within one day?

All of the negatives that I have seen regarding Petco relate to "husbandry" for tarantulas. Are there threads or other internet links that show they have crickets that are sick? I have seen the bins that my Petco keeps them multiple times. They are not dirty and do not even smell strong.

I have bought online crickets from ghann crickets, but I must buy a minimum of 250 crickets in each size per order. I need at least two sizes so that is 500 crickets. Does anyone know a reputable online retailer here in the states that sells in smaller quantities. I will trust Petco before I trust a local bait and tackle shop. Plus local bait and tackle shops won't have the same species.

 

[user 666]

A thing I have to say that I wasn't able to understand well after a lot of reading here. Why buying crickets (or for that matter other live preys for your inverts) from Petco and such?

At least 90/95% of those keepers wouldn't buy a Theraphosidae from those, there's a lot of threads/posts that don't exactly put Petco under a good light. Everyone knows this. So it's not better to buy crickets online, directly from reputable breeders, and have those FedEx at your home within one day?

I would not be allowed to raise my own, and since I only need a couple dozen each week the cost of shipping would be prohibitive.

My local Petco has proven to supply decent crickets. Petsmart, not so much - and I don't have a local independent pet store which sells crickets.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

All of the negatives that I have seen regarding Petco relate to "husbandry" for tarantulas. Are there threads or other internet links that show they have crickets that are sick? I have seen the bins that my Petco keeps them multiple times. They are not dirty and do not even smell strong.

I have bought online crickets from ghann crickets, but I must buy a minimum of 250 crickets in each size per order. I need at least two sizes so that is 500 crickets. Does anyone know a reputable online retailer here in the states that sells in smaller quantities. I will trust Petco before I trust a local bait and tackle shop. Plus local bait and tackle shops won't have the same species.

I don't know, man. I've heard/read/watched enough comments "delivered" by keepers here for/to Petco (and such) enough for not even buy from them a normal piece of toilet paper, if we for a moment we don't consider that I'm not American and here stuff like Petco doesn't exist.

I don't know about crickets (or other live prey breeder/sellers) in the U.S, but if I can online buy those from serious breeders in a nation little than California state alone, I have reasons to believe that they exist as well in the U.S.

Here there isn't a "minimum buy" however, and, while overnight service don't exist, couriers are very very cheap, bit of solace :-s

 

[Chris LXXIX]

and since I only need a couple dozen each week the cost of shipping would be prohibitive.

Prohibitive more than $ 6-7? That's not IMO a prohibitive price at all, especially if you buy $20/30/50 of crickets. If the prices are more higher than $ 6-7, well guys, ask my friend Donald to lower them, this is a reason why FedEx doesn't work that much here in Italy, locals offers better prices

 

[Jeff23]

I don't know, man. I've heard/read/watched enough comments "delivered" by keepers here for/to Petco (and such) enough for not even buy from them a normal piece of toilet paper, if we for a moment we don't consider that I'm not American and here stuff like Petco doesn't exist.

I don't know about crickets (or other live prey breeder/sellers) in the U.S, but if I can online buy those from serious breeders in a nation little than California state alone, I have reasons to believe that they exist as well in the U.S.

Here there isn't a "minimum buy" however, and, while overnight service don't exist, couriers are very very cheap, bit of solace :-s

The gotcha with online ordering here is that you must do overnight delivery to get a "live arrival" guarantee. At that point your $10 worth of crickets goes for $50. But for me the biggest problem with ordering too many crickets is less about the added cost and more about the maintenance nightmare.

I got to visit a pet store while I was in Scotland for work on a project. It really didn't seem that different from Petco except for the differences in store layout.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

The gotcha with online ordering here is that you must do overnight delivery to get a "live arrival" guarantee. At that point your $10 worth of crickets goes for $50. But for me the biggest problem with ordering too many crickets is less about the added cost and more about the maintenance nightmare.

I got to visit a pet store while I was in Scotland for work on a project. It really didn't seem that different from Petco except for the differences in store layout.

Aw, too bad man. And I don't have a clue about Scotland, but let me tell you how things work here. It's like here on this site, where you can buy/trade/invertsonal your T's (and inverts) from keepers you trust. Now imagine to do the same thing with live preys. To buy those from other people that you can put trust in.

This is how things works in Italy :-s

I've quitted with breeding and such stuff, I'm reaching 40, I'm lazy as F-Word and angry like Max Payne in "Max Payne 3" and what happened here didn't helped, but still I know 1000% that the crickets I buy (I breed B.dubia, I don't buy those) are the same crickets that fall in the chelicerae of other breeders T's that I know & trust. Just that they set up a virtual FB and not, shop.

Last but not least, buying from those people helps the hobby.

 

[Jeff23]

Aw, too bad man. And I don't have a clue about Scotland, but let me tell you how things work here. It's like here on this site, where you can buy/trade/invertsonal your T's (and inverts) from keepers you trust. Now imagine to do the same thing with live preys. To buy those from other people that you can put trust in.

This is how things works in Italy :-s

I've quitted with breeding and such stuff, I'm reaching 40, I'm lazy as F-Word and angry like Max Payne in "Max Payne 3" and what happened here didn't helped, but still I know 1000% that the crickets I buy (I breed B.dubia, I don't buy those) are the same crickets that fall in the chelicerae of other breeders T's that I know & trust. Just that they set up a virtual FB and not, shop.

Last but not least, buying from those people helps the hobby.

I visited the pet store hoping to see how tarantulas were kept there while I had some spare time but this store didn't have any T's. They had lizards, fish, rabbits, and other critters only. I've never got to visit a store anywhere else in Europe.

I definitely wish I could buy prey from the same people that sell the tarantulas as you mention. In that case you can then think that if it is good enough for their tarantulas then it is good enough for mine. Some US retailers like Jamie's and Net-bug do sell prey, but it is mostly roaches and/or worms (no crickets). I still need to experiment before I would switch 100+ T's to a different prey.

I am going to try to breed my own, but I have been a little slow in getting started and buying of the necessary equipment (aquarium, heater, etc.). I am also in the process of moving all of my T's to a new room.

 

[The Snark]

Just an FYI. Petco and almost if not all 'pet stores' ARE NOT PET STORES. They are logistics operations with a freight terminal and store front attached.

Think your favorite fast food chain. They offer up tasty goodies to the public but are not in control of the quality of the raw materials they neatly package. It's all about expedited quantity purchasing, shipping, on hand stock manipulation and minimizing losses. There are few if any employees in those freight depots and warehouses that check on the quality/health of the raw materials. Get the crud moved from the breeders or collectors out to the store fronts is the name of the game.

And just like McDouche and competitors, a few customers get food poisoning each year. That's the breaks. Try and keep those screw ups to a minimum and keep shoving the goods along the logistics chain as fast as possible.

 

[Jeff23]

After giving this some thought I think I will accelerate my plan to raise my own feeders. This is not because I see any evidence that Petco has caused any cricket (or resulting tarantula) fatalities. When I do Google searches I mostly see people switching their attacks to crickets instead of the store.

But Pet stores and cricket/roach sellers are sometimes short on people when they are paying minimum wage (or close to it). The one problem with both crickets and roaches is that if you don't feed them properly they become cannibalistic. And when you have crickets or roaches eating other dead ones that is when I suspect the colony is at the highest risk of creating disease in the food chain. I suppose changing the water out regularly is also important. Turnover is a good thing to reduce some of the cannibalism. This is another reason why I don't want to be ordering 500 crickets from an online supplier as well.

The Petco near me appears to clean out most of the dead crickets in a decent manner. My Petco also goes through their crickets fast. They run out at some point every week on the small and medium sized ones. I have run into problems several times where I was forced to go to PetSmart because of the shortage. I do not like what I see sometimes at my local PetSmart.

 

[Jeff23]

Just an FYI. Petco and almost if not all 'pet stores' ARE NOT PET STORES. They are logistics operations with a freight terminal and store front attached.

Think your favorite fast food chain. They offer up tasty goodies to the public but are not in control of the quality of the raw materials they neatly package. It's all about expedited quantity purchasing, shipping, on hand stock manipulation and minimizing losses. There are few if any employees in those freight depots and warehouses that check on the quality/health of the raw materials. Get the crud moved from the breeders or collectors out to the store fronts is the name of the game.

And just like McDouche and competitors, a few customers get food poisoning each year. That's the breaks. Try and keep those screw ups to a minimum and keep shoving the goods along the logistics chain as fast as possible.

In reality, I could see the same problems you describe occurring at a small business that specializes in roaches or crickets. If the employees/owner gets lazy or attempts to do more than they are capable the first thing that gets skipped is the cleaning process. And us buyers will not be able to visually see it. You don't have to put a big box name on it to get that result. At least I can see that Petco or PetSmart is or isn't maintaining their bins properly in the store. I am standing right at it when they fill up the bag for me.

 

[The Snark]

In reality, I could see the same problems you describe occurring at a small business that specializes in roaches or crickets

It's typically a problem in any small business that deals with perishable goods, be it food or animals. They go out of business if they don't constantly turn over the products. I bought a house once from a couple that owned a reasonably large pet store. They weren't hard sell pushing all the time and the animals that remained in the store too long were taken home by the owners. That went on for about 10 years.
The residence I bought was about 2 acres of crematoriums surrounding a house that was so flithed out from animals we spent 3 weeks cleaning the INSIDE of the house with a high powered pressure washer.
The moral being, turn those animals over as fast as you can or the business will bury you. Quality control and proper animal care goes out the window.
And what does the small pet shops, and most chain ones do with the ailing and problem animals? Barring an individual store owner will to take them home and dispose of them, they foist everything they can onto the customers.