Round 2 - Cricket Feeders

[Craig73]

For those that keep crickets, do you use a bedding layer in your bins?

Decided to switch things up a bit and add crickets to my feeder menu. Now I clearly remember my past chameleon life with these little vermin, but decided to switch it up a bit from the usual red runners. I swore them off, but here I am..,maybe for round two of cricket purgatory.

I heard vermiculite bedding helps control oder so giving it a shot. I decided to try a company I had not tried before and went with 250 1/4”, that should give me at least a month +worth of food for the little ones. Big boys are still on the red runners. Depending how it goes this week I’ll have a better sense of whether or not I’ll stick with these or not. In worst case the neighbors irritate me and end up with “rogue“ crickets In their car.

 

[viper69]

No

Vermic for odor? New to me, is that true?

 

[Craig73]

No

Vermic for odor? New to me, is that true?

That’s what I’ve come across when looking at cricket oder. I won’t know if it actually works until they settle in and do their cricket business. For my sake I’m hoping it works, cause if not that’s a lot of small crickets on $5 worth of uselessness.

In the past I used nothing and would wipe down the bin every so often which was easy. Not sure with the vermiculite how this will play out as far as cleaning. I’ve jumped into the great unknown, I got sold in what I read and shot from the hip.

 

[viper69]

That’s what I’ve come across when looking at cricket oder. I won’t know if it actually works until they settle in and do their cricket business. For my sake I’m hoping it works, cause if not that’s a lot of small crickets on $5 worth of uselessness.

In the past I used nothing and would wipe down the bin every so often which was easy. Not sure with the vermiculite how this will play out as far as cleaning. I’ve jumped into the great unknown, I got sold in what I read and shot from the hip.

Funny I’ve bred crickets and never thought there was an option to the smell, just thought that’s the way it was! Then again the internet wasn’t full of info like it is now

 

[Craig73]

Funny I’ve bred crickets and never thought there was an option to the smell, just thought that’s the way it was! Then again the internet wasn’t full of info like it is now

It looks like a high end cricket spa from the side, from the top with the mesh i

Funny I’ve bred crickets and never thought there was an option to the smell, just thought that’s the way it was! Then again the internet wasn’t full of info like it is now

In any case looks like they’re having the time of their lives, until their not. Country club living I guess. It’ll be interesting to see how easy or hard it will be to spot the dead ones. My guess is 1/4” will probably be a nightmare to spot.

It was something like 8 quarts in the bag, I could have just used half of that but the crickets didn’t arrive until after dark and I just dumped it in bin outside in the dark.

 

[Charliemum]

Let us know your findings please, I keep crickets and the smell is awful I never thought of trying to put something in with them ... I am very interested to see if this works

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Nope, when I kept them I basically set them up similarly to my roaches, they just require a little more maintenance.

Enclosure - Large well-ventilated tub with egg crates to hide in.
Food/hydration - A dish of dry food (I used a mix of oatmeal and fish food), and a dish of water crystals for hydration. Honestly, this is so much less bloody hassle than using fruit/veg IME.
Cleaning/maintenance - Spot clean dead crickets as and when you find them, leaving them in is what causes the worst of the smell. Deep clean the enclosure once a fortnight and replace the egg crates every other cleaning. Clean food/water dishes as needed.

That's pretty much all I did for them, the smell never got that bad and I never had an issue with them dying in droves.

 

[Arachnophobphile]

Nope, when I kept them I basically set them up similarly to my roaches, they just require a little more maintenance.

Enclosure - Large well-ventilated tub with egg crates to hide in.
Food/hydration - A dish of dry food (I used a mix of oatmeal and fish food), and a dish of water crystals for hydration. Honestly, this is so much less bloody hassle than using fruit/veg IME.
Cleaning/maintenance - Spot clean dead crickets as and when you find them, leaving them in is what causes the worst of the smell. Deep clean the enclosure once a fortnight and replace the egg crates every other cleaning. Clean food/water dishes as needed.

That's pretty much all I did for them, the smell never got that bad and I never had an issue with them dying in droves.

Thanks for that info that helps alot. I am going to give crickets another go again. I quit after the last time due to the overwhelming nose hair burning wrench of hell spawn smell.

 

[Craig73]

Looping back to report on how the vermiculite base I’m using in my cricket tub has done over the past month.

I am happy to say the stench is virtually non-existent. I’ve had temps as high as 85F where I expected something, but nothing.

I also thought it would be hard to pull out dead crickets, but found just taking a scooper and just skim the top surface was easy. I just throw it out, the stuff is relatively inexpensive and I’ve yet to even make a noticeable dent to tell Ive removed any.

 

[Dry Desert]

Looping back to report on how the vermiculite base I’m using in my cricket tub has done over the past month.

I am happy to say the stench is virtually non-existent. I’ve had temps as high as 85F where I expected something, but nothing.

I also thought it would be hard to pull out dead crickets, but found just taking a scooper and just skim the top surface was easy. I just throw it out, the stuff is relatively inexpensive and I’ve yet to even make a noticeable dent to tell Ive removed any.

I use Vermiculite as a base for red runners and mealworms, never noticed any smells. Mealworms, especially Mario's seem to like the burrowing part of using Ver.

 

[Cecelias lair]

Looping back to report on how the vermiculite base I’m using in my cricket tub has done over the past month.

I am happy to say the stench is virtually non-existent. I’ve had temps as high as 85F where I expected something, but nothing.

I also thought it would be hard to pull out dead crickets, but found just taking a scooper and just skim the top surface was easy. I just throw it out, the stuff is relatively inexpensive and I’ve yet to even make a noticeable dent to tell Ive removed any.

Thanks for the info. I've been trying to figure out what feeders to try. I've never tried crickets as feeders (I've been on and off with the idea of them) but this thread has helped my decision on giving crickets a try.

 

[Craig73]

Thanks for the info. I've been trying to figure out what feeders to try. I've never tried crickets as feeders (I've been on and off with the idea of them) but this thread has helped my decision on giving crickets a try.

Awesome, give it a go. The smell has always been the biggest put off for me that I would literally keep them in the garage.

I don't mind the occasional periods of chirping, its like white noise to me. Of course I only keep a few hundred and many are on the smaller side.

I’m still adjusting to catching them, but starting to get the groove back.

 

[kingshockey]

i use a handful of coco fiber in the big soup deli cups i use to store the small amount of crickets. i buy makes for east clean up since i just dump it after the feeders are fed off no poop etc. to wash out aside from picking out the dead ones each day not much cricket stink either granted i only buy a couple of bux every month