Super Crickets?

[Tremors]

There is a local cricket ranch in my area that has changed the type of crickets that they are breeding. They call them Super Crickets. Supposedly these crickets have more protein and grow faster.

I called the ranch and tried to get more information from them but they wouldn't get specific...

Has anyone heard anything about these "Super Crickets"? I did a search but couldn't find anything on them. Are they a new species or a morph? They have a lot of black on them compared to the normal light brown cricket.

 

[ZephAmp]

My guess is they're a different species of cricket.
Most likely, in response to the recent cricket disease and roach boom, cricket breeders are trying to bolster their business with a new, possibly hardier species. Only time will tell what will happen from here.

 

[Pssh]

They are probably black crickets. They are larger, meatier, darker, and more vicious! They WILL bite when they have the opportunity (and it hurts,) and they will randomly cannibalize. The only pro, IMO, is that they jump less and somewhat chirp less.

 

[Bugs In Cyberspace]

Do they look like this:

[YOUTUBE]VRy_0p2LFVA[/YOUTUBE]

 

[JC]

Do they look like this:

What's that other bug species in with the crickets?

 

[Bugs In Cyberspace]

That's a cricket holding tank, doubling as an orange isopod breeding tank, converted from a B. discoidalis holding tank, inhabited by fungus gnats. I'm probably missing a few, but hope that helps!

 

[fartkowski]

The pet store I go to changed the type of crickets they use as well.
They told me they are a type from Jamaca if I remember correctly.
I noticed that they grow a bit bigger and are alot darker than the ones I used to buy.

 

[Tleilaxu]

OK who in their right mind would import a cricket species from Jamaica? The last thing we need now is another invasive species on the loose due to the pet industry this time.

 

[BobGrill]

I wonder if they could pose any harm to a T or Scorp?

 

[jgod790]

I don't know about buying crickets from a place that wont give you specific info on them. If they refuse to tell you what there feeding them, and refuse to show you there enclosure, I would stay away from them. But I would not worry about them being a harm to the pets, as long as the crickets are not bigger then the abdomen. Just NEVER put more then one in at a time.

 

[spinningspider]

Guys,
I work at a reptile shop that sell these "super crickets". From what I understand these are a jamaican cricket and brown house cricket hybrid. They live a bit longer but mature sooner. I have fed them to many Ts and other inverts with no problems. This hybrid has been created because the jamaican crickets are supposedly less at risk of getting th cricket virus that all but wiped out brown crickets about a year ago.

 

[ZephAmp]

Somehow I doubt these are hybrids. The Jamaican field cricket (I presume to be the species that gives these hybrids their name) is in the genus Gryllus. The house cricket is in the genus Acheta. True cross-genera hybrids are rare in the insect world and are usually sterile. I suspect this strain is either a hybrid with the black African field cricket (which, in this case, they would most likely have been initially illegally imported) or some as-of-yet unidentified native species.

 

[H. laoticus]

oh wow, I thought I was going crazy after buying some crickets at my local pet store and seeing that they didn't look quite right lol
They are larger, darker, and they mature faster as well from my observations. One thing's for sure, they're definitely uglier. Looks to me like everyone is switching to these guys.

 

[JC]

They are larger, darker, and they mature faster as well from my observations. One thing's for sure, they're definitely uglier.

Hmm... I dont know about that. I think they look pretty cool!

 

[spinningspider]

Somehow I doubt these are hybrids. The Jamaican field cricket (I presume to be the species that gives these hybrids their name) is in the genus Gryllus. The house cricket is in the genus Acheta. True cross-genera hybrids are rare in the insect world and are usually sterile. I suspect this strain is either a hybrid with the black African field cricket (which, in this case, they would most likely have been initially illegally imported) or some as-of-yet unidentified native species.

The person who told me about the hybridization owned a bug growing business. but she may be wrong.

 

[Pssh]

I have been told by a lot of breeders that they are black crickets. I never got a scientific name, but the native black crickets around my neck of the woods have a similar body shape but are much more black.

 

[Nhanduchromatus]

Fartkowski,

What pet store in Mississauga sells Jamaican crickets?......If they are larger then I need some to feed my army of Lasiodora. I go to PJ's Pets @ Bramalea City Center Brampton where they have some large crickets but not darker like "super crickets". Are you getting these from Port Credit Pet Centre?

 

[KelliH]

Important info on these crickets

There is some new information coming out about these crickets. You can read the thread at the link below even if you are not a member of GF.

http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=76633

 

[Introvertebrate]

Gryllus assimilis. Some also refer to it as the "Silent Brown Cricket". That thread says that the cricket virus has essentially made Acheta domesticus extinct.

 

[Wadew]

I think this cricket is the same cricket that has been sold in Europe now for a few years. Seeing the cripavirus has been in EU for a bit longer then it has in USA.

Wade