super tiny cricket looking bugs???

[Dreamslave]

I have some tiny bugs in one of my t's enclosure. I used a magnifying glass to take a closer look and they look like real tiny crickets?!?!? What are they?

 

[xhexdx]

Uh...they're probably tiny crickets...

Do you feed crickets to your spiders? If you do, and they're adults, then yes, they are pinhead crickets.

Otherwise they are probably springtails.

 

[Dreamslave]

So there is no need to do anything about it right? The substrate in the enclosure is pretty dry so they will end up dying.

And that means some gravid female laid eggs?

 

[spiderfield]

Gravid crickets will, if not eaten right away, begin to lay eggs in your Ts substrate. If the conditions permit over time the eggs will hatch and you will see tiny crickets crawling around your enclosure. Since they've already hatched, leaving the substrate dry might not kill them....if your T has a water dish and boluses (boli?) lying around, they'd still have plenty to eat. If its really bugging you, you could change out the substrate.

 

[Sathane]

LOL. Yes, what xhexdx said.

If you've ever seen an adult female cricket stick her ovipositor (looks like a stick coming off the back) in the substrate, she is laying eggs. If you've seen small oval shaped things just below the substrate (looking through the glass obviously), those are cricket eggs.

If you have many small slings you can breed your own pinheads using these females. I have a large deli container I have set up with moist substrate and a small cricket food dish. Whenever I get some adult crickets, I throw all large females in this laying container and let them do their business. After about a month you'll have tons of the little guys to feed to your slings.

 

[BrynWilliams]

LOL. Yes, what xhexdx said.

If you've ever seen an adult female cricket stick her ovipositor (looks like a stick coming off the back) in the substrate, she is laying eggs. If you've seen small oval shaped things just below the substrate (looking through the glass obviously), those are cricket eggs.

If you have many small slings you can breed your own pinheads using these females. I have a large deli container I have set up with moist substrate and a small cricket food dish. Whenever I get some adult crickets, I throw all large females in this laying container and let them do their business. After about a month you'll have tons of the little guys to feed to your slings.

Now you tell me, I'm getting slings this wednesday so may need to get into breeding my own pinheads as my LPS doesn't keep em. Is there a link to somewhere where i can see how to accurately sex them?

 

[Sathane]

I'm sure you could find something fairly easily with a google search but it's really very easy.

Females have the ovipositor (stick thing) sticking out their 'end'. Males don't have this but they chirp (females don't).
You can see the ovipositor starting to develop on immature females but only mature females can lay eggs.
If you buy a bunch of adult crickets, most, if not all, of the mature females are most likely gravid. Just throw them in a container like the one I described and you'll be fine. It's super easy. Just make sure the substrate in this container is slightly damp (not wet) otherwise the eggs will dessicate. If the substrate is too wet, the babies will drown. I put a very small dish with Fluker's cricket food (the powdered kind) in the container. Eggs take about a month or so to hatch and you will have tons of them.

I normally leave the females in the lay container for a few days before letting them back into the general adult population or introducing them to my larger Ts. Since you won't have these guys for about a month, your slings will feed on prekilled prey. Bite off the head of a small to medium sized cricket or kill and cut up a larger cricket to feed multiple slings.

Now you tell me, I'm getting slings this wednesday so may need to get into breeding my own pinheads as my LPS doesn't keep em. Is there a link to somewhere where i can see how to accurately sex them?

 

[DreadLobster]

Now you tell me, I'm getting slings this wednesday so may need to get into breeding my own pinheads as my LPS doesn't keep em. Is there a link to somewhere where i can see how to accurately sex them?

Its easy. The long stick looking thing that sticks straight out from their abdomen, that's what the females use to lay the eggs. Males don't have it. So just look for that.

 

[spiderfield]

Now you tell me, I'm getting slings this wednesday so may need to get into breeding my own pinheads as my LPS doesn't keep em. Is there a link to somewhere where i can see how to accurately sex them?

Females are the ones with what looks like a black needle coming out of their abdomens. Males do not have this; they are also the only ones that chirp when adults.

 

[BrynWilliams]

thanks guys, I shall now go and thoroughly inspect my crickets for adult females, I know there's a few males in there because of the amount of noise they make...

 

[Sathane]

Here's a good link for breeding and raising crickets:

http://skylab.org/~chugga/cricket/

They put the lay container right in the bin with all the other crickets. This is fine too. I just do it slightly differently because I dump all my crickets in a large KK so not much room for a good sized lay bin. Also, the females will eventually find and lay in the lay container in their setup but I find, with the large deli container, they pretty much start laying almost immediately since they really have nothing else to do.

Now you tell me, I'm getting slings this wednesday so may need to get into breeding my own pinheads as my LPS doesn't keep em. Is there a link to somewhere where i can see how to accurately sex them?