Crickets dying?

Okay. We usually only buy enough for a day or 2. Well, I have decided to try to keep them in bulk. However, its starting to seem not so great and smell really bad. I have a large cricket keeper. I use the orange cricket water stuff (resembles jello) and well as cricket feed (resembles oats) as well as fresh fruits and veggies. It seems like within hours of getting them home, about 1/2 of them are on their backs kicking their legs and then they die. This is really killing my pocketbook and not getting me anywhere! I do dust them with reptivite with D3. It seems the ones that do live, once in the tank, if not immediately eaten, die within a few hours. Im completely baffled.

I have been having major issues with crickets too. I hate roaches so those are out. I could never store a bunch of them *shutters*

I clean my crix bins thoroughly and change all of the cardboard every time I get new crix but lately I am having a lot die off too.

My last hundred or so died off all in one day. I had to run out and get more for Brody to eat the next morning.


Any tips on these tricky little bugs would be greatly appreciated.

I've heard you need to watch what you are cleaning the cages with. Crickets i hear are very sensitive to chemicals and you could wash their enclosure with dish soap and kill off the entire lot. I would rather not pass around bad information as i'm not too experienced. I'll let another member chime in on recommending what to use but soaps and even fumes put off by other dead crickets could potentially wipe out all of them. For me i just have about 200 in a 10 gallon tank with screen top. I keep them by the slider door as it's cold now in Washington state and that slows down their growth and how much they consume and it's quite efficient so far.

cricket mass suicides

I would agree that crickets belly up regularly signifies poisoning. They are very suseptible to most cleaners, and airborn sprays like hairspray.
Crickets also are temperature sensitive. Typically large die-offs can also be too low/high of a temperature. If you put a heat source like a clamplight (outside of the container) on one side of the container, and they go to that side, it would be good to leave that light for heat. In the tub, have torn up egg cartons so they can find the temperature range they want.Crickets like 70 to 85 degrees, and will grow faster at a higher temp, and slower at the lower temps.

CHEERS!!!!

I have found that the better I feed my crickets the better the survival rate. I also try to make sure they have some kind of moisture to keep them hydrated. Each time I get crickets, I clean out the bin thoroughly in the shower under very hot water and I give the crickets fresh egg cartons. Every morning, before I fill my feeder cups, I remove all of the dead crickets and their food leftovers. This helps to keep everything more sanitary. I copied someone else from the forum's idea of using two Rubbermaid containers stacked on top of each other for my crickets. The top container has a plastic mesh (I bought it from Michael's craft store in the knitting dept.) covering the bottom, which allows all of the cricket waste to fall below. Works wondering so far

nicolie85 said:

I have found that the better I feed my crickets the better the survival rate. I also try to make sure they have some kind of moisture to keep them hydrated. Each time I get crickets, I clean out the bin thoroughly in the shower under very hot water and I give the crickets fresh egg cartons. Every morning, before I fill my feeder cups, I remove all of the dead crickets and their food leftovers. This helps to keep everything more sanitary. I copied someone else from the forum's idea of using two Rubbermaid containers stacked on top of each other for my crickets. The top container has a plastic mesh (I bought it from Michael's craft store in the knitting dept.) covering the bottom, which allows all of the cricket waste to fall below. Works wondering so far

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Do you have any pictures of how that works? I am using Rubemaid bins and would love a better idea on how to deal with the waste.

OMFG! Feed your crickets sweet potato! They eat it like crazy! I must of had about 100 crickets on a 4x4 peice lastnight

I do use egg carton..and i use a toilet paper roll or half of apapertowel one. this makes for easy dispensing. I only use hot water and let it air dry, no chemicals. I move them into a temp tank while Im cleaning theirs and when its dry, they go back.. This happens no matter what. I dont mind roaches I have tried them yet. My chams eat superworms, which I dust as well. Any other alternatives. A friend recommended Georgia bugs but they seem to be sold out of everything or Im a big idiot. LOL.. Shipping just seems so crazy these days.

Sorry that I can't show you what I'm talking about, but I will take some pictures for you tonight.

I used:
- Two large Rubbermaid storage bins
- One storage bin lid (I only bought one at the store)
- Plastic canvas large enough to fit to fit the bottom of the storage bin and a little extra to fit onto the storage lid
- Glue gun with glue sticks
- A knife sharp enough to cut through the heavy plastic of the storage bins.

I simply cut the floor out of one bin, while still making sure there was a lip enough to attach the plastic canvas to. Then, I cut the plastic mesh to the size of the opening and hot glued it to the bottom side of the storage bin. I did the same thing with the storage lid to allow more air flow. Put the bin with the plastic mesh on top of the untouched bin. I ended up with a gap of about an inch between the two bins. By using plastic mesh, everything is much easier to clean up and it has a good amount of strength.

The mesh is just like this one: http://www.fun2make.co.uk/Plastic-Canvas-4-Square_0_0_10WWA.jpg

The entire project was very inexpensive and totally worth it.

I also use paper towel rolls as their houses. It is easy and I can just toss them because we go through a lot of paper towels around here.

I get what you are saying, I did somewhat similiar with a worm compost but with small holes. Are you still having lots die or is the cleaner environment helping them last longer?

I get what you are saying now. Thats a good idea and lucky for me I already have two bins. I will work on this tonight to see if it helps any. Right now we are wasting a lot of money a week in crickets.

blackbetty said:

Okay. We usually only buy enough for a day or 2. Well, I have decided to try to keep them in bulk. However, its starting to seem not so great and smell really bad. I have a large cricket keeper. I use the orange cricket water stuff (resembles jello) and well as cricket feed (resembles oats) as well as fresh fruits and veggies. It seems like within hours of getting them home, about 1/2 of them are on their backs kicking their legs and then they die. This is really killing my pocketbook and not getting me anywhere! I do dust them with reptivite with D3. It seems the ones that do live, once in the tank, if not immediately eaten, die within a few hours. Im completely baffled.

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Are you washing the veggies first? Sounds like a pesticide issue or too much moisture in the bin.

I am also not a big fan of the orange stuff or the cricket feed you are using although I don't think that is the issue.

We only use organic fruits and veggies so no pesticides. We also keep them pretty dry. We have tried to keep them in the dark to see if heat was a factor. Still died. Tried keeping them in room temp. Still die. Tried a heating lamp. Still die.. Im losing at least half of what Im buying everytime.

blackbetty said:

We only use organic fruits and veggies so no pesticides. We also keep them pretty dry. We have tried to keep them in the dark to see if heat was a factor. Still died. Tried keeping them in room temp. Still die. Tried a heating lamp. Still die.. Im losing at least half of what Im buying everytime.

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Exactly my problem too. :/

blackbetty said:

We only use organic fruits and veggies so no pesticides. We also keep them pretty dry. We have tried to keep them in the dark to see if heat was a factor. Still died. Tried keeping them in room temp. Still die. Tried a heating lamp. Still die.. Im losing at least half of what Im buying everytime.

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you would be surprised what you can find on Organic fruits and veggies that will kill crickets.

I buy crickets 10,000 at a time and have almost no die.

Here is the secret,

Good Cricket Food (Like Cricket Crack)

Water Crystals for hydration

room temp or warmer and

Moisture in the bin should be low. (IE too much humidity)

Clean veggies every time . No matter if organic or not.

Cricket crack? SOunds yummy..and habit forming! Okay, Ill do what I can.. Any good recommendations on a place to buy from online? Around here I swear, they give me half a bag of dead to begin with!

blackbetty said:

Cricket crack? SOunds yummy..and habit forming! Okay, Ill do what I can.. Any good recommendations on a place to buy from online? Around here I swear, they give me half a bag of dead to begin with!

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Best gutload I have ever used.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/gutload-4-sale-18526/

blackbetty said:

Okay. We usually only buy enough for a day or 2. Well, I have decided to try to keep them in bulk. However, its starting to seem not so great and smell really bad. I have a large cricket keeper. I use the orange cricket water stuff (resembles jello) and well as cricket feed (resembles oats) as well as fresh fruits and veggies. It seems like within hours of getting them home, about 1/2 of them are on their backs kicking their legs and then they die. This is really killing my pocketbook and not getting me anywhere! I do dust them with reptivite with D3. It seems the ones that do live, once in the tank, if not immediately eaten, die within a few hours. Im completely baffled.

Click to expand...

Read this thread everything you will need https://www.chameleonforums.com/cheap-cricket-bin-info-19326/

Only lately I have also had many crickets on their backs kicking. I flip them over and the walk then fall on back again. I was also thinking it may be the spray from the exterminator. Maybe the ants are sneaking in? I still use the dead crickets. I fish with them, or dangle it in front of the cham to make it look alive. Are you keeping your dead ones? I did think if they were poisoned I shouldn't be doing this but the chams seem perfectly fine.