annoying crickets

OliveTheVeiled

New Member
I bit the bullet last time and bought 500 large crickets and i'm keeping them in a 10 gallon tank in my laundry room near Olive's cage. but my kids are complaining. Plus it's a PITA to get them out, I always seam to loose one by either crawling up my arm or it was on the screen in the corner and I missed it, Then I have crickets everywhere ( one was in the shower and my 9 year old daughter didnt see it until after she was in!) So my question is, is there a better way to do this? I have the egg crates in the tank, plus 2 large paper rolls so I usually shove them off the outside of the roll, cover the end with my palm and shake the other end into a cup for transport to Olive's cage. it was so much cheaper to do it this way, but all we hear all night is the group of them chirping or a random one somewhere where it shouldnt be. We also give her a milworm as a quick treat maybe once a week but I read that she shouldnt only eat them because they're fatty? Plus our Leopard gecko is on a all milworm diet so I dont want to use too many. Thanks in advance :p
 
I don't know what to about the noise issue and i am only buying 3 week crixketa now so no noise. someone on here gave me good advice on transporting from container to cricket habitat and from habitat to feeding. They said to put them in the fridge for 5 min and it calms them down enough. It works great for me.
 
The brown crickets don't make nearly as much noise as the black ones so I prefer the brown! I just scoop them up one at a time with the plastic cup I use to feed my cham out of :)

i found a cricket in my shoe once and one crawling up my daughters bedroom wall! But they escaped from the cham enclosure, not the cricket bin!
 
I buy 3/4" crickets (slightly less than full size) so they don't tend to chirp. They're big enough that my adult male veiled is happy with them, but no chirping. As for catching them, I hold a large/tall cup in the bin, and shake them into the cup with the cup still in the bin, so any that "miss" the cup tend to fall back into the bin. I would suggest a tall Rubbermaid type storage bin for housing them. You need to cut out "windows" in the top and one or two sides for ventiliation and then silicone some window screen over the holes so the crickets can't escape. Also run a line of packing tape around 3/4 of the way up the sides of the bin to keep the crickets from getting to the top (they have trouble with the tape because its slippery). the Rubbermaid bins are tall, so its harder for the crickets to escape. You can do a search on Youtube, there's lots of videos of people and how they keep their crickets.

As for feeders, variety is best. Check out this link for info: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html

Good luck!
 
You can get an incubator and keep them in your garage. I haaaate cricket noises too.

I use the zoomed Reptibator.

I use cricket keepers inside of the incubator.

Jason
 
I bit the bullet last time and bought 500 large crickets and i'm keeping them in a 10 gallon tank in my laundry room near Olive's cage. but my kids are complaining. Plus it's a PITA to get them out, I always seam to loose one by either crawling up my arm or it was on the screen in the corner and I missed it, Then I have crickets everywhere ( one was in the shower and my 9 year old daughter didnt see it until after she was in!) So my question is, is there a better way to do this? I have the egg crates in the tank, plus 2 large paper rolls so I usually shove them off the outside of the roll, cover the end with my palm and shake the other end into a cup for transport to Olive's cage. it was so much cheaper to do it this way, but all we hear all night is the group of them chirping or a random one somewhere where it shouldnt be. We also give her a milworm as a quick treat maybe once a week but I read that she shouldnt only eat them because they're fatty? Plus our Leopard gecko is on a all milworm diet so I dont want to use too many. Thanks in advance :p

I have a cricket scoop from Armstrong Cricket Farm. 8 dollars plus shipping. I also have the poly display kit (expensive online cheap at reptile show) Plastic dixi cups also work pretty well.
 
LOL!! I have these guyz all over the house!! I just cant get away from them!!
A few nights ago, one was under my pc desk and woke me up with very loud chirping (yes, the black field cricks make the most noise!!) and could not find him.
So I grabed my high-power tacticle flashlight and beamed it under there.
That actually shut him up long enough for me to get back 2 sleep!! :confused:

I find them all over, in my laundry, under the furniture, behind the stove and fridge, etc!!

One point, the brown banded cricks that Ghanns sells are much quieter, and have a less irratating chirp.

Oh, I have bb flies all over the house now as well!! esp since Noogie refused
to show any interest in dinner after me turning a few dozen loose in his cage!! :rolleyes: he usually attacks them, but I think he was mad at me
because I couldnt let him out after he spent an hour or so begging!! :p

Sorry Noogie, and thanks for not eating your flies and letting them escape!! :eek: ;)
 
LOL!! I have these guyz all over the house!! I just cant get away from them!!
A few nights ago, one was under my pc desk and woke me up with very loud chirping (yes, the black field cricks make the most noise!!) and could not find him.
So I grabed my high-power tacticle flashlight and beamed it under there.
That actually shut him up long enough for me to get back 2 sleep!! :confused:

I find them all over, in my laundry, under the furniture, behind the stove and fridge, etc!!

One point, the brown banded cricks that Ghanns sells are much quieter, and have a less irratating chirp.

Oh, I have bb flies all over the house now as well!! esp since Noogie refused
to show any interest in dinner after me turning a few dozen loose in his cage!! :rolleyes: he usually attacks them, but I think he was mad at me
because I couldnt let him out after he spent an hour or so begging!! :p

Sorry Noogie, and thanks for not eating your flies and letting them escape!! :eek: ;)

LOL I dont think mine are black crickets :confused: they're just good old fashioned brown pet store crickets. I'm pretty sure they come from Fulkers online or Top Hat. but the pet store gave me a discount for ordering them in bulk. I'm just not so sure about buying so many at once next time. the Cup I shake them into has a narrow neck just about as big as the carboard tube I shake them from so They arnt getting out that way. The cage Olive is in is brand new and I dont think they can get out that way. it seams pretty sealed. They're just annoying and driving my older kids nuts LOL
 
Buying them as 3/4" will cut down on the chirping - my 2 adults don't turn up their noses at a slightly smaller size, that's for sure, and by buying them at that size I usually have about 2 chirp-free weeks! Another idea for getting your crickets out of the tank is to purchase a cricket-only dustbuster and just suck them up. They won't die, or get mangled, and is extremely easy. I also just put a small cricket keeper into the 10 gallon tank and shake the egg crates into there to shake enough crickets into the keeper, then lid it, dust them, and I'm ready to feed. Good luck! Oh, and your kids should get used to the chirping soon enough - it's like people who live with grandfather's clocks stop hearing the chiming after a certain period of time.
 
Buying them as 3/4" will cut down on the chirping - my 2 adults don't turn up their noses at a slightly smaller size, that's for sure, and by buying them at that size I usually have about 2 chirp-free weeks! Another idea for getting your crickets out of the tank is to purchase a cricket-only dustbuster and just suck them up. They won't die, or get mangled, and is extremely easy. I also just put a small cricket keeper into the 10 gallon tank and shake the egg crates into there to shake enough crickets into the keeper, then lid it, dust them, and I'm ready to feed. Good luck! Oh, and your kids should get used to the chirping soon enough - it's like people who live with grandfather's clocks stop hearing the chiming after a certain period of time.

Some nights are better then others, but i dont think my daughter will ever be happy finding crickets in her shower LOL, I'll try the smaller size next time. I'm cleaning out all reptile cages and feeders this weekend so i know where i stand on crickets anyway. Thanks everyone for the advice!
 
You can use a plastic tub,cut hole in top,hot glue alum screen to top,I keep mine in the garage and outside temps get to 32 and lower here but you can use a dome fixture with a halogen bulb or ceramic heating element with a cheep thermostat that has a probe and they do fine. Younger crickets do not chirp like adults and also I have found that at 65 degrees they do not grow as fast
 
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