Cricket die off

[ridgebax1]

I have been having trouble with a large amount of die off. I usually get about 5 dozen crickets of medium size. They have been kept in a variety of containers, medium plastic and large plastic aquarium (critter keeper type) with vented, lid and last a 10 gallon glass aquarium with screened lid. A variety of foods from home made with greens/grains, commercial powdered diet, flukers orange cubes, repashy bug burger and gel water crystals.

My last purchase was 5 doz medium into brand new clean glass 10 gallon aquarium with orange cubes and within 2 days I have about 50% loss! Is it possible that my source (local pet store) has poor quality crickets?

 

[LLGabriel]

It's definitely possible you're getting poor quality from a local pet store. Maybe not. From my experience, this has 9 out of 10 times been the case. I order mine from Ghann's online and have been super happy with them. Crickets are stinky. Haha. I am slowly but surely trying to remove crickets completely. I have a fairly large colony of Dubia roaches as well as lots of other feeders. IMO, they are the way to go if you can handle it. Didn't take me too long to get over the heebiejeebies! Have you thought about trying dubias?

 

[ridgebax1]

I had tried Dubias but he wasn't interested in them, but maybe will try them again now that he is bigger. Today I took out the last few crickets and there were some jumpy little bugs in the tank. Are these the mites I have seen mentioned? I think I am going to definitely get a new source for crickets. I don't want to try to grow them myself, they are too stinky!

 

[LLGabriel]

I had tried Dubias but he wasn't interested in them, but maybe will try them again now that he is bigger. Today I took out the last few crickets and there were some jumpy little bugs in the tank. Are these the mites I have seen mentioned? I think I am going to definitely get a new source for crickets. I don't want to try to grow them myself, they are too stinky!

Yeah it could be gnats or mites. I would def give the dubias a go again just to see. I have very little cricket die off with Ghann's. I usually end up with too many though since I don't feed them often. I do believe their minimum order is 250.

 

[ridgebax1]

Thanks for the info. I just ordered some from Ghann's. I can split them with my girlfriend who feeds them to her geckos.

 

[SPork]

I keep my crickets outside due to the smell and i notice when it gets too warm outside i will get some die off.

 

[ralphwiens]

I also purchase from my local pet store, just recently I had about 50% die off, this was the first time this has happened. I not sure why it happened but the only thing I could think of was it took me longer than normal to get home with the bag of crickets and they may have overheated in the car. I don't buy in bulk cuz I'm afraid the crickets will grow too fast and be too big for my 4 month old panther before I could get through half of them.

 

[ridgebax1]

I have to be honest, I haven't kept the best care of my Dubia colony of late; I have been working a lot and when not working remodeling my laundry room due to a rotten floor. So when I checked them today, they had no food or water but amazingly there are many still alive. I will have to rehab their container and get them beefed up with some good food before I give them another try with my boy. They are amazing creatures and why they will probably be here long after our extinction!