Cricket housing

bradley

New Member
Can anyone post pictures of what they keep their crickets in. This would help me alot cause mine seem 2 die in this hot weather
 
IME keeping them outside isn't a good idea if you live in a hot part of the world. At temps in the low 90s I had massive die offs. In the wild they burrow under ground during the hottest part of the day. They can't do this in captive care and putting dirt in the tank/bin won't work as it won't have enough mass to stay cool like the ground. So you need to move them indoors.
 
I agree with Pure you should keep your crickets and other feeders inside, personally I'd suggest to do this always no matter the weather or season, others might disagree, whatever works for you. I suggest this because I find that generally outside temps fluctuate and are simply to unpredictable it's best to be consistent and determine some cooler spots of your house(by cool I mean a temperature thats a little cooler then room temp, as well as a spot that has good ventilation). I've found that you recieve high losses with feeders when storing them in places that are closed in with no ventilation and are high up(considering heat rises it isn't the best idea during hot weather). IMHO ventilation is key to keeping your feeders alive it allows air to circulate ensuring that temperatures stay closer to ,not necessarily exactly at, 21 °C (70 °F) which is a basic room temperature. I find it best to do this rather then let stagnant air become too hot or too cold, depending on weather and season.Typically the temperatures in a house range from room to room so try picking out one of the cooler rooms in your house, then designate a particular spot that is in a lower part of the room that remains consistantly cool. Places I've use were cabinets under fishtanks (preferably with an open back), back corners of certain closets (that were neither cluttered with stuff or completely bare), and certain cabinets can work also (as long as their closer to the ground and doors are left slightly open for ventilation). By doing this I found my loss rates with feeders decreased substantially. So basically more or less keep it low, keep it cool, keep it ventilated.:) hope this helps.
 
I leave mine in the tubs they come from the shop in. I clean them out and put them into a new tub with clean bran when they get a bit smelly, lol! Hate those crix, ugh! Amy really likes them though and they are cheaper than locusts!
 
i already do keep them inside i mean containers and boxes

Oops sorry my misunderstanding :eek:. I use a large bucket with the cover almost completely cut out except for the edges and some metal screen hot glued to the inner part with some scotch tape on top of the glue parts to prevent it from falling in and possible being eaten. Again tons of ventilation and I find because the bucket is larger it holds alot more air so even if kept in a closed off cabinet theirs enough of a mild circulation to keep loss rates low, just don't keep it somewhere to cold the heat rises in the bucket so the bottom can get quite cold. Somewhere at room temp or slightly below should be fine anything under 65 degrees F which is about 17 degrees C won't be good.
 
I went a little overkill with ventilation, but this is what I use for my crix and roaches. Great success since I've been using them for months now.

P1016962.jpg

P1016963.jpg


Careful cutting that plastic out, it loves to shatter and break.
 
This would help me alot cause mine seem 2 die in this hot weather

i already do keep them inside i mean containers and boxes

I'm a little confused by what it is your asking. You want to know what we keep ours in because what ever you are keeping yours in, although indoors is so hot it's killing them:confused::confused:

Are you just wanting to know what we keep them in and at what temps? I keep mine in a 50 gal tall no lid. Doesn't need one, they can't get out. I have them in a back bedroom now that I shut the AC vents off to. It stays around 85 degrees back there. Anything hotter than 85 and you will see death rate rise. Any thing colder and growth and reproduction is slowed.
 
I have all of my crickets inside some octagon-shaped plastic old fish aquarium thing, i assume it was. I keep it inside of Murray's viv and he goes down into it when he pleases. He hangs by his tail and snatches them and climbs his tail like a rope back up lol.
I keep the egg-crate in there and some tomato for them to much on.

But while I'm in here- Are tomatos good for crickets? They seem to like it, I also feed them cabbage and banana peels. Am I good?
 
I cut the sides out of a big plastic container and hot glued 2 walls of mesh in so ventilation is great but the thing I found really helped my crickets stay strong to the end of the batch was putting in a bunch long stemmed natural dry grass.

Its seems to absorb a lot of the cricket excretions and generally stops the container from becoming dirty also its fine if the crickets eat a bit of it.

I dont use egg boxes anymore as the crickets seemed to burrow through them and in the process eat a bit of cardboard. Pine saw dust worked best but I think it made my cham a bit constipated so I stay away from it now.

The long stemmed grasses also make it easier to separate the crickets out as you can gently shake them of it when you clean out the container.
 
I have all of my crickets inside some octagon-shaped plastic old fish aquarium thing, i assume it was. I keep it inside of Murray's viv and he goes down into it when he pleases. He hangs by his tail and snatches them and climbs his tail like a rope back up lol.
I keep the egg-crate in there and some tomato for them to much on.

But while I'm in here- Are tomatos good for crickets? They seem to like it, I also feed them cabbage and banana peels. Am I good?

wow

I have the same thing for mine (octagonal plastic aquarium), but I never thought of putting the whole shebang sans-lid into the vivarium.

What an idea.
 
I have all of my crickets inside some octagon-shaped plastic old fish aquarium thing, i assume it was. I keep it inside of Murray's viv and he goes down into it when he pleases. He hangs by his tail and snatches them and climbs his tail like a rope back up lol.
I keep the egg-crate in there and some tomato for them to much on.

But while I'm in here- Are tomatos good for crickets? They seem to like it, I also feed them cabbage and banana peels. Am I good?

I know if you feed Hornworms tomatoes they become toxic for Chams, I'm not sure if its the tomato factor or the fact that the tomato is being injested by the hornworms thats the problem.

Just for safety sake, or until you get a more educated answer i would stay away from gut loading with tomatoes and stick to the green stuff.
 
I went a little overkill with ventilation, but this is what I use for my crix and roaches. Great success since I've been using them for months now.

P1016962.jpg

P1016963.jpg


Careful cutting that plastic out, it loves to shatter and break.

I used to use a glass aquarium but i felt that there wasn't enough air circulation so I now use the same container chambabysitter1 is using but i cut a circle out on each side of the container including a HUGE cutout of the lid and placed a screen (from in the inside of the container) into the holes. From there i used a computer fan
nexus_120_bw.jpg
(like this one)
and glued it to one of the screen holes to create air circulation and ventilation since (from what i've read don't quote me) when crickets die they release a certain smell that encourages death to other crickets.

regardless, this new enclosure i've been using has been keeping my crickets alive longer and with less deaths.
 
What fancy containers. I use a rubbermaid 35 gal. grey tub. I put the crickets in with 2 egg crates from the box of crickets. (I buy mine by the 1000). I put water crystals in the cover from a coffee can and just dump some cricket crack in a corner. Don't put more then about 1/8th cup. They eat this up in a couple days. I use an empty paper towel roll to get the crickets out. If you keep it laying in there, there will always be some crickets in the tube. I pick it up and let any doo doo in the tube fall out then shake the crickets into a cup where I lightly sprinkle with calcium. The crickets do not jump out of this tub and using the tube makes it easy to put them into the cup without having them scatter. I may have a picture of my tube somewhere but I wanted to respond.

Check it out on a past post.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/cheap-cricket-bin-info-19326/
 
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