Naturalistic cricket experiment

MissSkittles

Chameleon Enthusiast
I’ve lost track of how long exactly, but I think it’s been at least 2 months since I started keeping my crickets with a soil substrate, springtails and dwarf white isopods. My goal was to not have to clean the cricket filth and keep them odor free. As my beardie prefers crickets, I order about 250/month and they all go in ‘the bin’. I feed the crickets pretty much the same as I feed my roaches...organic greens, veggies, a touch of fruit and bug burger. Every few days I mist the soil in the cricket bin.
I’ve notice that the crickets haven’t been eating much of what I give them and the CuC seems not to have been able to keep up with the excess. I’ve been offering less food to the crickets, but that hasn’t changed much. They barely touch what I give them, even if it’s just one small leaf of dandelion green. The crickets have been staying alive very well in spite of this.
This past week, I noticed the bin is starting to get cricket stink and food remnants are staying as is. I removed the dried food remnants and egg crate and stirred the soil looking for the CuC. Not one tiny isopod to be found! Although hard to see, I found no springtails either. Where did they go? Have the crickets been eating them? Did the cricket stinky poo kill them off? Any ideas, theories, etc?
 
Crickets eating their friends again huh.

Oh My God Omg GIF
 
That’s what I’m thinking, and if that’s the case, is just another reason for me to hate crickets. It also explains why no one ever keeps them naturalistically.

Yeah unless your keeping a cricket species for its own sake (some US native crickets are impressive displays but make poor feeders) there isn't any reason to give them elaborate housing for an animal that's going to meet a violent demise in a few days.

And as you found out crix eat their cage mates, and sometimes even the animal they are being fed too, hence why roaches will forever be kings.
 
Agreed they're definitely eating the CuC.

I knew a person that kept them naturalistically with success, but it wasn't a lot of them. Basically just enough to feed off some for variety. You'd need a pretty big bin with lots of soil for the CuC to stay alive. I had crickets living in my one enclosure for about a year and the CuC was fine, but obviously the enclosure was huge and it was just about a dozen or so crickets that'd be around at a time.
 
Back
Top Bottom