New crickets and water crystals

[JHumm]

I just bought 1000 crickets from Bassett's and much to my surprise they all arrived alive and bouncy. However, its been a couple days and a bunch of them are going belly up. I mean literally, they will be alive but just laying on their backs and hardly move.
I have two ideas why. First, I stuck the shipping box in the fridge for a couple minutes to calm them down so I could get them in their cage. They could be feeling some aftershock but they recovered quickly after they warmed up so I don't know.
The second is that I recently purchased Miracle Gro water crystals from Home Depot to use as a water source. From what I hear people use them over reptile brands with much success. The first time I've used water crystals is with these crickets so I don't know if they are the culprit or not.
Other than that I'm doing the same as always. Apple and orange slices with some carrots and Repashy superload.
Has anyone else run into this problem??

 

[LoosePin15]

I've found that a small percentage of the crickets I order go "belly up" on an almost daily basis. Depending on where I order from, sometimes it's more than a small percentage.

From what I've read on the forum here, the main culprit tends to be a lack of ventilation. There are other less common reasons (disease, for instance), but ventilation seems to be the main cause. I keep my cricket cage in the garage and I've noticed that I tend to lose more when it's hot/humid, so I'm guessing that's my problem.

Like you, I use the Miracle Gro water crystals for my crickets and my dubias as well and I haven't had a problem.

Bottom line from my experience: you're going to lose crickets, but it's definitely best to clean the dead ones out regularly.

 

[SocialNumb]

I was loosing 1/2 mine at first till I gave them a crap load more room and places to hide. I over did it on purpose putting them in a big bin with eggs cartons and toilet paper roles, about six paper roles cut in half and three nice big chunks of egg carton. That's the only thing I've changed and now hardly any of them die. One here or there, no big deal. I also only keep a couple hundred at a time and do away with any big ones setting them free outside where no doubt lizards get them. By big ones I mean about to have wings or twice the size of the rest. I've noticed that when there are a few of them they stand in what looks like formation around the food and water sources and even attack the smaller ones. lol

 

[Blink]

How long have you been feeding them the superload? It is very high in calcium (purposely) and will kill insects if fed consistently over a prolonged period of time. I only use the superload to gutload certain insects for a day or two before feeding them off. I never use water crystals, so I don't know about them.

 

[JHumm]

thanks everyone.
To Loosepin15. Do you order your crickets online? If so where? I keep mine in a glass aquarium that has a mesh top, so a pretty good amount of ventilation.

To Socialnumb. I thought I had enough for them to hide in but ill try adding more to see what happens.

To Blink. I powder it on the food once every couple days. I've heard that before but never had the problem. I would feed it to them every day and maybe lose one every other day which from what I hear is pretty good for keeping crickets in general. The place I usually get crickets only feeds them the Fluker's load and water crystals. I guess they could be used to eating stuff like that.