cricket casualties

[syntheticreality]

Why do hundreds of my crickets always die? I keep them in a very big tupperware with a watering device from armstongs, plenty of carrots and oats, and lots of egg crates. They seem to go under the egg crates and die all of the time.

 

[david13]

whenever i just had 12 crickets, like 4 used to always die.. id ont know why

 

[Mel&Keith]

We use ground Walnut shell on the bottom of the tubs, add eggs crates, dishes of Cody's Pro Gutload and Potatoes for moisture. We don't pet anything on top of the large tubs. We always have a few die offs but not as many as before we had this set up. Ectotherm Cricket Yummies are available at chain pet stores and is the best cricket food we've found but it's expensive when you have as many crickets to feed as we do. When we had a bunch of samples from the sales rep, we had almost no die off and the crickets were extra spunky! lol

 

[Surf_420]

do you have plenty of airflow?

if your using a lid on it i would cut out the whole top section and replace it with metal screen material. you can get a 8 foot roll at lowes or home depot for like 7-8 bucks. i had this problem, and it was cured once they got more ventilation.

 

[goReptiles]

I usually don't have any die off. I use the large cricket tub from armstrong for larger crickets and the small one they sale for smaller crickets (and smaller quantities).

I know when you put too many crickets in a small container they'll die off pretty quick. Same if they don't get proper air flow. With a large number of crickets in a small container and little air flow, the humidity builds up and they die off real quick.

I don't use a watering device. Just carrots or potatoes and grain gutload. I get a few deaths, but not many, especially when I use the larger container.

 

[OhioGecko]

What are you putting your food in? (the bottom or containers)
Are you using bottom heat? What is the temp of the bottom of your container?
What is the size of your Tupperware container?
The Armstrong watering device is great, are you getting any water on the bottom of the container?


I put ours in a big rubbermaid totes, 18+ gallon with ventilation on two sides and most of the lid. Our first bunch died off because the humidty was too high, from water spraying daily, and the vegetables and cricket chow was on the bottom of the container. We made three changes that greatly decreased our mortality rate.

1. Setup a fluker reptile water bottle with cotton in the bottom, changed weekly. This is similiar to the Armstrong watering device.
2. We quit spaying water on the egg cartoons.
3. We moved all of the food into containers placed on top of the egg cartons.

 

[lytlesnake]

I too have found that a substrate of some sort cuts down on cricket deaths considerably. I've used aspen chips and they worked well.

Also on the airflow, I was wondering why my crickets get dark after a few days, but they're a nice golden brown color when I get them from the store. I think they need more airflow, as they use tall tubs with no lids at the store. They just feed theirs chick starter mash (chicken feed).

+1 on the Ecotherm Cricket Yummies. Good stuff.

 

[syntheticreality]

i guess airflow sounds like the probable cause here

 

[acpart]

Are you sure they are dead crickets and not cricket molt?

Aliza

 

[shadowx362]

If you dont use a bottom and the floor is slippery they will die from their legs spreading out and not being able to walk so I just put newspaper in a 20G with a few folded egg crates and if it gets cold I just place an under tank heater under the cage I dont use a lid because it a 20g tall tank and they cant jump out. For food I make my own and they seem to like it. They LOVE oranges just cut an orange in half with peel and they will eat it nicely without making a mess and supplementing them selfs with calcium.

 

[goReptiles]

I've never had that problem Edgar. I don't put a substrate in my tub, not even newspaper. I just put t he egg cartons, carrots or potatoe, and grain gut load.