Cricket Contamination

[Cliff43J]

Day 3 of setting up our cricket breeding experiment and whoops! We have some contamination. Fly larvae is my guess. Will crickets eat these? I cleaned out most of them, but not all. The container lid was on tightly, so I am guessing that the eggs were on or in something that we used as a food source. Thoughts?

UPDATE 9-24-25: Today I failed to find any of the fly larvae that were in the bin yesterday. I am assuming that the crickets made short work of them overnight. Now I find myself wishing that I had not removed most of them yesterday.

 

[acpart]

Fruit fly larvae seem to go along with crickets. I just ignore them. It's really important not to let the water crystals or other hydration mix with the cricket feed because then you get this slimy mush that fruit fly larvae love.

Aliza

 

[Cliff43J]

Fruit fly larvae seem to go along with crickets. I just ignore them. It's really important not to let the water crystals or other hydration mix with the cricket feed because then you get this slimy mush that fruit fly larvae love.

Aliza

Interestingly, all of the crickets in this first batch were all dead in about 6 days. Disappointing, to say the least. The second batch is thriving with only one loss. Both bins were identical. I find myself wondering if the fly larvae had something to do with the mortality of the first batch of crickets. The second batch had no larval infestation.

 

[acpart]

It's so hard to know! Do you have any idea how old your crickets are? They only live for 9 weeks so if you get a bunch of really large crickets, they may also be really old crickets,

Aliza

 

[Cliff43J]

It's so hard to know! Do you have any idea how old your crickets are? They only live for 9 weeks so if you get a bunch of really large crickets, they may also be really old crickets,

Aliza

They were ordered as medium, 1/2" size. Contacted seller. 3-4 weeks old.

 

[acpart]

That's a pretty good age! There's always some die off. I see you're still calling your geckos "chocolate albinos" though I think they're really albino mack snows.

Aliza

 

[Cliff43J]

That's a pretty good age! There's always some die off. I see you're still calling your geckos "chocolate albinos" though I think they're really albino mack snows.

Aliza

I checked with the seller. He said that he buys them from a breeder who has a strain that is supposedly albino chocolate, so I am going to stay with that name. At this point, the boys don't really care. They are enjoying them. I have my eyes on a local lizard that we have by our front porch. It is brown with a single, bright, yellow stripe down the center of its back. I have looked online and cannot find any mention of such a critter. I shall be setting uo another terrarium this week, and then I will set out some traps for them.

 

[acpart]

You could always take a picture of that lizard and put it on Google to search.

Aliza