Cricket Housing and How to Catch Them?

[scharles]

I have 1 Juvenile Leopard Gecko.

I would like to buy Crickets in bulk...so I am thinking about geting 500 or 1000 Cricket (1/4 inch...as they will grow), and house them in a 33 gallon Plastic Container with the Egg Crate and such.

Where do people get the large egg carts or "egg flats" for their cricket houses?

Also...I am afraid that I will have several jump out everytime I open it. How do you prevent that.

Also, how is the best way to catch them to put the in cage to feed the gecko.

Thanks

Steve

 

[BamaGirl]

I have 1 Juvenile Leopard Gecko.

I would like to buy Crickets in bulk...so I am thinking about geting 500 or 1000 Cricket (1/4 inch...as they will grow), and house them in a 33 gallon Plastic Container with the Egg Crate and such.

Where do people get the large egg carts or "egg flats" for their cricket houses?

Also...I am afraid that I will have several jump out everytime I open it. How do you prevent that.

Also, how is the best way to catch them to put the in cage to feed the gecko.

Thanks

Steve

We are relatively new leo owners, and I recently switched to mealies from crickets just because they are less hassle to keep, but the crickets we had were doing very well, so I'll help you as much as I can.

1. The egg crates came with the crickets in the box every time we ordered them. Just put those in with the crickets and make sure they are upright, not laying down, because the crickets will stand on each other and kill each other. You can also put in a couple of paper towel rolls for them to hide in.

2. We kept our crickets in a 10 gallon tank with a screen top, and never had one jump out. It's when you take them out of the tank to dust them and feed them that they can get away. I think we had maybe 4 get out the whole time we had them.

3. To catch them we would just pull one of the paper towel rolls out (there are always plenty hiding in there) and shake them into one of those chinese take out egg drop soup containers (a plastic kind of tall and skinny tupperware thing with a lid). Put the calcium in there with the crickets and put the lid on, shake them around a little bit, and you have dusted crickets ready to eat.

Hope this helped!

 

[Crazygecko]

to be honest if you have 1 gecko buying that many crickets is over kill. they will most likely die long before you come close to feeding them to your gecko. If you want to buy a insect in bulk that last a long time. Go with mealies. They dont stink and they dont make noises and you dont have to worry about them getting out.

Now if you still want crickets. The best way to catch them is to do this,

Get a black piece of PVC piping about 6-8 inchs long. or longer if you want. Cap off one end of it with a clear end cap. The end cap is so you can see if there are crickets in it. Place the tube in your cricket tub at a angle so they will crawl into it and up it.
Makes for very easy catching of the crickets and you never ever have to touch them. Just pull the tube out and shake some into your lizard cage then put the tube back into your cricket cage. its simple and clean.

I personaly hate crickets. They are noisy and smell and have a short life span. And are a tad hard for my lizards to catch at times. And you cant really leave them in your cage over night cause they can eat your lizards.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Patrika]

Wow, Im really surprised! I didnt realize so many people were anti-cricket, lol!

I have been buying crickets in bulk for a few months now, I have not had any issues with die-offs etc. I think its all in how you keep them. Crickets need to be warm, well fed and clean. I keep them in a 30 gallon (I think) tank, droppings and shed skins are swept out daily, and fresh veggies are provided daily. Kept this way, mine last several weeks. It definately takes time, but its better than buying crickets twice a week, IMO. Oh yeah, and for me, catching them is done by hand...I have a lot of arachnids that only take 1 cricket at a time, and for the lizards, its the easiest way to sort proper size.

 

[BamaGirl]

I have to say I agree about them being stinky and annoying, but...none of mine died off. We only had 500 to start with and one gecko to eat them. We just let them all go because they got too big to feed our baby, and there were still TONS of them. As long as I fed and watered them (cricket food, veggies and water crystals), and cleaned their cage once a week, they did just fine. I don't like crickets, that's why I switched to mealworms, but it's up to you as to what you can deal with. If you get that many crickets, you could also think about letting them lay eggs and then just breed your own. From what I understand it's pretty easy as long as you have a tank that the little ones can't climb out of. Just give them a pile of soil or moss and they will go to town, then you would also have a various amount of sizes to choose from to feed your gecko. Some people can deal with crickets, some people just don't like them. It's just about your preference.

 

[pkruiner]

500 is definitely overkill. they will all be dead or too big towards the end. 100 will probly last a few weeks (depending on how old the gecko is) but 250 is more realistic if you still want bulk.

 

[acpart]

I get 1500 3/4" crickets which last me about 3 weeks and most of them survive to be eaten.

Aliza

 

[chaosapiant]

I WISH I could just switch to mealworms. Cricket keeping sucks, but it's my gecko's favorite food, so I endure.

 

[MonteQ's]

For one juvie, that's alot of crickets. I get 500 every other week to feed my whole colony of Uro's.

I keep the crickets in a 10 gallon tank. (they were able to climb the tubs I bought?) They come with egg carton that I cut in half and stack. To catch them, I lean halved paper towel rolls against the side of the egg crate, and there's always some in those. Just shake the tubes out into a cup, dust and feed...

I don't have much in the way of die offs either.

Superior carries egg crate, here's a link:

http://superiorenterprise.com/index.php?cPath=49&osCsid=eba3917d01fac985c9956f607f49af0b

 

[scintillatingstar]

Hey
If you have one gecko then from what you've read on here you know you dont need that many crix.

We have 25 + 2Uros and we buy 1-2k in bulk like once/twice a month.

Crix are better then mealies, our geckos always fatten up when on a cricket diet.
Mealies can smell cuz you have to put potatoes in with them and if you dont clean it out regularly it gets smelly like dirty feet from the taters plus they create waste which is like dirt/dust and that gets smelly.
The crix we have we keep in a nice big plastic tub. Sandpaper the sides about halfway up. This increases surface area for them to climb and not overcrowd and kill one another. Put in 2-3 egg crates and 2-3 paper towel rolls. Plus the water and a bowl of oats or greens. Clean out the dead every or every other day. if you do that they wont smell. If you get smaller ones like you're talking about they wont chirp so they wont be noisy. They are really easy care.

Hope this helps.

 

[scharles]

Thanks for all the help!

I got a 10 gallon plastic tub at walmart. I got some screen and cut a 4x6 hole in , and put the screen on with a glue gun. I then put packing tape around the screened windows, and on the top part of the tub as I have heard that crickets cannot climb on glossy packing tape...which has proven to be correct. So they are not right at the top when I open the box.

I got 250 3/8 inch crickets...a little bigger than I thought...I think I should have gone with 1/4 inch.

I have not fed them to the Gecko yet...I am giving the crickets a day to gut load.

the paper towel roll is going to work perfectly to put them in a cup and dust and feed them.

How exactly to do clean the dead crickets and the spilled cricket feed..there are A LOT there...and they are jumping around continuously.

I do need more egg cartons...that is for sure.

As for feeding my Gecko...my Gecko is a very private eater...I have not seen him eat yet....although the crickets, meal worms, and especially the wax worms dissappear quite fast. I am sure his favorite is the Wax Worms...but since he is "destressing" and appears to be eating and fattening up...I am going to cut down on those. He was brought up on crickets...so that I why I am continuing with them...and able to dust them so he can get his calcium.

Thank you for all the help!