cricket stink!

[Neill]

Wow got home today and its smelling a little cagey in my apartment. I blame my crickets first and foremost. The question is how do i clean the cricket cage WITH crickets in it? Is there a trick to it i know you people out there have great ideas on ways to do this because 500 crickets stink up a place quick!

 

[acpart]

This works if you have a big enough cricket cage. I assume you have some kind of gutload at the bottom of the cage. Get a garbage container, a little cup and a strainer. Scoop up the gutload at the bottom with the cup, dump it into the strainer and shake. The unused gutload will fall back to the bottom, the crickets will jump out into the cage, sometimes with a little assistance, and what's left is dead, smelly cricket bodies which you can dump out. I do this whenever it smells and that works well for me.

Aliza

 

[herpencounter]

The best way to remove cricket stink is to switch to mealies.

Take some crunched up newspaper/egg crates put them in with the crickets then take the newspaper/egg crates and put them in a new tub.

 

[thestack510]

I hate the smell of crickets too. I ordered meallies today and I'm going to see how that goes. I'm sick of dealing with crickets. I hope my Leos handle the transition well, we shall see.

 

[rcobourn]

Here is how I clean my cricket container without needing a second tub:

One at a time, remove egg crates, shaking out any crickets and cricket waste. Also remove feeding dishes / laying container / etc. Pretty soon you have a bunch of unhappy crickets running around in the waste. Tip the tub towards one end so all the waste and crickets are down there, then set the tub down and place your cleaned or replacement egg crate on the clean side. Soon most or all of the crickets will run over to the crates to hide. Then use a paint brush to sweep the waste onto a piece of paper or into some sort of container (I use the half of a gallon milk jug that I also use to collect and feed out the crickets). Then just replace food/moisture and egg laying tub.

 

[GeckoGathering]

Here is how I clean my cricket container without needing a second tub:

One at a time, remove egg crates, shaking out any crickets and cricket waste. Also remove feeding dishes / laying container / etc. Pretty soon you have a bunch of unhappy crickets running around in the waste. Tip the tub towards one end so all the waste and crickets are down there, then set the tub down and place your cleaned or replacement egg crate on the clean side. Soon most or all of the crickets will run over to the crates to hide. Then use a paint brush to sweep the waste onto a piece of paper or into some sort of container (I use the half of a gallon milk jug that I also use to collect and feed out the crickets). Then just replace food/moisture and egg laying tub.

Above is also my method, but when
using a larger barrel container. Same deal, but I vacuum all
areas after the crickets get to the newly started food and
Egg carton area.
A lot of the smell will be in the old cartons or paper used.
They "waste" away on it.
New replacements help a lot......contact food places
that serve breakfast for free egg cartons.
Take care. HJ

 

[janie31]

we tried cleaning ours at saturday and had about a dozen escapees lol, spent hours trying to catch them all, and it already smells a bit whiffey if you get too close to the cricket keeper.

I'll try one of these methonds next time!

Incidentally I ahve loads of new dead crickets each day, is thisnormal?
I've got stuff int he bottom, egg cartones, the paper ones, cotton wool balls with water in, and feed small bits of fruit a few times a week.
Numbers dont apper to be decreasing too much tho, so I am wonderin if theyre laying egss etc

 

[Neill]

i always get tons of dead crickets. I don't know what the deal is hence why i want to get them bulk. I have tried meal worms but none of the geckos seem interested. They want something that MOVES. So im stickin with crickets plus i guess they hold a better gut load i have been reading.

 

[acpart]

Remember that some of what seems to be dead crickets is actually shed cricket skins.

ALiza

 

[GeckoGathering]

i always get tons of dead crickets. I don't know what the deal is hence why i want to get them bulk. I have tried meal worms but none of the geckos seem interested. They want something that MOVES. So im stickin with crickets plus i guess they hold a better gut load i have been reading.

Incidentally I ahve loads of new dead crickets each day, is thisnormal?
I've got stuff int he bottom, egg cartons, the paper ones, cotton wool balls with water in, and feed small bits of fruit a few times a week.
Numbers don't appear to be decreasing too much tho, so I am wondering if they're laying eggs etc

ADULTS dieing off.
( If your area permits, add a regular type Humid Hide with
moist peat for adults to lay eggs in) works great to keep supply going.
Dehydration if non adult size deaths.
Always best to order small or medium.....
.gut load with
good stuff before feeding......
Oranges great item for moisture/food
although usually a bit pricey.
take care. Hj

 

[Spooki]

Remember that some of what seems to be dead crickets is actually shed cricket skins.

ALiza

those still rot and add to the smell though D:. i hate having to clean the cricket bins at work every day. no matter what you do it'll still smell like butt the next time you open it.

i suggest getting an air freshener, lol.

 

[rcobourn]

If your cricket bin smells that bad, and you are getting lots of dead crix, you probably have inadequate ventilation, and too high humidity.

 

[loulovespat]

Wow got home today and its smelling a little cagey in my apartment. I blame my crickets first and foremost. The question is how do i clean the cricket cage WITH crickets in it? Is there a trick to it i know you people out there have great ideas on ways to do this because 500 crickets stink up a place quick!

get a cricket keeper with tubes