Fun with 1000 crickets at Maia's house.

[JordanAng420]

So yesterday I went to a local farm that was supposed to sell me some rodents for my snakes. Come to find out, they didn't have any sizes I needed, and they didn't have mealworms either, but they did have a box of 1000 crickets. You guys. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I took that box home.

So there we were, driving home from this wierd rodent farm that wouldn't sell me rodents...with all these 3/4" crickets that, thankfully, do not chirp. And that's when it occured to me....where the HECK am I going to put all these crickets? How on earth am I supposed to get them out when I need them? So. Off to Walmart and Home Depot I went. I went and bought myself a 10 gallon sterilite tub, an exacto knife, duct tape, and some screening material. LOL. Getting home, I placed the stinky crickets in my garage, and went off to fashion my new cricket palace. All while still trying to figure out how a $15 box of crickets ended up being $60 worth of supplies in the end. I cut a big hole in the top of the tub and put a giant piece of screen over it, and then proceeded to duct tape it so that the little buggers don't get out. I placed some carrots, potatos, and cricket gutload at the bottom of the tub.

Now it was time for the transfer, which of course I wanted to do outside...and of course, everyone and their mother was outside too. Carefully I open the box, and no doubt, as soon as I get it open, about 10 of them just jumped right out at me. I swore, and dumped the box into the bin as quickly as I could, all while losing crickets EVERYWHERE. They then started going up my pants leg. I then proceeded to run in tight little circles, screaming like a little bat. My neighbors, who were beginning to gather, thought it was the funniest thing since Bob Saget. I placed the top back on the tub, and the tub went back into the garage. Emerging from the garage, a few neighbors actually gave me a round of applause for my "performance."

I'll stick to 50 or 100 at a time from now on.

 

[gitrdone0420]

LMAO!
That was fantastic! It isnt quite as dramatic with my transfer, but I definetely end up losing quite a bit when I put them in their tub from the box.
Oh, that visual will stick with me for awhile =] Thanks! haha

 

[JordanAng420]

Glad I could make you laugh. Whoever said crickets are stupid should be shot. The ones I own are all extremely smart and seem to know how to really push my buttons. LOL.

 

[Srt14292]

That really made me chuckle, Im sorry Maia but I would have loved to have got that on camera. Definatelystick with 50-100 next time.

 

[acpart]

The first time I ordered 1000 crickets I wasn't sure how to transfer them either. I had a 10 gallon tank and screen cover. Unfortunately, the box was about as big as the tank. I cut the tape on one end of the box and turned the box over into the tank. Then I left for a little while. This, by the way, was going on in my kitchen. Apparantly, my son came downstairs, saw that there was a cricket festival going on on the kitchen floor and left. Somehow when I got back I managed to get most of the crickets transferred. Not only did I have to cope with crickets hopping around the house, but I live on the top 2 floors of a 2-family house. Luckily, our downstairs neighbors were away for T'giving weekend and I was feeding their cat. Every time I came down to feed the cat, I caught at least 10 crickets. I was even finding them in their bathtub!

For future reference, the best way to transfer that many crickets is to open one side of the box carefully, turn the box over into a garbage bag, bang on the back of the box, cut the tape off the other side and keep banging on the sides till all the crickets are in the trash bag. Then you can dump the trash bag contents into the cricket container.

Now I get my crickets from Express Cricket in a much smaller box so I can do this directly into the tank and never lose a single cricket.

Aliza

 

[herpencounter]

So yesterday I went to a local farm that was supposed to sell me some rodents for my snakes. Come to find out, they didn't have any sizes I needed, and they didn't have mealworms either, but they did have a box of 1000 crickets. You guys. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I took that box home.

So there we were, driving home from this wierd rodent farm that wouldn't sell me rodents...with all these 3/4" crickets that, thankfully, do not chirp. And that's when it occured to me....where the HECK am I going to put all these crickets? How on earth am I supposed to get them out when I need them? So. Off to Walmart and Home Depot I went. I went and bought myself a 10 gallon sterilite tub, an exacto knife, duct tape, and some screening material. LOL. Getting home, I placed the stinky crickets in my garage, and went off to fashion my new cricket palace. All while still trying to figure out how a $15 box of crickets ended up being $60 worth of supplies in the end. I cut a big hole in the top of the tub and put a giant piece of screen over it, and then proceeded to duct tape it so that the little buggers don't get out. I placed some carrots, potatos, and cricket gutload at the bottom of the tub.

Now it was time for the transfer, which of course I wanted to do outside...and of course, everyone and their mother was outside too. Carefully I open the box, and no doubt, as soon as I get it open, about 10 of them just jumped right out at me. I swore, and dumped the box into the bin as quickly as I could, all while losing crickets EVERYWHERE. They then started going up my pants leg. I then proceeded to run in tight little circles, screaming like a little bat. My neighbors, who were beginning to gather, thought it was the funniest thing since Bob Saget. I placed the top back on the tub, and the tub went back into the garage. Emerging from the garage, a few neighbors actually gave me a round of applause for my "performance."

I'll stick to 50 or 100 at a time from now on.

I guess it wasn't that funny than :main_laugh:


Great story! HAHAHAHA! I never had any problems with buying crix in the masses. I could definitely see how someone would though HAHA.


J.

 

[T-ReXx]

HAHAHAHA! This is a prime example of why I went to roaches and left the Tiny Minions of Satan AKA crickets, behind.

 

[Tony C]

There is an art to working with crickets, you'll get better with practice. I cut the top of the box, flip it upside down in the tub and pound on the box to knock them all out. I don't bother with lids and screens either, I just use a tub that is too tall for them to jump out of. I forget which size I use, but they're $8 at walmart.

 

[acpart]

There is an art to working with crickets, you'll get better with practice. I cut the top of the box, flip it upside down in the tub and pound on the box to knock them all out. I don't bother with lids and screens either, I just use a tub that is too tall for them to jump out of. I forget which size I use, but they're $8 at walmart.

Great idea except when you have cats that can jump in!

Aliza

 

[Tony C]

We have four cats, but the way my tubs are arranged they can't get in.

 

[thestack510]

Maia, I've had similar mishaps with crickets. Once I didn't have time to get them straight into a bin so I placed them in the shower, where I do the transfer from box to bin, and I left to take care of some things. Thinking things would be fine I stayed out for the night. When I returned home the next morning I went straight to the bathroom to make the transfer because I was dying to take a shower. to my dismay the crickets had managed to chew their way through the box tape and about 2,000 of the 4,000 of them were all over the shower and bathroom. To make things worse, I live in a townhouse where our bathroom is back to back with the neighbors. Crickets had made their way down our drain and into the neighbor's house somehow, so while I'm trying to catch as many crickets as I could with my bug vacuum (which I got for Christmas a couple of years ago from my thoughtful friends) here come the neighbors knocking at my door. "Do you have reptiles?" they asked. "Yes," I reluctantly replied. "We have crickets loose in our house." So I packed up my bug vacuum and left my house as soon as I finished my bathroom to go play Ghost Buster at the neighbor's house. Man, was that an adventure. That was the last time I bought crickets in bulk, since then I have been using supers, with the exception of what I buy for my picky eaters. I HATE CRICKETS!

 

[Krow]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!! I really did lol. That is just tooooo funny!! Im sorry I wasn't there to video tape you & brodcast it on youtube & facebook!!!!

 

[sammer021486]

HAHA, I agree that that would have been funny to catch on video.

The first time I bought 500 crickets I opened the box and about 100 of them were gone before I knew it, the cats and dog loved me though.

My trick with the boxes that I get is to cut the tape on the one side, open the top two folds. Flip the box over cut the other side, open the top two folds and then push the other two folds into the box. When this works flawlessly all of the crickets and the egg flats drop into my 20 gal tank. Then I tap it a couple of times on the side of the 20 gal, open the box fully and begin to pick the ones that are stuck in the screen into the 20 gal.

With the above method I only lose 1-5 crickets.


The best is when you have only a few in a critter keeper and go to place the keeper on the shelf and the lid decides to fall off. Those crickets are gone as soon as that container hits the floor.

 

[Bellalee]

Lol poor Maia, the first time I did it, I screamed bloody murder, they scared the bejeesus out of me. I'm used to them now, I think, lol.

I would of killed to see that, all though I probably would know how you felt so I feel more sorry for you.

 

[acpart]

I just got 1000 1/8" crickets for the first time. Hopefully the unloading will be incident free.

Aliza

 

[justindh1]

I just saw this thread and laughed my butt off at your story Maia! I don't thinkg anyone wouldn't of loved to see that!:main_laugh:

The only situation that is similiar to me is that I left my egg crates leaning up in my cricket container. We after several hours of not paying attention, I kept seeing crickets crawling all over the place. I guess they crawled through the holes in the lid by climbing up the egg crate. Well bout 100 crickets and a couple hours later, I had them almost all picked up but still found a couple more with in the next couple days.

I just use a big container from the dollar store and drill a bunch of holes in the top for mine. Keeps them from jumping out and allows the air to circulate in their. I find that the more air circulation the less they smell like butt!

 

[Ehatcher]

I have never had any problems when transferring from box to bin... My only problems come when i knock the bin over.

Next time, get a trash bag. open the top box flaps, and wrap the opening of the bag around the box and "dump" them into it. Smack the bottom of the box. Then you can turn the bag up and put the open end of the bag in the bin and dump. I have NEVER lost a single cricket this was.

 

[SFgeckos]

I agree with the trash bag method! That's the way I used to do it years ago and you can fit about 10,000 crickets in a standard trash bag, then take away the eggcrate before pouring them into your tubs.

Also a 10 gallon tub seems a bit small for 1k crickets, and it may be low enough for them to all jump out when you have the lid off.

 

[acpart]

I've been fine with a 10 gallon tank and screen cover for up to 1.5K crickets as long as I have enough egg crate for them to stand on and about 4 jar lids of water crystals that I replenish. I do have to knock the crickets off the underside of the screen sometimes.

Aliza