Pray for me

[GeckoTrouble]

well in the interest of providing my geckos with a more varied diet, I broke down today and bought some crickets.

Now I have been terrified of crickets, grasshoppers, locusts etc from a young age after a traumatic experience... I am proud to say that so far I have managed to transfer the crickets into a cricket keeper without having a complete meltdown... although I did do the wigged out dance a couple of times!:laugh4:

So just pray that none ever escape... because then I will have to move house immediately

But, at least now the lucky geckos will get a varied diet of mealies, supers and crickets... the things we do for leos :heart:

 

[robin]

i used to be totally grossed out by superworms because they would grab on to you LOL now i just stick my hands in the container and pick em out (i used to use tweezers)

 

[Latlaw]

well in the interest of providing my geckos with a more varied diet, I broke down today and bought some crickets.

Now I have been terrified of crickets, grasshoppers, locusts etc from a young age after a traumatic experience... I am proud to say that so far I have managed to transfer the crickets into a cricket keeper without having a complete meltdown... although I did do the wigged out dance a couple of times!:laugh4:

So just pray that none ever escape... because then I will have to move house immediately

But, at least now the lucky geckos will get a varied diet of mealies, supers and crickets... the things we do for leos :heart:

totally with you on the crickets. I feed them once a week when my husband is home to gutload and dust for me. lol! I would love to feed dubias too but can't bring myself to deal with them --and husband refuses to also.

 

[Latlaw]

i used to be totally grossed out by superworms because they would grab on to you LOL now i just stick my hands in the container and pick em out (i used to use tweezers)

You are a brave woman! I have to use tweezers and that grosses me out. They are one ugly worm!

 

[gothra]

After so many years, I still can't get myself to touch a cricket; if I had to use them, I usually get my husband to pull off all the jump legs first. Most of them can live through without the jump legs. On the other hand, I have absolutely no problem with dubias, I can pick them up with my fingers (hubby can't stand them though...).

 

[GeckoTrouble]

Well I sucked it up, got my long snake feeding tweezers and fed my two big males... one chowed down right away, the other one grabbed one ate it and then stared at me as if to say "I can haz supers?"

One cricket got away from the tweezers and attacked me. I screamed like a little girl, hopped back and forward on my toes and then grabbed the cricket and gave it an extra squish with the tweezers.... that'll show it.

 

[Yamori]

With crickets i wear thin powder free rubber gloves, i really don't mind crickets and wear the gloves simply because it makes grabbing them easier. When i used to use roaches i just garbed them bare handed.

Now mealies, not only do they stink like old cheese or month old garbage but they are real nasty looking little critters so i used tweezers. luckily for me my reptile hated them lol

Later-

Darren.

 

[SassyAbi]

I am yet to touch a cricket. I just wiggle them out of the side of their tb into the enclosure coz they jump and try to escape. I cant even catch them with the tweezers?? I use tweezers for superworms and prefer then to crickets (too hard too catch)

 

[snowgyre]

LOL, I feel your pain. I used to HATE roaches until I got some dubias, and now I think (at least dubias) are cute! The nymphs remind me of those little pillbugs I find underneath logs behind my house. I've been over crickets for a while, but I certainly know where you're coming from. Good for you!

 

[Bongo]

Crickets and mealies don't bother me. In fact, I've gotten quite fast at catching crickets out of a large tote for my reptiles over the years. It's superworms that I'm afraid of. I take them out of the cup and throw them into the tanks as fast as I can. I just hate the way they grab onto you!

 

[Johno305]

Ewwwwwww! I HATE crickets!!! They smell, make noise, and to top it all off they are suicidal and drown themselves!!! On the other hand though I love my wormies...I feel bad for them when I feed my geckos...I don't use tongs for the worms at all, catching them with your hand is better since the tweezers have no grip...:main_yes:

 

[sammer021486]

I too use to be afraid of touching crickets and supers. Supers because I was told that they bite really hard and crickets because I thought that the females had a stinger.

Now I am hands in after I found out that my skin on my hands is too thick for the mealies to hurt and that the long stringer looking thing was actually just the ovipositor. If you catch a female by the ovipositor you can feel her pulse it,lol.

For mealies I use tweezers to grab them when they get to be few in the container because they are too difficult for me to pick up with my fingers. I got my tweezers out of a first aid kit. I am not sure where my mom got the kit from but I was rummaging through it and found the tweezers and told mom I was taking them for the geckos. They have a nice ridge on them that holds the supers, mealies and crickets with no slippage.

 

[Pure]

I breed crickets, supers, wax worms, and hissers. I also feed, on the occasion horn worms, silk worms. I have absolutely no issue with any of them other than the hissers. I just can't get past the roach thing. Living where I do, large cock roaches are a fact of life, and I've always been a lil girl in regards to them. They just freak me the heck out.

Over time, I've gotten to where I can poke the adults with my bare fingers (love making them hiss) but that's it. If I have to touch them it's tweezer time.

As for touching any feeder during collection for feeding. I find it just easier to handle the crawly type bugs (crickets, roaches) by having something in their tub for them to climb on. I just shake said object over my collection cup.

For crickets I don't mind touching them, but find actually trying tick pic up 70+ crickets a day is too labor intensive. The easiest way to get large quantities at once is to keep a (1) small old toilet paper roll in their bin. During collection remove all other egg crates or what ever. They will all instinctively run for the one place to hide, the toilet paper roll. You can then pick it up and tap it out into your feeding bin, all without ever having to touch a single cricket. This also is useful for small(er) amounts of crickets. You just dump what you don't want back in the cricket's bin.

 

[GeckoTrouble]

Well I am proud to say that I fed all the original crickets (the geckos had a blast), and bought some more.... still can't stand them, but the geckos look so darn cute when hunting them

 

[STUTFL]

It is fun watching 'em hunt.
Of course, last time I picked up a cricket it bit me rather hard, so I'm not a big fan of picking up crickets. I kept them in their own cage and let my leo hunt in there ... he seemed to get tired of them after a while, though (so did I), so now he's on mealies and I have phoenix worms on the way.

Not sure how I'd be with feeding roaches. I'm not squeamish about the big ones (I have a sticker from the state fair that says "I kissed a hissing cockroach"), but little scrambly things with long antennae make me nervous.

Mealworms are small, they're not squishy, they don't turn their heads to look at you. I don't mind mealies.

 

[JasperStreet]

haha! i like this thread. i find the crickets to be the worst. i can't stand to catch them with my hands, so i use the big tweezers, but it's hard to grab them and sometimes i squeeze them too hard and crush them a little, which is even MORE disgusting!

mealworms don't bother me to look at, but i use the tweezers with them, too.

i'm going to get a few super worms, but if they are grabby i am definitely using the tweezers.

 

[reptidude1]

ive been keeping reptiles for about 2 years, and now have ones that eat rodents, ones that eat strictly insects, ones that eat strictly lettuce and one that eats both. After this time i have completely lost my fear for bugs, except roaches because for me if a cricket escapes, no big deal. If a roach escapes then ill have a infestation on my hands.

 

[got spots?]

Lol, I find it funny why ppl are afraid of crickets. I pick loads of them up with my bare hands and have never been bite. But it is a pain getting large quanties of them into the leo tank. I think I will use tht paper towel roll trick. Honestly before logging in I was just looking but this was so funny you guys made me log in

 

[Ehatcher]

When throwing in crickets... I take all of the egg crate and the feed and drink dishes and grab handfuls to throw in the calcium cup. They dont bother me one bit. Neither do supers.