How to keep crickets alive!

[AlexFish94]

Hi i have a cricket keeper keep the sponge moist, keep carrot in the food tray. keep it out of sunlight. They are just always dieing! Any help would be Appreciated

Thanks Alex

[yoshimi]

Hi i have a cricket keeper keep the sponge moist, keep carrot in the food tray. keep it out of sunlight. They are just always dieing! Any help would be Appreciated

Thanks Alex

That's crickets for you. Are they ALL dying, for just a few? Keep them warm-ish, and maybe try something other than a sponge for water. Water crystals, cricket cubes, or cotton balls and veggies that you change out every few days, to avoid mold. Carrot chips are a good choice.

[Gnag the nameless]

You can buy special foods for the crickets, to keep them hydrated and from starving. However, I'd only recommend those foods that keep them from starving. I just use oats to feed them, with the occasional carrot and lettuce.

Flukers cricket quencher can work magic, well, any cricket quencher can. I used only wet lettuce and oats before, but my crickets died pretty fast. Once I got the cricket quencher, they lasted 2x as long.

[yoshimi]

I use oats too, and they fight over them (cute!), but keep your veggies away from your oats!! I had a mold problem last night. So now they can't be feeders for a while. Granted, they haven't been feeders for a while anyway, which is how some oats got moldy (tossing in food without really paying attention). If they died, would be ok, but they're hopping around instead. Pulled out 3 dead, 1st time I've removed any since I added 50-60 maybe a month ago, not sure. More crickets means more deaths. Overcrowding means a lot of deaths. Mold and cold are the biggest threats that I know of. Oh, and unwashed leafy greens. Wash your kale.

[Gnag the nameless]

Correction on my earlier comment: I only recommend those foods that keep them from dehydrating.

or me, dehydration has always been a bigger issue than starvation in crickets.

[JMDaniels]

Hi i have a cricket keeper keep the sponge moist, keep carrot in the food tray. keep it out of sunlight. They are just always dieing! Any help would be Appreciated

Thanks Alex

How big is the cricket keeper and how many crickets are you keeping in it? Others have mentioned food and water, but I don't think that is the problem in your case. There are other important factors to consider. Improper space and/or ventilation is one of the most common causes of death in crickets! Ideally, you want at least a 10-gallon space (37 liter) for up to 250 crickets. Or 5 gallon (19 liter) for 100 crickets. Many people stuff lots of crickets in smaller enclosures, but that is not ideal and it makes them die faster. Another way to provide more space for crickets, is to add more egg cartons. Pile up lots of egg cartons to separate the crickets so they are not right on top of one another. Crickets don't like living very closely with so many others, and they avoid that in the wild. They are territorial insects and will attack and even eat each other if their neighbor are constantly in their way. The egg cartons act as a barrier so that each cricket can maintain its own territory within one of the egg compartments. Also, it is very important that the top of the cricket keeper is open, perhaps with mesh only, allowing for air to flow through. Besides proper space and ventilation, you also need to make sure the temperature is right and that you keep the enclosure clean. Remove dead cricket bodies or moltings immediately and regularly remove any fresh food that is more than 24-48 hours old.

[yoshimi]

More crickets means more deaths. Overcrowding means a lot of deaths. Mold and cold are the biggest threats that I know of.

I mentioned that too.
But great points, JMDaniels.

[Danny D]

I like using the 4 cup coffee cup holders you can get at 7-11 as a place for the crickets to hide. I keep a 40 watt night time bulb over the cup holders as my basement gets a little cool in the winter. I feed the crickets dry dog food and cat food processed with a blender and add multivitamin powder. I use fruits and veggies to keep the crickets hydrated and change them twice a day. Normally, i use red pepper, green pepper, strawberries and apples.
Not sure if anyone else has had this problem but my young crickets do not seem to do well when i offer orange slices. Adult crickets seem to not have any problems, however.

[yoshimi]

I read when starting out with crickets not to use citrus. So I just never have. But I've only kept about 50 at a time. Now I haven't purchased any or fed them off in a good long while, and I have 6 troopers left that just don't want to die. I keep feeding them cuz I don't want them to starve, but I'm still surprised they're alive. They were little when I got them, maybe that's why. I give them carrot chips, oats and some ground up dubia roach chow I made, and they always have water crystals. Twice a day for changing fruits and veggies seems labor intensive. I imagine they're your staple and you have many. Those are the one thing I wouldn't try to breed. I can't even catch them well for feeding. But I agree, those beverage holders are great. If you buy more than one coffee at Dunkin Donuts, they always ask if you want one... saying yes is a good idea. My roaches like them.

[Danny D]

Breeding them is very simple. All you need is tupperware with a hole cut in the top, peat moss and a heat lamp. Collecting the "pinheads" to feed the darts is also simple. Pinheads are slow and not as alert as older crickets. Put in a fruit of veggie, let them collect on in it then pick it up and tap them into a feeding cup.

[yoshimi]

So I'm sitting here drinking my morning coffee and I hear chirping. Wuh? Thought it was coming from outside as I have windows open, but I go over and listen and it's my crickets. I bought them as little guys months ago, and I guess I figured they'd die before they were mature enough to chirp. It was actually a pleasant sound, as I only have maybe 8 left. At least a couple are female, with the pointy egg laying butt, so I put some dirt in there, in case she wants to lay eggs. It's just on an egg crate, the dirt. I don't want to breed crickets. But it's like I can't help myself. Doubt it will work, as I don't plan to heat them... and I think the soil is supposed to be moist and on an egg crate, that's just not going to work. It's maybe slightly damp. If they don't have moss or soil, where do they lay their eggs?
Hmm... he's still chirping away in there. This could get annoying. No place to put them where I won't hear it. Except maybe outside. But now I'm too curious to set them free. So much bug sex in this tiny apartment.

[mshine1217]

I keep tortoise's as well as my Axie's & FBT's. I had a separate storage tote for the crickets that I feed to my FBT's and I used them up fast enough that I continued to order them until the FBT's went into hibernation. A "couple" of the extra crickets escaped into the Tortie enclosure, liked the hot/semi-dry environment and prceeded to take up housekeeping. I now have about 200 crickets of various ages in my tortie enclosure and am seriously thinking of transferring the Tortie's to a different enclosure since it is near impossible to catch the crickets and move them. In the evenings I have to turn the volume up on the TV to be able to hear it.

I was planning on setting up a breeding enclosure for the crickets because shipping weather is iffy in the winter and ending up, inadverntly, having the crickets do it for me.

[yoshimi]

Haha, the tortoises don't eat them?

I was feeding and inspecting the crickets (can't help myself), and I have at least 2 females. Someone was chirping while I had my hand in there. They're not afraid of me anymore, since they haven't been food in so long. Neither cat seems to notice the chirping. I guess that's a blessing. I find it annoying tho, so turned the bin around and they shut up for now. They're way up on a shelf, and the thermometer in front of me is giving a reading of 79F. Not sure if that will be warm enough for incubating. Today was the 1st time I heard the chirping. And now they're starting up again. I have the windows open where I'm sitting, so I'll try to pretend it's coming from outside. Which is what I 1st thought this morning anyway.

*I moved the dirt from egg crate to a plastic small animal food bowl, that they can climb in and out of, and added more, packing it down and misting it. Ditched the wet egg crate; they have enough to climb on and play in.

[Danny D]

They will eggs in it and they will hatch in a week. Your adult crickets will most likely eat the pinheads if you leave them together. If you wanna raise them, better move the egg laying sight after a few days of the adults breeding in it

[yoshimi]

They will eggs in it and they will hatch in a week. Your adult crickets will most likely eat the pinheads if you leave them together. If you wanna raise them, better move the egg laying sight after a few days of the adults breeding in it

My current plan is to leave soil dish in there for a week, can't tell yet if there are eggs in there. I've been misting it to keep it damp. Are the eggs round or oblong? They should be down below surface anyway... but regardless, I'll be moving soil to another bin to "incubate" and put fresh soil in and then I'm just assuming the adults will die. They don't live all that long as adults, right? Looking forward to not hearing that chirping. Whatever babies I do manage to get out of this, will be eaten or set free before they mature. This is a one time thing for me.

[Danny D]

The eggs are oblong slivers. A healthy female will lay around 100 eggs. They are easy to see if you let them lay in a clear tupperware container. If you ever keep darts of mantellas, it becomes a big part of your daily routine.

[yoshimi]

The eggs are oblong slivers. A healthy female will lay around 100 eggs. They are easy to see if you let them lay in a clear tupperware container. If you ever keep darts of mantellas, it becomes a big part of your daily routine.

At a time?? Yikes. Maybe I should change container from plastic bowl to deli cup so I can see when and if eggs are laid.

All I have is a little toad, but she's not that little... they'll need to grow a bit for her. She'd go after little ones, but she'd probably eat them all at once.

*made transfer, added more dirt. no eggs that I saw. hooked them up with egg crate/paper tube ramps to get in there.