Mass cricket death--help?

[badkelpie]

A few possibilities off the top of my head.

1. Flukers cricket water, maybe you got a bad batch. Try giving plain water in a bottle cap with a cotton ball.
2. Vegetables with pesticide residue? I don't know, but maybe try just organic carrots.
3. Something toxic being used to clean the critter keepers. Hot water and vinegar, rinse well.
4. Crickets suck :-P I know this doesn't help, but seems to be true.

Good ventilation is key. I don't know what else to suggest.

If you weren't in Canada, I'd say switch to roaches, but you can't.

[Tammy McLaughlin]

A few possibilities off the top of my head.

1. Flukers cricket water, maybe you got a bad batch. Try giving plain water in a bottle cap with a cotton ball.
2. Vegetables with pesticide residue? I don't know, but maybe try just organic carrots.
3. Something toxic being used to clean the critter keepers. Hot water and vinegar, rinse well.
4. Crickets suck :-P I know this doesn't help, but seems to be true.

Good ventilation is key. I don't know what else to suggest.

If you weren't in Canada, I'd say switch to roaches, but you can't.

I breed cricket for my Pacific Chorus frogs.
I keep a 10 gl and a 20 gl tanks for the crickets. I have about 1,000 right now. What I do not use for breeding I give to the frogs and chickens.
For water I have well water ( if you have city water go get bottled water) I use a paper towel in a butter dish and change and wash the dish every other day.
They need to be warm. Above 70. Ideal temp is 78-80 I use a light bulb about 45 watts on the lid. If they get to cold they die. You have to have good ventilation.
For food I grind up dog food, no salt crackers and oatmeal. I also give organic vegges.
Hope this helps.

[AmberPye]

Hey, thanks for the quick replies guys. All I can find on this is Cricket Paralysis Virus--how likely is this the thing? I checked the poor dead buggers this morning and some are still lying on their backs, twitching pitifully. I feel so bad for 'em.

BadKelpie:

1. But I did have several batches that ate the Fluker's water and were fine? I had at least 5, I may have had a couple more (I do sometimes add small new batches to half-eaten old batches)
2. Not every batch has eaten veggies. I thought that, so I fed a batch an organic baby carrot and a cracker, and another batch got cubed iguana food (Smelled divine, I don't even know if they touched it. Little green, wet cubes.) The last batch in the new keeper ate parsley, baby spinach, fish flakes, and Fluker's cricket food. Very few deaths.
3. I wipe down the keepers with warm water in which the frog's water cleaner has been added. So, no chemicals. I want to bleach the damn thing today, but I'm afraid the next batch of crickets will croak from that.
4. I know. Crickets do suck. I looked up the dubia roaches and got mad I couldn't get them in Canada. They look like a much better and more healthy alternative for Freckle. We're gonna try some worms tonight, he had a breakthrough and ate 5 crickets from tweezers last night.

Tammy McLaughlin:

The one thing that caught me was the temperature. Could twitching be a symptom of cold-related death? They're taking a long time to die. But apparently I have a little contingent (About 5/6 left, now that Freckle's had his fill) of crickets that are surviving. We keep our house relatively cold. As in, the heat isn't on at all right now. It's morning, probably about 65* fahrenheit. It may drop to 60* fahrenheit overnight, but doesn't get over 71* fahrenheit anymore. When we get the heat going when it snows, we'll be looking at similar temperatures, but with less of a drop.

Should the crickets have a heating pad? I hadn't even considered that they might need more warmth than the ambient temperature could provide.

[billybatz9]

Dead crickets will kill the live crickets (the smell and humidity dead crickets cause)
Too much humidity will kill them. Make sure you keep them somewhere dry
Too cold and they will die. Make sure you keep them somewhere warm.
Different size crickets will not be good. Big ones will eat the small ones.
Make sure you have lots of climbing things (paper rolls or egg crate) or they will step all over one another and kill each other.
Make sure you always have fresh food and some sort of hydration.

Heres a pretty good care guide. Cricket Care

[AmberPye]

BillyBatz9:

That's all great, and what I'm already doing. Well, except the cold, it didn't occur to me.

This is mass death. At least 90% of my crickets just up and died... Ish. Some of them are still twitching. I'm trying to see if some heat can revive them, but so far, no go.

[Lija]

This may help you
How to Keep Crickets Alive Longer :Guide to Breeding Feeder Crickets very good article and down below about virus that affects crickets, that is I think your crickets have.

However.... No matter what you do you will have smell and deaths. A lot! I never buy more then I can use in a week, 250-500 at a time lol about 20-25% will die anyway.
Another thing to consider, these cricket keepers are horrible, just get a plastic bin, cut off window in a lid for ventilation, glue mesh ( I use window screen), place a lot of egg crates, water gel and some food. Place them in a warm, dark place.

[flybyferns]

http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeder...et-helper.html

Additional FF information

[Tammy McLaughlin]

I had the same problem, crickets turning a darker color, laying on there backs ect. UNTIL I started to use the light bulb and if the room got to cold I used a heater in that room. 80 degrees is not even hot for them...They love the heat. One thing. Take the dying and dead out asap, they produce (release)a chemical and you will lose more. For my breeding tanks that raise the egg into babies I use a heating pad underneath with lights and room heater.

[AmberPye]

Okay, I put a heating pad on, cleared the dead out (And shot some video of the not-quite-dead twitching) and put a new batch of 10 large in with the surviving 10 large.

Annnd they're dead. There are 4 survivors. The tank is being kept warmer than my frog is. All the new ones are doing the same twitching, lying-on-their-back dance.

LUCKILY I got Freckle to eat some waxworms last night from tweezers, so we're making some progress. I may have to give up and just buy the disposable 24 packs of crickets in bulk, and try to get him mostly eating worms. Are there any roaches other than dubia (Or rather, that are legal in Canada) that could replace my crickets?

Oh, and to address the question of removing the dead: I don't get a chance. I'm not going to wake up halfway through the night to check the crickets and clean the dead. They're literally dying en masse 6-8 hours after they're put in the habitat. I go to bed with hoppers, and wake up to twitchers and death.

[flybyferns]

Hopefully when they warm up - it may stop? Sorry ...What a pain !!!!

I have had small batches of crickets die off fast; and I take care of them all the same way. Sometimes it's just a sickly batch.
Don't put any new cricket stock with the dying ones
I purchased 1000 small crickets 3 weeks ago. ( they are in 3 big bins) the area they are in is the mid 70's.
I can count on one hand how many have died.

Common reasons for them dying:
Not enough ventilation - They need LOTS of space, LOTS of air holes or screen top, and things to hide in. ( ie empty toilet tissue or paper towel roll)

Too low a temp...................but it sounds like you have correct that.

Soiled bins continue to remove the dead ones as often as possible. Keep things really clean.
-I keep a separate spare/clean bin to rotate crickets from a soiled bin into the clean bin
I have to do a bin switch today...i'll take a pic and post it here later.

They will drown easily. The cotton ball/water idea is a good one!

Consider not using the flukers and change to some homemade food. There are recipes in the link I sent earlier today.
Plus .......they're not picky

Keep us posted.
Lynn

[Tammy McLaughlin]

Hopefully when they warm up - it may stop? Sorry ...What a pain !!!!

I have had small batches of crickets die off fast; and I take care of them all the same way. Sometimes it's just a sickly batch.
Don't put any new cricket stock with the dying ones
I purchased 1000 small crickets 3 weeks ago. ( they are in 3 big bins) the area they are in is the mid 70's.
I can count on one hand how many have died.

Common reasons for them dying:
Not enough ventilation - They need LOTS of space, LOTS of air holes or screen top, and things to hide in. ( ie empty toilet tissue or paper towel roll)

Too low a temp...................but it sounds like you have correct that.

Soiled bins continue to remove the dead ones as often as possible. Keep things really clean.
-I keep a separate spare/clean bin to rotate crickets from a soiled bin into the clean bin
I have to do a bin switch today...i'll take a pic and post it here later.

They will drown easily. The cotton ball/water idea is a good one!

Consider not using the flukers and change to some homemade food. There are recipes in the link I sent earlier today.
Plus .......they're not picky

Keep us posted.
Lynn

One question? What do you line the keeper with? I use newspaper.
I have also read about a cricket virus going around. Read it somewhere in here.
Tammy