Heating cricket keeper

[jasonm96]

Hi, does anyone know if you can put a heat mat on a cricket keeper for locust or would it melt? Not really dealt with plastic before. Temperatures would be in the 30Cs

[Sunshine]

I wouldn't think it would melt. My guess would be the heat would kill the locusts before it would melt the plastic... Dunno. Are you trying to breed them?

[jasonm96]

na, just read up that like they like to be kept warm. mine keep dying off after a week and my husbandry with my livefood is good so thought it could be that they're too cold

[Sunshine]

OK I would think it would be fine then.

[teslas intern]

I wouldn't heat it, it says right on the heating mats that they are for glass only, as glass conducts heat away from the mat, preventing overheating, melting, and possibly fire. Crickets don't live long as adults, there could be lots of other factors like diet, water, mold, or just lifespan. Most crickets sold as feeders can survive being nearly frozen and thawed, so I can all but guarantee temperature is not your issue. If you want feeders that last longer look into roaches, or culture some camel crickets, which can live for a few years... That would be my advice, I'm sure others with more experience could actually critique your cricket setup.

[Sunshine]

Oops... Thank you Scott! I didn't know

[privet01]

You mention locust.... what kind? Never heard of or thought about locust for frog/toad food.

However I find regular crickets pretty easy to raise and as interesting to mess with as my FBT's. The only issue is you have to do it "big". It's virtually impossible to reliably breed just a few. I'd say, IMO of course, that at least a population of 200plus needs to be maintained to be continuously sustainable. Three to four of those big rubbermaid or sterilite storage boxes work great if you have room in an outbuilding or garage. They only have a six to eight week life cycle so you are always starting a new batch every other week or so. And then you'll have to learn to deal with "cricket genocide" as it would be too big an impact on your local environment to release the hundreds that will get too big for feeders.

Oh.. as far as using a heat mat.... that's pretty much your call. May work fine, maybe not. You have to assess your liability if it should catch fire and burn your place down.

With crickets cooler temps slows down their growth. But I don't let mine get below 60F in the winter, and in the summer it is what it is..... about 90Fto 95F right now in the storage room off the garage where I keep mine. Never played around with trying to make any particular brood last longer as it's so easy just to gather more eggs and start a new brood.

[jasonm96]

not quite sure on what kind, it's just the standard ones in the pet stores over here. it's for my pacman, it's the only thing that gets a good feeding response. i read somewhere that horned frogs eat locust in the wild but not entirely sure if that's true. the locust diet's just fine, i take care of my live food like i would any other living animal and have had no problems with my crickets reproduce for me often. it's just locust that seem to be dying off, so thought it could be that they could do with being warmer. don't think i'll use the heat mat then, might put it on top of my beardie cage, see if that will heat them up enough. thanks for your help