Free Range Crickets...

[SludgeMunkey]

My wife successfully released close to one thousand nearly adult crickets in my critter room today...

Thankfully, I planned for just such an event in building it, so they cannot escape the room. I double doored the entry way (air lock style!) and have a . and sealed every single nook and cranny with caulk when I built it. all HVAC ducts have critter proof 100 micron mesh covers.

Now the issue of what to do with all these loose crickets I do not feel safe feeding to my pets.

My solution?

Free Range House geckos!

I had the wife go pick a few up. They are now enjoying the critter room immensely. One is currently exploring his way across the monitor as I write.

[John]

Actually in San Antonio Zoo they have free range Bufo valliceps in the amphibian rooms behind the scenes to take care of that problem.

[Kerry1968]

That is so cool! Free range geckos! It'd be worth having the crickets everywhere just to have the geckos in my opinion!

[Crystal6]

My wife successfully released close to one thousand nearly adult crickets in my critter room today...

Thankfully, I planned for just such an event in building it, so they cannot escape the room. I double doored the entry way (air lock style!) and have a . and sealed every single nook and cranny with caulk when I built it. all HVAC ducts have critter proof 100 micron mesh covers.

Now the issue of what to do with all these loose crickets I do not feel safe feeding to my pets.

My solution?

Free Range House geckos!

I had the wife go pick a few up. They are now enjoying the critter room immensely. One is currently exploring his way across the monitor as I write.

I'd be tempted to just hunt down and recapture all 1,000 of em.

But your idea seems... less painful.

[SludgeMunkey]

Aye, it has been a few months now. The geckos were extremely successful in their endeavors. Now that the crickets are gone and I have cooled my critter room down (to promote breeding in a few months), they have all started to hang out in my cricket holding bin as it has a radiant heater in it. I have managed to capture all but one and place them in an enclosure until the next time I have a bug problem.

[cvBon1]

I must say that is really cool!

[Ebony]

So cool Johnny, A very easy solution and a couple of happy well fed Gecko's.

[SludgeMunkey]

Funny this should come up again, I just found two gecko eggs on the side of the brine shrimp hatchery not three days ago.

Thought it was too cool down here for them to breed, but I guess they like a warm humid box.

[Tom Highum]

So you have had no escapee geckos? Non have died? And congratulations on the babies, do you think they will survive? Are they free range again now?

[SludgeMunkey]

So you have had no escapee geckos? Non have died? And congratulations on the babies, do you think they will survive? Are they free range again now?

I have not found any dead ones. They free range throughout the house. A few months back our girl-pug spied one on the wall in the living room and went into a barking fit. Very rarely I will see one when I turn the lights on.

As for the eggs I found, I figure the adults must be doing well, so no need to interfere with the natural order of things. There are plenty of critters in the house to keep them fed. When we moved in here there was a roach and house centipede problem. Add crickets and fruit flies with teenagers and things can get out of hand. I suspect all we have now are very well fed house geckos.

I would not suggest this method unless you live in an area where the weather keeps them indoors, otherwise they will leave the first chance they get and you have released non-native species into the wild.

[mark a d]

kool idea wish i could add a few to my bosc's encloser as there our always loads of roaches around in there space no problem in encloser i can lay day no probs in there but think oscer my bosc would love to munch on them if they were to slow he is a lzy thing lol

[Firestar72]

My solution?

Free Range House geckos!

I had the wife go pick a few up. They are now enjoying the critter room immensely. One is currently exploring his way across the monitor as I write.

I told my Mom about that. I would love to have a room with lizards running around.

[missclick]

this reminds me of the time i had about 30 woolly bear caterpillars in a terrarium in my bedroom when i was around 11 years old and accidently left the lid open to their enclosure, when i came back an hour later they were all on the ceiling and walls and who knows where else. I have common experiences with garden snails, wood lice and salamanders.

[Crystal6]

Wow I'm lucky my crickets have never escaped, save for 1 or 2 getting thrown in the trash when I try to clean their cage or leaping out of the lid when I try to pick them up for feeding time. (But 1 or 2 is not quite as scary especially when you have 4 cricket hunting cats.)