Cricket Husbandry

I'm ashamed I should know better by now, but have a questions about optimal temps for feeder crickets. My tarantula room is now about 72 to 74 degrees. My tarantulas are happy, happy, happy, but my crickets are not. I have lost almost all the new feeders I've purchased within a day or two. They all die and I'm out the 7-8 bucks I've paid for them.I've bought from three (3) different sources and it's all the same. They're dead within a day or two. Everything I've read says they thrive in warmer temps...but they did much better in my 66 - 68 degree rooms. What could be the cause of this? No insecticides, no fumes, etc. And my t's and roach colony are all thriving. I'm keeping them as I always have and they lasted a couple weeks. The only difference I can see is a warmer room.

Medusa said:

I'm ashamed I should know better by now, but have a questions about optimal temps for feeder crickets. My tarantula room is now about 72 to 74 degrees. My tarantulas are happy, happy, happy, but my crickets are not. I have lost almost all the new feeders I've purchased within a day or two. They all die and I'm out the 7-8 bucks I've paid for them.I've bought from three (3) different sources and it's all the same. They're dead within a day or two. Everything I've read says they thrive in warmer temps...but they did much better in my 66 - 68 degree rooms. What could be the cause of this? No insecticides, no fumes, etc. And my t's and roach colony are all thriving. I'm keeping them as I always have and they lasted a couple weeks. The only difference I can see is a warmer room.

Click to expand...

Those temps should be fine if they have adequate food/water. I've never had a problem at those temps.

Is it humid in the room? What are you keeping them on? I keep mine in a well ventilated Sterilite container, no substrate, and feed them oatmeal mixed with goldfish flakes. For moisture, I use a couple pieces of potato or carrots. I don't use water or water gel of any kind. My room is currently between 72 and 78 degrees. I do NOT breed them, but they stay alive long after I purchase them. I have a dead one here or there, but I remove it before it can stink the container up and release that ammonia that kills the other crickets. Once a couple go, it can quickly bring down the entire group. Hope that helps!

Tomoran said:

Is it humid in the room? What are you keeping them on? I keep mine in a well ventilated Sterilite container, no substrate, and feed them oatmeal mixed with goldfish flakes. For moisture, I use a couple pieces of potato or carrots. I don't use water or water gel of any kind. My room is currently between 72 and 78 degrees. I do NOT breed them, but they stay alive long after I purchase them.

Click to expand...

+1. Keep them dry! Moisture kills them. I use large plastic bins with no substrate, paper towels on the bottom, and they get their food and water from potatoes, romaine, & carrots. Soft vegetables and fruit are a mess and have too high a water content. I keep mine alive for weeks. The bin should have an open or screen top to prevent it from being too moist.

I think the higher temps are suggested for raising colonies. And I believe I also read that they do fine at lower temps, but do not breed as readily. This is purely anecdotal, though. I've found them to be sort of hit or miss, I've had some die within days and others live for weeks kept under the same conditions. Also, as i recall, there was a virus going around a while back that was killing them, but I don't know if it is still a problem now or not.

Yep, no substrate, no moisture, carrots and a little lettuce...hadn't heard about a virus. Just never had the entire bunch die off so quickly. [emoji20]

The warmer you keep them, the bigger of an issue crowding becomes. Warmer temps=more feces=dead crickets faster.

I keep mine cooler, its easy in the winter, I just leave them in one of the cool rooms....summer I buy less as I don't expect them to live for months like they would if kept in the 60's.

Either utilize a much larger container or put fewer in the one you have.

Like others have said, moisture is a very quick killer, especially in warmer temps. With all the fecal matter crickets leave on a constant basis, it doesn't take long at all for all kinds of bad growth to start up, add water and its like adding fertilizer to this bad growth.....and when one dies, it releases ammonia (I think ammonia, could be wrong, but its something), which had an immediate adverse effect on the rest of the colony.

I also watch what I feed the crickets and anything with too much moisture is avoided. Carrots and potatoes with the occasional lettuce leaf or apple is about as crazy as I get with moisture foods...dog kibble and oatmeal and ground up cereals are really the basis for their diet.


But hey, you already know this oop:


If you can find banded crickets (aka tropical house cricket), they are more resistant to diseases and parasites from what I understand. They don't get quite as big and they are athletic as all h e double hockey sticks, so they're a little feistier, but they love to climb and are great for arboreals as they promptly climb right up to the waiting t.

The cricket virus

Might be some other stuff there of interest too, I didn't poke around.

You know, they *were* all on their backs...I have to go somewhere to buy more so will let at least one of my suppliers know, unless they do already. Will follow other suggestions...larger containers, etc. Have been using the same as I always have but in warmer room the same # of cricks could be overcrowded. Thanks for all the help! [emoji4]

Medusa said:

You know, they *were* all on their backs...

Click to expand...

According to the article:
Symptoms of the Acheta domesticus, “cricket paralysis virus”:
Crickets will flip over on their backs, paralyzed, and die.

Crickets are top heavy anyway... they only stay upright by grabbing things, which they can't do when they die. Ammonia (as mentioned above) is big killer of crickets as well, and they release a lot of when they die, killing more of them.

I really didn't read the whole thing, I know it's a real virus... but that lines makes me think of DKS for crickets.

I'd say +1 to heat being an issue. I keep mine a little cooler than room temps, and they do okay for me.

Check the inside of their jumping legs and use bright light. It could be mites. They just destroy crickets and they die the same way - on their back.

So Ive heard crickets are fine at room temperature.Mine and superworms are fine at my 74 degree bedroom they survive for MONTHS in that.But have you got the crickets from a responsible bredder?? because that might be the answer.:idea:

Tim Benzedrine said:

The cricket virus

Might be some other stuff there of interest too, I didn't poke around.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I read up on this virus last summer, so went with the tropical banded crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) instead -- still have a few old timers still alive from original batch -- so, very long lived.
I keep mine quite moist and humid -- and warm.
They reproduce like crazy.
The banded are a bit fast and are good jumpers -- gives the Ts a real work out.
But I highly recommend them for anyone wanting to breed.
Never had a mite (fingers crossed) and hope it stays that way!

It depends a lot on how the LPS keeps them in my experience.

They pre-pack them in deli-cups at my LPS and all the crickets I was buying were dying in a couple of days until I started buying them the day they were getting them. Then I'd have a lot less losses.

I also started to breed them and I haven't seen a single dead one in the tub yet and I've raised my first batch from eggs to adults. So if they're dying, the evidence is getting eaten too.

I keep them in a 60l plastic tub with a metal screen that takes most of the lid and give them dry food, water gel and the occasional fruit and veggies. One surprising thing is that my colony doesn't smell bad at all, but the ones I buy from the LPS that I keep in the exact same conditions smell horrible.

I was having issues with the crickets I was buying from the chain stores for a few years as well. Even though I thought I was housing them properly I would still be having unacceptable numbers of losses by the time I got around to feeding my T's. It motivated me to get a roach colony going.

One day I bought 50 crickets from a chain store and threw all of them into one of my dubia roach bins. The kid threw a bunch of extra crickets in the bag so in must've went 80 or so. I keep my dubia bins as dry as possible with only some moist veggies and fruits for moisture and cheap fish feeds and cereals. I keep their protein kind of low as well which makes them quickly eat any roach or cricket that dies fairly quickly keeping the bin cleaner.

I was surprised that after an initial die off of 50 % or so, the rest of the crickets lived for weeks and weeks. It's been more than two months and there are still lots of big fat females in the bin (I fed them males off due to the noise).

I think it's possible that those afflicted with a virus and/or otherwise unhealthy died off fairly rapidly leaving only healthy, possibly virus free crickets behind.

Once the females matured, I placed an egg laying bin in the roach bin for a week and then placed that in an incubator. Several thousand crickets pinheads hatched and those were placed in more bins with some moist cocoa fiber. I sprayed the cocoa fiber for the pinheads every other day as they dehydrate and die easily, though they always dry out within two days due to the ample ventilation. I use fiberglass window mesh to ventilate from the sides, not the top. Cross ventilation works much better.

Anyway, didn't mean to tell you how to breed crickets. I was just going to make the point that they are actually fairly hardy if you get your hands on some healthy crickets. The cricket bin with crickets I've hatched have not had any losses that I have found. They really don't arrive at the petshops in good shape many a time. I have been there when they receive them and I always notice that the boxes they're in are full of dead crickets and many appear to have been opened and resealed several times so it's possible they sit somewhere at a distributors and need to be opened and resealed to supply the crickets with fresh potatoes. I've seen boxes arrive with 50% dead or more.

My tips; Keep them dry (unless they're under 3 weeks old), provide plenty of ventilation especially side ventilation (I only provide side ventilation, no holes in my lids), and maybe throw some roaches in the bin to eat the dead crickets asap.

I have this same problem, they die instantly. I can't keep them in an outbuilding as it is very humid in there so they will die a lot quicker.

They definitely do stink when dead though!

I wish it was possible to buy a tiny amount, I only have one T, she eats one cricket a week. Even buying the smallest amount of crickets 80% of them go to waste

killainstinct said:

I have this same problem, they die instantly. I can't keep them in an outbuilding as it is very humid in there so they will die a lot quicker.

They definitely do stink when dead though!

I wish it was possible to buy a tiny amount, I only have one T, she eats one cricket a week. Even buying the smallest amount of crickets 80% of them go to waste

Click to expand...

Will your spider eat pre-killed? If so, freeze them while they're still alive, then thaw individually. Less waste.