Outbreak Of Pinhead Crickets In Emp Tank

I checked on my emperor scorpion today and there're a hundred of these little tiny crickets in the tank. I have 2 adult emps in there. Is it ok to just leave them in there or should I relocate them? I was thinking maybe I can just put in some dog food in the tank and leave the crickets be and when they're big enough the emps will just do them in. Your thoughts?

If you want to keep the crickets alive so they will grow then I would recommend you relocate the scorpions. I would fear the crickets would attack the scorps when they tried to molt.

ya i would try to take the crickets out or just move the scorps to a different cage, and then put the crickets back in when there big enough for the scorps to eat. they might attack right after the scorps molt.

But since the emps are adults and not likely to molt anytime soon, can the crickets be of any harm to them if they dont molt?

What would you do if you were covered in aphids all day long? Sure they can't harm you but they would get annoying as none else. Even if they are small there's no need to stress the scorps out constantly. Best thing is to take the emps out and then herd the crickets out, might as well use this as an occasion to change the substrate too... 2 birds one stone.

I had the same problem myself. Every 3 weeks I'd have to clean out the tank, but I tried something which doubled the length of time I could go between cleanings. I noticed the female crickets would lay eggs by sticking that black tube into the substrate. I'm guessing for the eggs to have the best chance to hatch they need to be a certain depth. Well I used fingernail clippers and started cutting off the black tube as close to the crickets body as possible so that they were forced to lay eggs directy on the surface, and noticed probably an 80% decrease in pinheads. However the female crickets won't live as long if you do this.

Malcara said:

Well I used fingernail clippers and started cutting off the black tube as close to the crickets body as possible

Click to expand...

If you bend the ovipositor, instead of cutting it, the females are unable to lay eggs.

Yeah crimping it works much better, they can't get the eggs out that way.