Need some Advice !! (feeder insects)

[nomad85]

have you ever tried a species of feeder roach?

 

[packer43064]

Nope.

MY mom and dad wouldn't let me keep them no watter what, and they wouldn't let me order them from anywhere.

 

[Elizabeth]

Elizabeth- my pill bug tank does smell way worse than my crickets.. nasty...

Are you using any substrate? Like a bit of soil or peat moss? I think it is how you are keeping them. Pillbugs don't stink in nature and if you run your keeper right, they shouldn't stink any more in there either.

 

[Israel2004]

For me the hate of crickets comes from the fact that they're escape artists.
Never fails, bring crickets in the house and I'll have one living under the fridge chirping at night. In the year that I've had my roaches, not one escapee.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Another thing that I find annoying with crickets is that, eventho I'd never normally admit it, they seem smart as hell - or maybe something similar. Anyway, whenever I put a cricket into one of the tanks it would most certainly find a place to hide, like under the water dish or other very hard to access places and then I'd be left wondering where it had gone. A week later I'd find it pressed in between the glass and the hide or stuff like that.

Trying to catch it would only end up with it jumping allover the place and even if it ended up right infront of the arachnid it would swiftly jump out of the way of hungry attacker and just laugh at us both (like so: ;P ).

Quite a few times I tried to be smart and pulled the jumpers off of those little freaks and still they managed to escape into the opposite direction of the arachnid. Almost every time. I don't even remember how I managed to feed my animals with this vermin. I think if I ever need to use crickets again I'm gonna pull the jumpers off, cut the second pair of legs off and leave the cricket with the shortest possible stumps of front legs. Basically a wiggling saucage. That's how I'd feel comfortable with them.

Eventho dubia roaches like to dig down, they are by far not such a hassle as a cricket is and as others have said before, their care is extremely much more pleasant!

 

[nomad85]

Are you using any substrate? Like a bit of soil or peat moss? I think it is how you are keeping them. Pillbugs don't stink in nature and if you run your keeper right, they shouldn't stink any more in there either.

Im using leaf litter, I know that its the way I'm keeping them that makes it stink, its warm and moist and there is rotting vegetation, so the smell is the set up, but thats how they do best I hear...

 

[Elizabeth]

Ah, I see...I have mine on at least 4 inches of soil, with rocks, bark hides, etc. thrown in. In go the crickets. The pillbugs, the sowbugs, sometimes a native millipede or an earthworm or two goes in. The water dish is shallow. The pet food and veggie leftovers go in. It all disappears and sort of gets churned in, although when a chunk of something goes moldy faster than it gets eaten, then I either take it out or turn it under. But it never smells and there is incredibly little maintenance done on my part. Also, everything lives well. The pillbugs even multiply in droves in there! Try some soil sometime, if you care. Let me know if it makes any difference, if you do try it.

 

[nomad85]

do you keep the soil moist of fairly dry? I will have to try it.

 

[Elizabeth]

It's a big enough keeper that I have one area always a little damp, but most of the soil nearly dry (but not bone dry!). And under the bark hide, that ground is always a bit moister. Tell us how it goes, then.