The attack of the Killer Krickets

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Hello,

I have a slight problem. Crickets have been laying eggs around the water dish of my Chile Rose and now they have hatched into pinhead crickets! I know they are very prone to drying out, shall I just wait for them to die? They must be pretty harmless; the Chile Rose isn't bothered by them.

Thanks for all your help, I appreciate it,

~Chris

[Adam Walters]

Hi Chris,

I think the best option is for you to clean out the tank completely. You could dry them out, but you'll be left with lots of little tiny dead bodies everywhere......not good if you sometimes allow water to spill in that area. There may also be more eggs left to hatch.

Next time, if you use an adult female cricket to feed, just snip off the ovipositor (egg laying tube) with a pair of scissors

Cheers,
Adam.

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Well, quite predicitibly, a lot of them ended up in the water dish and drowned. The rest of them seem to be leaving the tank, then getting squished. I haven't seen anymore since. Quite ironic this has happened, because the tank is usually kept bone dry; the water dish is the only moist place. I don't think there's anything I can do about that. I could snip the ovipositers off the females, but it won't stop them laying eggs. I don't really want to clean the tank out completely, because Tamesis has dug a little burrow and has been sitting in it all day long, plus this would be the third time I would've had to clean that tank out completely in less than two months! I don't know if I can afford to keep throwing away expensive substrates; I'm pretty skint at the moment, until my quest for a part-time job to go alongside full-time college comes to an end. I get enough money to feed my spiders, but that's all. Thanks for your help.

~Chris