Crickets in tank dead

[Matt Brett]

Am slightly concerned that the two crickets I put in the tank were dead a day later.

They spent some time running around and being generally aggressive, then about a day went by and I hadnt seen them.

I took a good look around today and found one dead inside the 'burrow' (as in I want the spider to use it but she hasnt yet lol), and I found the other dead among some little wooden cup type ornaments.

I'm wondering, is it normal for them to just die like that? I recently had a moul problem which prompted a tank clean out. They didnt have any mould growing on the corpses and I havent seen any around the tank like before. Neither does it smell of anything in there.

Normally she would eat them, or if she doesnt they tend to find somewhere and live there for a while until I take them out or she eats them.

I was thinking that if it was just a random death that maybe one would die and the other would be around, but instead they both disappeared and died about the same time, in different areas of the tank.

Any ideas? Or am I being too suspicious?

[Alexander Abrams]

How are you keeping them before introducing them to your spiders tank? A few of mine have died in similar circumstances so I've recently tried making sure that the cricket box's are clean and free from food stuff that has gone off and putting some dried food in the spiders tank. This may or may not be the problem but it could be worth looking at. Also, where do you buy your live food from, do you know how fresh they are when they reach you?

regards
Alex.

[Peter Lacey]

I think your T has got peeved off with the manic crickets and killed them. Give it a week and try again, possibly an oncoming moult.

[Lisa Baines]

if you have brown crickets... and you dont spot a dead one for a while, make sure the cricket aint turned a salmon pink colour. if they do then they are infested with little white mites.

I know some mites are 'cleaners' but i found these ones were a pain to get rid off and irritated the hell out of my scorpions! I had to change supplier in the end because they killed my crickets in the tub before i could feed them to the scorpions!

[Matt Brett]

They are blacks. She doesnt seem to like blacks as much as she likes browns though.
I have no idea why, but she seems to almost play with her food with the blacks. She'll follow them around the tank, sneak up on them and then smack them away. If they come up to her she'll usually let them go past before following them later. Eventually she'll eat them but it takes her ages.

With browns it's a totally different matter. She pounces on those so fast. She doesn't take any chances with those. I don't know if it's because she's less confident about the blacks or what. She eats both though, just takes her longer with the blacks.

I'll see what she does with the current two

[Colin D Wilson]

Without knowing where they came from & how they've been kept, I'll go along with Peter on this one and say that there's a good chance that the spider killed them in an attempt to leave the area safe for an up and coming moult.
Happens quite often here

[michaelmckinney]

Yeah could be an upcoming moult. But if the crickets had no injuries before it died, if they were adults, might just be that they died of old age.

Crickets only live for 5 months. What I've noticed is once you get the chirping males and the females with the hard wing casing, its a downward spirral from there.

[Alexander Ramsey]

Hi mate, I have seen the most amazing thing today. My rose, Esmerelda, was getting annoyed with a cricket I put in there. The bolshy thing tried to climb on her! Anyway, in a lightning fast move she literally picked it up off her leg and slammed it into the floor where it lay for about 10 mins before coming round!!
I took this to mean she wasn't hungry and was fed up with it in her space.
If your T has killed these crickets but isn't hungry, I would assume she would wrap them up for later. If that isn't the case, check when your supplier takes delivery cause some of them get the crickets in and clean the container daily without feeding them. I've had crickets die on me within a day or two.
Might be way off but if they died at the same time, something has effected them both and if you've cleaned the tank recently, start looking outside?