Crickets vs roaches vs locusts

[Sorcha Cantwell]

Hi Guys,
Who uses what as feeders? I have used brown/black crickets and locusts so far. I am not keen on the locusts TBH ( and neither are my T's) , brown crickets seem to be the best feeder I have used so far. I do know that a lot pf people keep and use roaches though.

pro's n cons?
Are they easy to keep?

Answers on a POST"card"

Sorcha x

[Peter Roach]

In order of preference.

1) Roaches
2) Roaches
3) Roaches
. . . . .
. . . . .
499) Crickets
500) Locusts

I only use roaches and havent used crickets for years.

Crickets. . . cons
They stink, noisy, expensive and are dangerous to spiders when the are moulting.
Pros. . . Errrr none.

Roaches. . Cons
Initial set up costs (£15-30 depending on what equipment you need to buy)

Pros.
Higher meat to shell ratio
Free forever once set up
Very Little smell
No noise
rarely if ever dangerous to spiders when they moulting

[Sorcha Cantwell]

Hi Peter

Thanks for replying.... its been something thats been bugging me for a while, I find the stink and wastage from crickets quite annoying (and the cat constantly miows at them when they chirp)

I wish the exotics places would tell you these things...but then I guess its not business sense is it, when you are coming back time after time to buy a tub of half dead crickets at £3 a pop

I have seen a lot of starter colonies on Ebay of different kinds of roaches. Would they be suitable for slings and which ones do you prefer?
I have a few spare 2ft and 3ft tanks kicking about that I could use for setting them up.

I really want to do the best thing for my T's, I feel I have to constantly monitor the crickets when with the T's till they have been munched so that there are no biting/chewing or killing incidents.

Sorry for all the questions lol :O)

Sorcha

[Peter Roach]

Tanks.
I wouldnt bother with glass tanks as even the non climbing species of roach can climb up the silicone. Buy a plastic tub of at least 14 inches high..


Im walking the dog now but search my posts back a few months as there is a few on this subject already. I'll try and type a proper responce later tonight after work.

[Sorcha Cantwell]

Excellent thanks

I'm at work pretending to work so I shall have a look tonight !!

:O)

[Sorcha Cantwell]

Hi Peter.

Due to some work apathy, I decided to read through your posts rather than work. I will say one thing....I have learned more from reading your posts than I have from any book, website and shop that I have spoken to so far. You have answered a good few questions that were in my head about various species that I have currently

So a big thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience... but your video of the red runners nearly made me puke !

[Aragorn Davies]

£3 for a tub of crickets jheeeeeez, the most I'll pay is £2.25 at Kirby and if i am going to clacton then £1.75......if you read the TKG its says crickets all the way as a good staple, but roaches are also good, having said that, i saw peters post on breeding the red roaches so i though i would give it a go. I did read that they are not good climbers so i put about six in for my leopard geckos as a bit of exercises for the geks cos red runners are rapid, but i freaked out as the dam things started to climb the small silicon bead in the corners of the tank eeeeeeeek, last thing ya need is those bad boys starting there own colony in ya house,,,,so thats something to watch for! i guess the lesson there is to make sure you put one in, near a hungry T, so you witness it being despatched...., i have to say my monitor loves them and revels in the chase,,,excellent exercise!

For me at the moment i am feeding both gut loaded crickets and roaches just for variety, i used locust once but i didn't seem to care for them much! once in a blue moon a pinkie for a freshly molted T stirmi, and occasionally Mario worms, gut loaded on veg, and not near an impending molt as they opportunistic carnivores! however once my roach colony is established and my Ts are in a Roach secure enclosures i will start using those....from my limited experience plastic Faunariums are better then glass silicon beaded enclosures for the roaches as they don't seem to have a problem scaling the silicon, so i will Defoe second peter on that!!!

OK for me in order

1. Roaches....
Pros..For a good cheap source of food once the colony is established, nutritious and always full plus an endless supply, for entertainment as they are rapid and its great to watch the geks and monitor chase them, and as peter said they are quite a good ratio of meat to shell, also they don't smell as bad, and last for ages

cons: i am paranoid of the dam things escaping, i appreciate they need temps over 80F to breed readily but still you really don't want an gravid female escaping, and like i said i have witnessed the smaller ones climbing the silicon bead..

2. Crikets....
Pros...already well established in the hobby as a good staple, when gut loaded they are a good source of nutrition, will die if they escape without leaving you worried about an infestation and are muuuuch easier to catch lol.


cons..Stinky, die readily in the plastic tubs, can be expensive to buy by the box load if you are buying a few, if you only have one T like a grammy in fasting mode you will waste whole boxes, while your roach colony expands, my monitor will readily consume 60% of a tub in one sitting depleting your stock rather quickly. which doesn't really dent a roach colony, especially like the ones peter has.....and a roach colony seems to be much easier to keep than a cricket colony, not that i have much experience in either lol

3...Locusts...to be honest i have never really used them that much, for cons...you don't get many in the tub for the price one feeding session and they are all gone...can work out expensive...

[VICTOR CASTELO FUENTES]

Hi ya; I recomend not climbing roaches mainly Blaptica dubia vs Blaberus sp (this one is giant and slower beeder); with the climbing sp you may easily have an escape, thouhg they breed faster ; in comparison with otrher insects they are clean, easy to buy and care, silent and have a good nutrition composition; the unique disadvantage is that there´s always a risk of infestation in the house but as I told you this is very unusual with the not climbing species. Good luck

[asmaa farooq]

i use locust i order them via livefood.co.uk cheap have a refund or replace if dead they do sell the other feeders locust is just my preferance i hated crickets chirping plus got freaked when i was told they can breed in your house if they get loose and roaches really creep me out but i find locust ok

[Jamie Cooper]

I've always used black crickets as my primary food source. However, sometime last year I started my own Blaptica dubia roach colony which is doing very well. I aim to switch to roaches as soon as my colony reaches a number that I feel can sustain itself.

I do dip into the roach tub quite regularly these days to feed my juveniles and sub adults, but I think I'll always use micro/small black crickets to feed young spiderlings. So I always have a cricket tub on the go.

The only problem I have with using roaches is that if the spider doesn't nail them straight away, they tend to scuttle off and burrow into the substrate and out of sight. Crickets tend to be constantly on the move and the spiders usually catch up with them.

The problems I have using crickets are the threat they pose to a moulting spider and the smell. Other than that they are easy to work with if you can put up with the racket the larger ones make - LOL.

Hope this helps,

Jamie

[Peter Roach]

I do dip into the roach tub quite regularly these days to feed my juveniles and sub adults, but I think I'll always use micro/small black crickets to feed young spiderlings. So I always have a cricket tub on the go.

Even the smallest newborn Dubia are too large for a lot of slings but young Red Runners are small enough to be fed to the smallest slings with ease, in fact I now use Red Runners for all of my collection except for the largest adults (6 inches +)

The only problem I have with using roaches is that if the spider doesn't nail them straight away, they tend to scuttle off and burrow into the substrate and out of sight. Crickets tend to be constantly on the move and the spiders usually catch up with them.

As you are using Dubia I'm not suprised that they burrow staight away . . . thats what they are known for. LOL
Red Runners are called that for a very good reason, they are red and they run . . . . constantly and non stop. They dont burrow and are constantly on the move and dont usually hide either.

The problems I have using crickets are the threat they pose to a moulting spider and the smell. Other than that they are easy to work with if you can put up with the racket the larger ones make - LOL.

Totally agree with this but as I've mentioned before, roaches leave moulting spiders alone. I have several hundred slings and juvs ((250+) and all of these are kept in small tubs of various sizes, on feeding day I open the tub and drop a red runner or two in and then move onto the next tub. There have been numerous times (in the HUNDREDS) where I have opened a tub for the weekly feed and there has been a newly shed spider with the red runner still there from the previous week.
I have NEVER had a roach hurt or kill a moulting Tarantula but I have had slings killed and eaten by pinhead cricket on several occasions.

There is one famous thing that roaches do that many people forget. . . . That they can live for weeks with their head cut off.
Which can be used to good advantage if you dont have a roach small enough for a small sing
Just pinch the head off a red runner and drop it in with the sling, I guarantee that the sling will munch on it. Afterall the roach is still alive, its just not moving a lot LOL
At the moment because of the several thousand Red Runners that I have are all large juvs and havent bred yet, I'm a bit short on the small size I need for my smallest slings. Not a problem cos I just squish off the head of any size roach (which is usually much larger than the sling) and drop it in and the following week when its feeding time again, there is no roach and a very fat and happy sling.

I cleaned out my Dubia last week and took a video on my fone so excuse the quality.
Video 1 . . . . . Video 2

[the ming cu]

I always use roaches I breed myself to feed. I ever breed crickets too...

Here's the comparison:

Roaches: Once they breed, there's free continuous roaches in various size I can feed. They are not noisy, cleaner than crickets, less of them die naturally every year.

Cricket: I've prepared everything, and they still die. all of them, in a few months. they are stink, they invite many flies and ants. not reccomended for tarantulas, especially if you don't want your tarantula to be infected by disease....

Never feed them locust, because there's no breeder, and I don't want a trouble breeding them as I find it easy to breed madagaskar roach.

[Aragorn Davies]

I cleaned out my Dubia last week and took a video on my fone so excuse the quality.
Video 1 . . . . . Video 2

lol i was eating roach, um, i mean beans on toast.........hey i noticed one escape at least did you pick them up? do you worry about escaped roaches?

[Peter Roach]

I caught the little sod and fed him to a large parahybana for his cheek

[Sorcha Cantwell]

Thanks for everyone's input :O)

Well I think i'm sold on the Red runners out of the roaches, despite being slightly freaked out by video 1 Peter !! **shudders**

I have a plastic container exactly same as the one in the video, with a secure lid, so I will use that. I had forgotten that they could live without their heads for a good while. This would make me far happier when feeding my slings. I have 3 Slings, a juv Acanthoscurria geniculata who eats like a horse and sub adult (currently hiding and refusing to eat) Pink toe.

Am loving watching my slings changing and growing but am very surprised at the rate of growth!!

Sorcha :O)