I... Hate.... CRICKETS!

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Stupid Black Field Crickets and their rotten food. And they stink too. They're too fast for me to catch and I've had several escapees. And all the food I gut-load them with went all rotten and it stank so I replaced some of it. Maybe I should stick to mealworms, or are crickets a better diet for my cute little Tarantula?

[Ian Foxon]

Crickets are a much better food source for your tarantula than mealworms.
I put all my crickets into a large critter keeper and then capture them in a 35mm film canister. They will willingly walk into the canister if it is held in front of them whilst they are cornered. This makes things really easy, you can then just tip them into the terrarium.
If you are trying to keep them in the tubs they come in you will inevitably get escapees and you will find they probably don't survive very long.

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Ick! Not more money to spend. Oh well, I suppose it's worth it. (I bought £100 worth of equipment, and Mexican Red Knee Tarantulas aren't cheap these days either).

[Stefan]

i find that black crickets dont smell. only the dead ones do.

So make sure they don't die by gving them extra space and feeding them. I find that they do well on banana.... remember that a spider is what it eats....... large health crikets will give you large health tarantulas.

[karl]

Ick! Not more money to spend. Oh well, I suppose it's worth it. (I bought £100 worth of equipment, and Mexican Red Knee Tarantulas aren't cheap these days either).

If you want a healthy spider then you need to care for the food more than you do for the spider.

Spend some money, give them some space, good food, and a water source. They won't die and will give your spider a better meal.

If you find they are escaping while you are transfering them for feeding ... do it in the bath (with the plug hole closed).

If there's one thing i love it's watching my beasties chow down on a fat, healthy cricket. It's almost as good as watching my kids enjoy a meal I spent time cooking :/

[Richard Groves]

I keep mine in a specially designed 'cricket keeper'. It has two large black tubes that insert through a hole into the tank. At feeding time, you slide out the tube and tap it over the spiders quarters. It takes quite a sharp tap to dislodge resting crickets so only a couple ever fall out!

On a lighter note, A recent Bar B Q I had went down a storm because of the escaped crickets singing in the garden. They have remained all summer and really add quite a tropical feel of an evening when i'm sitting outside. Thats some information you never find in the gardening books!!!!

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Bought a plastic cricket house with two tubes on it. And some bug grub. And a cricket trapper. What do you think I should feed them as a source of protein, other than pet food? Meat went all rotten and horrible and had to get rid of it.

[karl]

I use fish food in flake form, also rat pellets slightly moistened. Fish food is expensive compared to most other foods, but the crickets chomp it up like it was mana from heaven. Also if you buy it in large amounts the price comes down.

BTW, congratulations on your purchase. I hope your spider appreciates the care and expense you lavish on him/her

[Graeme Wright]

I feed my cricks on Cat biscutes there full of vitimans and dried plant matter also try feeding them dried meat chews you get for dogs. and give them a water dish with teh sried food they gett everything they need and it doesn't rot

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Yeah, it's really beginning to stink in there, and I noticed some deaths recently. All these grains of food and such are going everywhere and the crickets seem to "drown" in it, and some food keeps going rotten and is too deep for me to get. You know what, it seems really strong when I take the lid off.

[Kerin McEwing]

i keep my crickets in a large tupperware box with holes in my kitchen. my flatmates love the sound of them and friends are always commenting how continental they make the place feel.

i hate brown crickets though. at least black are slow and easily handled (i hand feed my Chinese Water Dragon). brown crickets are way too jumpy. my success rate at feeding is about 50%. i.e 50% in the lizards mouth and 50% running about my room. my cat does like to chase them about though.

i also hate it when the male crickets that don't get instantly devoured wake me up during the night crick-cricking away. takes me ages to find out what tank it's in and even the slightest movement makes tham stop so there's no way of telling where they are. my lizard tank is 4'x4'x2' too and full of branches and plants so i end up getting woke up constantly and need to try so many times to find the little buggers in the dark

i tried roaches once as a feeder but never again. as soon as i opened the tub to get one out they all scrambled and i lost half in the first attempt to use them.

Man, my flat must be infested.

[Chris R. Jones (Sirunus)]

Crickets have a new home now, but there were only three survivors. The tub filled up with these grains from the food and the crickets got buried underneath it... I put too much food in there. Ah well, they lasted a couple of weeks in that tub. Should be getting a fresh tub of crickets tomorrow.

Edit: I threw all the old crickets out except for one nymph. They were all dead and dying, with all these grains of food all over them and bits of food stuck to their feet. I washed the cricket house out with hot water and put only the nymph back in. The new 100 or so medium crickets won't be here till Tuesday.

[Wayne]

I buy crickets 1000 at a time. I keep them in a 60 quart plastic container.
The container has a bed of oatmeal in the bottom. Fluid of various sorts is provided every other day. Dry food does work the best.

Take a container and drill 1/16th inch holes in it. Place an open box of baking soda in the container and place it inside the keeper container. Helps a lot with the odor.

[Neil Richardson]

Fish flakes for mine, with the occasional lettuce leaf for moisture. They seem to live for a month if none of my spiders are too hungry to eat the entire box :P

Am going to get a cricket keeper for them though.

[Graeme Wright]

Fish flakes for mine, with the occasional lettuce leaf for moisture. They seem to live for a month if none of my spiders are too hungry to eat the entire box :P

Am going to get a cricket keeper for them though.

I've used fish flakes before they seam to like them