Virus silences cricket farm in Leesburg

This story brings tears to my eyes. The pet store I own used Lucky Lure for 5 yrs before I bought it and we used them up until they closed down. They are super nice people and it really bites that this happened to them.

Seems to me that some of these businesses simply didn't have the money to invest into a different insect. Dubias are great, but only once you get an established colony, and they take a while to become established. Not to mention that adult dubias are MUCH more expensive than crickets, or really any other feeder insect, and with banks being so uptight about loans these days, I doubt the companies who got hit had time to make any sort of contingency plans.

I'm very, very happy I decided to start my own dubia colony last year.

I don't think money is an issue. The cricket industry in the US is probably several billion dollars annually. I think it was deemed impractical to try to produce/sell the quantity needed to sustain a multi million dollar business.

"Dubias are prolific and give birth to anywhere between 20 to 40 live young in a month."

A female house cricket can lay 10,000 eggs in 10 days.

Ohh pffft, now there's a thread...

Top Hat is definitely not doing crickets anymore. Linda, my bug lady filled me in a few weeks ago. I haven't ordered from them for a while because I've been going through Ghann's but even so, even they (Ghann's) haven't anything larger than 1/2"

Thank goodness I started my supers colony a few months ago, they're holding me over... But I need MORE!!! I even grew the balls to pick up a hisser at the swap and spent some quality mano a mano time with it (5 mins. max). I might as well get something started with those things

Originally Posted by shinezilla

Ohh pffft, now there's a thread...

Top Hat is definitely not doing crickets anymore. Linda, my bug lady filled me in a few weeks ago. I haven't ordered from them for a while because I've been going through Ghann's but even so, even they (Ghann's) haven't anything larger than 1/2"

Thank goodness I started my supers colony a few months ago, they're holding me over... But I need MORE!!! I even grew the balls to pick up a hisser at the swap and spent some quality mano a mano time with it (5 mins. max). I might as well get something started with those things

O.O I could neeever do hissers, even the roaches I do have I pick up the egg crate and shake them into cups to serve up.. X.X

It's definitely a sad warning about monoculture when you're in any sort of agriculture/animal-related business. One species-specific bad bug, and you're down for the count.

The Top Hat website states they believe they've managed to clean everything up, and they're re-establishing their crickets, but don't expect to have any for many more weeks.

I know pretty well alot of the cricket suppliers here in cali. They just didn't know what it was till it was to late. i my self lost all my crickets with out any warning. I would breed and keep my own in house almost 10- 50,000 a month depending on season and they were gone in a matter of days. But in those few days i spent some money trying different things to keep them alive before i finally got word from a big breeder with what was really the issue. I feel its basically the same thing with them they think its just a bad batch or something we are doing wrong then you find out its a virus and your a few hundred dollars down or in the breeder from floridas case thousands of dollars down.

My infestation came from a top breeder whom i purchased a few from just to get a fresh batch and bam no more crickets. If its in florida now, i feel there is no more stoping it its on both side of the coasts and will only move inland. Crickets are going to be a thig of the past.


Casey i agree dubias will never lay as well as crickets. Dubias also require alot more heat then crickets. Sure crickets die quick but once you have it down and know how to breed them and keep them your suplly is end less. the smell of dead crickets is the only real draw back, but before this year i hadn't smelled that odor in along time. Dubias only lay 20-30 nymphs a month sratch that almost every roach out there only lays about that. Plus they are alot larger then crickets or close to the same size. can you imagine how many roaches they would need to keep up the demand they had before for crickets. They would have to expand in almost every way. In what i have right now maybe about 5000 dubias mixed i used to house 15000 crickets, not really including pin heads. It would be a really big expense to make the witch a swithc that most of the just might not be ready for.

It was only a matter of time before it came across the ocean.. If I remember correctly the original virus was one that originally infected wax worms and made the jump to the domestic crickets.
It caused some problems in Europe by wiping out the domestic cricket but not as bad as it could have been as they switched over to Gryllus species (types of black field crickets which were already being cultured) and locusts (grasshoppers). The locusts are not going to be viable here in the USA as they are listed as plant pests and the permits are going to be a real problem. It will be interesting to see if there is a switch over to Gryllus species here in the US.

Ed

From my point of view its hopeless to think we are going o be able to stop this virus. It's a highly contagious virus that spreads and wipes out all stock in no time at all. It can servive and be.passed on days aftwr even having been in contact with it days before. Then on too id it once you have it the only known sure is to relocate and start over with everything new.

A female house cricket can lay 10,000 eggs in 10 days.[/quote]

No offense Casey but could we get some more documentation on that production number.....10k in 10 days seems way high to me.

The only reason Dubias are soo expensive is that nobody is producing them commercially yet.......I will be resolving that issue within a couple of months. I figure 50k producing females plus 50k red runners is a good start and 100k soldier grubs (aka: phoenix worms) per month will keep me busy.