American Black Crickets

The black crickets are all we have around here as far as I know as well.

They seem to be kind of "crunchier" as well, I think.....at least from when I've stepped on them, lol.

I raise Florida black crickets (gryllus firmus) I find they are less smelly and cleaner than house crickets (acheta domesticus) but I raise them because they are bigger and I wanted something different. They take 12 weeks to become adults but they also live about 12 more weeks as adults. They have full wings as adults but can only fly for a few days after they mature. The wings are the only reason they would be "crunchy" when they are young you can hardly tell the difference other than color. I am shipping in Florida now and am wating for permits all along the eastern seaboard where they are native. I hope I answered some of your questions sorry about being so long. Gary

I could be wrong but I remember Reading somewhere that the Brown Crickets are European in origin. We have nothing but Black Crickets around here to though. We have colonies of them in the mid hundreds around my town also. We used them as feeders last Summer only a few times when our Cricket colony was low, so we kept the "sterile" ones for the Geckos and gave a few Black ones to Ermac. I try to make sure the only outside Summer treats they get are Locusts, and GrassHoppers and Cicadas though. Ermac LOVED the Cicada! Next Summer I'm aiming at a Toad for her.

Kristin, it's a VERY bad idea to feed any bugs caught outside to any of your animals. You don't know what kind of pesticides, herbicides, and parasites you are going to be exposing them to.

And uh, I apologize, but I don't remember what Ermac is, but not sure he should be eating wild caught toads either.....

Originally Posted by Cat_72

Kristin, it's a VERY bad idea to feed any bugs caught outside to any of your animals. You don't know what kind of pesticides, herbicides, and parasites you are going to be exposing them to.

And uh, I apologize, but I don't remember what Ermac is, but not sure he should be eating wild caught toads either.....

I'll second that, unless you can be for sure no chemicals or pesticides are used in any given collection area.
I have a few spots that I'll wild collect food for my 'pets'

Kristin, it's a VERY bad idea to feed any bugs caught outside to any of your animals. You don't know what kind of pesticides, herbicides, and parasites you are going to be exposing them to

Parasite loads and defensive toxins are also a potential issue with field collected feeder insects.

All these issues have workarounds and precautions that can be taken to minimize the risk but given the wide variety of commercially avaliable feeder animals, there's rarely a reason to look at even a minimized risk as acceptible.

My back yard is like the secret garden, so yes I have a spot. This is also a small town and when I hear they've sprayed I don't go outside, but in the beginning of Spring before the "bad" trucks have shown up is the perfect time. Ermac is my Massive Chilean Rose hair. Big girl. I haven't had any ill effects giving them Cicada or Locust treats because I watch WHEN and WHERE I collect them from. Nothing but Country!

How about the farmers spraying their fields in the fall? Runoff/leeching from that can be anywhere. The neighbor spraying wasp spray on her porch.....the sevin dust on the other neighbor's tomato plants....it's EVERYWHERE, and those bugs didn't just magically appear in your garden, they flew there from somewhere.

None of this has anything to do with parasites either. Just because you haven't had any ill effects so far, doesn't mean you won't, when things build up in their systems, or you pick out that one cicada that just happened to fly in from that tree next to that neighbor spraying for wasps....

Sure, the chances are somewhat remote, but I wouldn't take ANY of those chances with my animals.