Cricket Deaths?

Lately I’ve been having the majority of my crickets die on me. Last Wednesday 2 thousand 3/8" crickets arrived. They have been kept in a five-gallon bucket w/ out the top on and are fed daily with assorted greens and bearded dragon pellets. I’ve probably fed off about 500-700 of them. The rest are dead. I originally thought that only the sheds were in the botom, but I looked closer and it is full bodied dead crickets. Also, the room they are kept in stays around 85 degrees (give or take). Does anyone know what could be going wrong? I don't mind buying a lot of crickets for the beardies, but I don't want to waste money buying crickets that won't last for a week or two.

Dillon

Hey Dillon
Usually moisture is the worst culprit in cricket death. Do you have condensation in the container?

Mike

2000 crix in a 5 gallon bucket?

Try your luck with a ~35 gallon rubbermaid tote with plenty of eggflats or paper towel tubes to keep things drier. Also grinding your dragon pellets into powder will keep cannabilism and food aggression down.

Hey Mike,
Not any notable condensation. Usually about 30% humidity.

Ok, I'll get them into a larger container. In the bucket they have 5 small egg flats (about 5" by 5") and a tube. I don't think that it's cannabilism though, because there is always a little bit of left-over pellets.

Dillon

In small crix cannibalism doesn't (IMO) come from lack of food. A freshly molted white moist cricket is an easier meal than nibbling at a hard dry pellet.

I keep lots of tiny geckos and frogs, and I hate breeding crickets, so I order about 3500 1/4" monthly. At first I was losing about 25-45% each month, keeping them all in a 55 gallon drum. Was feeding fruit/veggie scraps and kitten chow. I changed things on the advice of a friend who apparently enjoys breeding crickets .

I keep 1000 per 32 gallon tote, with about 10 paper tubes. Daily I give a butter dish full of kale, carrot peels, sweet potatoe chunks and apple chunks for moist foods. I also keep a dish of powdered food for them - rice baby cereal, powdered milk, algae pellet fish food, wheat germ, unsalted nuts, nature-rose and cuttlebone ground into dust in a blender. Change out the powder when it's gone or filthy. Change out the moist feed daily. Buy all the ingredients in bulk, and prepare them then freeze them. Cheaper by far than commercial cricket chow+water crystals.

My losses are minimal, say 5% monthly, and the crix are gut loaded. I'd also say my geckos and frogs are doing better on the healthier crickets than before, and I'm spending less money at Armstrong cricket ranch

Hello,

I totally agree. I very rarely have cricket die offs. That is pretty much exactly how I keep ours, too. I use 25-30 gallon plastic bins, with undertank heaters on 24/7 & very little moisture other than using cotton balls, & potatoes for moisture.
My breeder crickets live for months & months.
If crickets get too crowded, they die off, no matter how much food they have. They just don't do well in cramped quarters.
Good luck.

Tracie

I use a simliar setup and don't really have to much trouble with crickets dying off. Sometimes I use a crumpled up paper towel that has been misted with water and place that in there for moisture. It's large enough that it stops them from piling on top of each on the potatoes etc.

Thanks for the help! I got another shipment in today, so hopefully these crickets will last longer! They are in about a 30 gallon rubbermaid with about 10 small egg crates and I'm about to go feed them some apple, carrot, and red leaf chunks. I'll probably get the powder made this evening or tommorow.

Thanks,
Dillon

Hello Dillon,

Great, good luck. Let us know how your new setup works out for you. I hope it goes well!
I grind up oatmeal, nonfat dry milk, dry baby cereal, powdered bread crumbs & sometimes wheatbran or spirulina or wheatgerm for extra nutrition. Just choose 3 ingredients or so & that should be nutritious.

Tracie

Thanks for the help! The crickets that I ordered last Wednesday are still alive and kickin'. I haven't seen any dead crickets in the bottom. Normally I go through 1000 a week. Tomorrow will be a week and I still have plenty left, so I know that the new diet and larger enclosure is working!

Thanks,
Dillon