# Crickets Dying everyday - Whats Going On...



## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

Hi All, I recently bought 500 Brown Silent Crickets with a view to maybe breeding them , I bought large but not adult ones..

I have put them in a large 3ft fish tank with lots of egg boxes toilet roll tubes etc.. They get fresh food every day Carotts, Cabbage, Spinach , Apple Cores etc.. And they also get a wet paper towel for water. I make sure none of this touches the fish tank floor as to avoid mold growth etc... by placing all food on plastic trays.. 

The probelm im having is every day when i get home i have to remove around 10-20 dead ones, and i can see other ones that are almost dead.. 

what could be the problem, on the whole they all look very healthy and seam very active..

I have even tried giving them some heat in the shape of a red lamp, which they do seam to like as they all seam to bask under it.. but still i get around 20 deaths a day...

The viv does have some sand in there, and im wondering if this is causing a problem.. although it is very dry sand.. its the type reptiles are kept in..

Is this just normal? or are they getting stressed for some reason?

Needless to say ive decided until i can keep them alive , to knock the breeding plan on hold...

Any help or advice would be very welcome..

Paul


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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

Next time buy them from livefood warehouse the crickets are really healthy and stay alive for weeks without even getting them out the bag they came in.

Unlike some other places : victory:


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

imginy said:


> Next time buy them from livefood warehouse the crickets are really healthy and stay alive for weeks without even getting them out the bag they came in.
> 
> Unlike some other places : victory:


I buy them from another online seller, and i was very impressed with them when they arrived, not one dead one.. and like i say to look at the majority they look very lively , healthy.. but they seam to be getting stressed over something as they are nibbling on each other..


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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

PaulUK2011 said:


> I buy them from another online seller, and i was very impressed with them when they arrived, not one dead one.. and like i say to look at the majority they look very lively , healthy.. but they seam to be getting stressed over something as they are nibbling on each other..


If they are eating each other they are probably hungry : victory:


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

imginy said:


> If they are eating each other they are probably hungry : victory:


well surely they would rather eat the food provided than each other... but yeah something aint right....

next time i think i might try them on a substrate of pure wheat bran...

When they are in little tubs, i dont even feed them anything other than the bran they come with and they are alive for as long as i keep them....


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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

There is a few guides on here that go through everything but in my experience the crickets are too much effort to breed and I find it a lot easier to just buy my crickets in bulk and breed roaches instead.


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

imginy said:


> There is a few guides on here that go through everything but in my experience the crickets are too much effort to breed and I find it a lot easier to just buy my crickets in bulk and breed roaches instead.


Ive read all the guides........
to be honest this has put me off, i have started to breed morio worms.. Im on day 9 of that... and my worms are cureled up nicely...

Paul


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## 123dragon (Jan 15, 2011)

to breed well they would want more than just bran
how high in protein would you say there diet is.. any fish food, dog/cat food ect
crickets like high protien in their diet 
you also wont need extra water if they have plenty of veg


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## yellrat (Jun 13, 2008)

PaulUK2011 said:


> Hi All, I recently bought 500 Brown Silent Crickets with a view to maybe breeding them , I bought large but not adult ones..
> 
> I have put them in a large 3ft fish tank with lots of egg boxes toilet roll tubes etc.. They get fresh food every day Carotts, Cabbage, Spinach , Apple Cores etc.. And they also get a wet paper towel for water. I make sure none of this touches the fish tank floor as to avoid mold growth etc... by placing all food on plastic trays..
> 
> ...


i would say the humidity is to high this is whats killing them off heat + wet towls + veg and fruit = to much humidity.


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

123dragon said:


> to breed well they would want more than just bran
> how high in protein would you say there diet is.. any fish food, dog/cat food ect
> crickets like high protien in their diet
> you also wont need extra water if they have plenty of veg


I meant the substrate of the taknk would be made up of just bran, ie remove all the sand which is what im going to have to do anyway soon, when i clean out the tank..

I dont provide them with fish food or dog/cat food at the moment, can you recommend a certain type of dog food that i could pick up from the supermarket? on my next visit

Thanks Paul


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

yellrat said:


> i would say the humidity is to high this is whats killing them off heat + wet towls + veg and fruit = to much humidity.


The tank is absolutely bone dry, i know all too well about high humidity levels & crickets. The tank is open at the top as its a tall tank and there is very little need for the top to be covered..

this gives the crickets plenty of fresh air and avoids high humidity levels..

When i first got them i didnt provide any kind of heat but when they started to die, i wondered if it was too cold for them so gave them heat at night which they do seam to like..

not sure whats going on to be honest... the deaths continue..


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## corny girl (Aug 30, 2009)

I had this same problem, was buying 2 tubs a week & they'd die before i managed to feed them to my Crestie. I have since moved them onto the kitchen windowsill & still have plenty alive some 3 weeks after buying 3 tubs :2thumb:. They don't like too much heat & this is why mine were dying off. Try moving yours to a cool room & then see how they go.


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

They are in an unheated bedroom upstairs, which is why i wondered if it was too cold.. Ive just cleaned out the tabk, removed all the sand, poo and what was left of the bran they came in..

I have given them a fresh bedding of Bran flakes and dog biscuits (blended) which they seam to be enjoying, smells lovely too lol 

Ive added some fresh vegies for food/water, im going to leave them without heat tonight and see how things are tomorrow.. hopefully this will improve matters...

Paul : victory:


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## corny girl (Aug 30, 2009)

PaulUK2011 said:


> They are in an unheated bedroom upstairs, which is why i wondered if it was too cold.. Ive just cleaned out the tabk, removed all the sand, poo and what was left of the bran they came in..
> 
> I have given them a fresh bedding of Bran flakes and dog biscuits (blended) which they seam to be enjoying, smells lovely too lol
> 
> ...



My living room is north facing & not heated except for a gas fire in winter (so should be cool in the summer) yet my crickets were dying. An unheated upstairs bedroom will be quite warm, i'd move them somewhere downstairs like the kitchen (heat rises, so upstairs will be warmer).


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## 50%man50%biscuit (Mar 17, 2009)

PaulUK2011 said:


> When they are in little tubs, i dont even feed them anything other than the bran they come with and they are alive for as long as i keep them....


 Does no one else think this is worth a comment? So I'm assuming you are breeding crickets to feed to your animals, so on that assumption you are feeding your animals bran and keratin. Sucks to be a lizard in your house.

On the point of the thread, I used to run a business breeding insects, the trick is a good varied diet, no citrus no greens (it gives em the runs) and try to maintain a 25% protein to carb balance, they don't do well on the atkins diet. Humidity is the killer as has been stated by everyone else, and the possible reason they are trying to eat each other is they are missing something in their diet, and the only option is to eat each other, usually a protein issue. 

Start with a dozen crickets, feed em up, give them decent air circulation, and then you've got to get the egg laying sites sorted which is a lesson for another day...but start small, if it fails then start again. 

And have you ever put 20 crickets in a jam jar with the lid on? It gets pretty soggy pretty quickly, imagine 500 in a glass viv which is a big jam jar with the lid off, and no heating to drive off the air at the bottom. blow a bit of smoke into the viv and see how much air circulation there really is. 

You need to keep them at breeding temps in order to produce eggs. 26 seemed good for black crickets and 28 and higher for silents.

This is just what worked for me, everyone has their own feel for it, and one set-up may work better than another, it is all about trial and error and buying a good book on how to breed insects :gasp:

HMHB


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

50%man50%biscuit said:


> so on that assumption you are feeding your animals bran and keratin. Sucks to be a lizard in your house.


Thats a bit unfair and harsh, My 3 Bearded Dragons are very well looked after and are given a very varied amount of food not just crickets and are very happy and healthy.




50%man50%biscuit said:


> And have you ever put 20 crickets in a jam jar with the lid on? It gets pretty soggy pretty quickly, imagine 500 in a glass viv which is a big jam jar with the lid off, and no heating to drive off the air at the bottom. blow a bit of smoke into the viv and see how much air circulation there really is.


I disagree with this comment, since the the only reason the jam jar with the lid on gets wet through is there is no means of escape for the moisture given off by the heat generated by the crickets in the jar.. 500 crickets in an open fish tank do not cause condensation sice and heat (which rises) just escapes out the open top of the fish tank.. and as i mentioned the tank is bone dry..

I agree maybe its a protein issue, which is why tonight i have thrown some dry dog food into the substrate mix to hopefully sort the problem out..

Thanks for the other comments

Paul


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

corny girl said:


> My living room is north facing & not heated except for a gas fire in winter (so should be cool in the summer) yet my crickets were dying. An unheated upstairs bedroom will be quite warm, i'd move them somewhere downstairs like the kitchen (heat rises, so upstairs will be warmer).


I doubt heat (at room temperatures) would be enough to cause crickets to die , are you sure it wasnt a humidity problem? ie crickets kept in tubs in warm conditions with lids on..


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## corny girl (Aug 30, 2009)

PaulUK2011 said:


> I doubt heat (at room temperatures) would be enough to cause crickets to die , are you sure it wasnt a humidity problem? ie crickets kept in tubs in warm conditions with lids on..



Nope, they are in a faunarium with plenty of ventilation & like yours they are dry (there's a small bowl with bug gel in). It was the heat, my kitchen is much cooler than my living room which is why i still have loads alive :2thumb:.


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## Dee_Williams (Aug 15, 2010)

to thorw my 2 cents in, i find it can make a big difference how the crickets were packed for shipment. some die very quickly if they are packed badly even a few days later.

does sound like a protein issue though. or maybe not enough access to water? scrap the paper towel and give them some cucumber or something, salad, apple, banana. i found with my mass tank that if they ran out of water food they would die off quickly, especially in a heated tank...


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## Rednurse (Nov 13, 2010)

I seem to be having the same problem with my Locusts! i have bought a shipment of 50 from an online shop and they arrived fine! very small locusts so thought they would grow a bit. i also bought a few tubs of larger ones from my local reptile shop and put them all in a small Rub with air holes, water gel fresh veg and egg box cartons. Everyday i seem to be finding several dead locusts of different sizes so obviously from both the online batch and the store bought! It has never happened this badly before! could it have something to do with the weather/ heat or could there be a disease spreading through the locusts? I cant see anything that could indicate a health problem. Just a little worried bout feeding them to my lizards if it is a health thing!


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## PaulUK2011 (Apr 30, 2011)

Well so far the deaths have slowed down after getting rid of all the sand from the Tank, and adding a mix of Bran and Dog food lining the bottom of the tank, ive stopped giving them heat and stopped giving them water. I give them there daily veg to give them the water they need.

Still getting 1 or two a day.. but i guess this is normal.. in such a large amount...


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