# Small crickets are absolutely useless!



## SamH (Aug 25, 2007)

Ok i only own 2 tarantula slings, so i get a tub of pinhead crickets for one and a tub of extra small for the other as its bigger than the other. The stupid thing is i'm having to get a whole new tub like everytime i need to feed my spiders as they just die after about 3 days!! 

I feed them, supply water, but they normally just end up in a big black mush at the bottom of the tub. I'm basically paying 1.50 for 4 extra small crickets!! 

Does anyone else find this and is there anything i can try to keep the buggers alive? :devil:


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## rosiethetarantula (Oct 12, 2007)

I had this exact problem! I could only keep them alive for a few days then all dead! So like you said it was a case of buying a new tub for a few crickets.
Luckily my sling has upgraded to small crickets and I do much better keeping them alive. Just hope come next moult or two your sling will be fine with small instead of them pesky micros!!


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## JamesJ (Apr 12, 2008)

I always find my smaller crickets seem to die off quite quickly sometimes, i feed them salad each day too. Not sure why they die so easily


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## joe0709 (Sep 22, 2007)

buy more things to eat em .....


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

Ask your reptile shop if you can just have 10 or so out of the tub and offer them half the price of the tub.... most will do it for that price and whilst you are not getting great value for money per cricket you're still saving a little

Or find someone local who buys the same size tubs and is willing to share for a bit of the cost.


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## Johelian (Nov 25, 2006)

Do you keep them warm and clean them out? Crickets like to be at room temperature or slightly warmer, and under these conditions the salad youre feeding them becomes very damp and stale quickly. The damp, mouldy mess will very quickly kill off all of the crickets. 

When I get them I feed them washed, dried greens to keep the levels of moisture in the tub down. They last for quite a while like this even without being cleaned (though if you dont clean them out the moisture from their dung will eventually kill them off).


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## iiisecondcreep (Oct 29, 2007)

The last lot of micro I got I fed to me scorplings, they were a bit small for the scorps so they just hoovered them up, the few I didn't feed to them did live and I fed the grown on ones to my slings.
I just got another tub the other week and a tub of small, with the plan of feeding the small ones now and then the micro once they'd grown a bit.

No such luck, every single micro is dead now :|
They had fresh veg, some fish flakes (kept well seperate to avoid mould) and a water source.
The only thing I can think is the tub they come in doesn't have ventilation holes like the tubs for larger ones do. I only noticed this a few days ago! Next order will be the same, micros and small but I am going to try the micros in one of those happy pet home things, the plastic boxes you get in pet shops because they'd be able to get out the ventilation holes in cricket tubs.

I'm also going to ordering solid water, because I've used it before and its great.


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## Greenphase (Feb 9, 2008)

For T slings i always used to feed them on maggots.I would just go into the tackle shop and ask for a few to feed to my spiders.:2thumb:


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## vetdebbie (Jan 4, 2008)

My baby pygmies are on hatchlings - tub lasts me weeks! and very few die. I just lift a corner of the lid for ventilation, chuck in a very small piece of greenery which usualy gets pretty much eaten in 2-3 days and leave the tub on top of the viv. MInd you saying that my salad tends to get dry and crispy if uneaten rather than mouldy, so possibly the tubs are being kept warmer than yours (they are usually on top of the exoterra canopy)?


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## SamH (Aug 25, 2007)

I think i'm just going to go for extra small in future, i'll just pick out the really small ones for my tiny chile flame. I'll see if they will live on fish flakes and will lift the corner of the tub for ventilation as mentioned.

I hate crickets lol... they stink, they just ARN'T silent, they eat each other, they feel the need to escape all the time, they crap continuously, there obviously not as tasty as locusts and and there ugly as sin. Their just wasting our oxygen! 

:lol2:


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## andie (Sep 23, 2007)

Micro crix do seem to have a habit of mass suicide but its all down to sufficient ventillation and cleanliness, to be honest i found it easier to use fruit flies for my red knee slings and the occasional micro and moving onto small roach nymps,,soooo much easier then messing about with micros.


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## gillyite (Feb 6, 2008)

I find micros last better when they're kept warmer than normal , well ventilated but not totally dry - sometimes a bit awkward to do . But for my baby T's i prefer maggots from the local tackle shop - either squatts or pinkies - if they don't get eaten they hatch into flies and the spidz have a second chance at them and a little bit of variety too .


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## darkblade666 (Mar 18, 2008)

if you want the crix to last put them in a bigger tub with mesh top and more egg crates than you get with them 

add veg and dry food they will last even grow 

in smaller tubs they will kill each other for more space and food


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