# Kricket Keepers!



## XFile (Apr 13, 2008)

Just discovered these bloody things are next to useless - of course we discovered the hard way...

Bought one of these yesterday with a tub of small crickets for our little leopard gecko... stuck the crickets into the fridge to make them docile and then poured them into the Kricket Keeper after about 5 minutes...

First disaster - once they woke up the chirping from them was unbelievably loud... the last crickets we bought were standard black crickets which made no noise at all... these were small banded crickets and all they did was chirp incredibly loud all evening!

So a couple of hours into the evening we tapped a few crickets out of the Kricket Keeper tube and into a sandwich bag for dusting... no problems... into the faunarium for little Humbug to eat... lol

Late evening the chirping from the crickets was becoming incredibly irratating so I look up 'chirping crickets' on here and find out Im not the only one with this condition... lol I also see lots of horror stories from people about escaping crickets from their Kricket Keeper boxes - next thing I notice is a cricket running across our wood floor about 3ft in front of me... that gets squished quickly as Im really not a big fan of them - I then go across to the vivs and notice another one on the floor running along the skirting board....:lol2:

Panic stations set in and it was a mad rush to recover the plastic tub the crickets came in - back from the Kricket Keeper tubes into sandwich bags - into the tub - into the freezer for 5mins to knock them out - then out of the bags into original plastic tub - lid on and check they all come round after being frozen... Touch wood we've not noticed anymore running around yet - but sods law problably means more than x2 managed to escape before we noticed....:devil:

Its certainly a lesson learnt for us - normally I read up about everything on here relating to my reps and lizards - but the Kricket Keeper I really thought well it must do exactly what it says... but it doesn't!! :bash:

Anyway thought Id post this as hopefully the next person that searches Kricket Keeper will see this and all the other posts and stay well clear of them... lol


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## drpjtaylor (Feb 26, 2008)

I have one of the small ones. I find it works great for black crickets but brown crickets escape from it no problem. I've been told that the bigger ones work better but I am reluctant to try one after problems with the small one.


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## BigC90210 (Oct 20, 2008)

I had one at my mates house n all hell broke loose when we went out on the drink. We came back and there were less than half the crickets remaining, a few weeks later and there were hordes of em coming out from downstairs behind his fridge! at least one must have made the journey downstairs somehow and laid eggs, it was bad crack!


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## kirsten (Jan 13, 2008)

i've got one of the bigger kricketkeepers, and i've had no problems at all. i've had brown and banded crix in there, and no chirping from the banded. maybe your particular keeper is faulty in some way?


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## Quiller (Sep 8, 2008)

Can't say I've had any break-outs from the Cricket Keeper, but have to agree, they are US. The tubes are good in theory but leave such little space in the Keeper for other stuff like, say, a food dish for 'damp' offerings, egg tray pieces for cover, and, oh yeah, crickets. I gave up on the tubes and stuck to just egg trays, then gave up on the Keeper altogether, preferring a plastic box from B&Q with holes drilled into the lid. Plenty of room, no escapees, and the extra space reduces the smell. Although it's still rank.


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## Sambee (Jul 4, 2008)

I used to have one of those when I was a newbie to reps, kept finding locusts on the carpet and couldn't work out how they were escaping!!

Now we just use a teaspoon to add supplements to the food by slightly lifting the corner of the box, chuck the Nutrobal and Calypso in, shake the box and voila, dusted crickets!


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## si654 (Aug 17, 2007)

Yeah everything escapes from them end up with crix all over mg:


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## Sollytear (Aug 7, 2008)

There are a few problems: 
If ur cricket is too small hten it will get through the grills
If ur crickets are lively, or preggy, they can easily push the flaps for the tubes up, and get out.


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## fran2491 (Oct 10, 2008)

kricket keepers are useless i gave up with mine and ended up using a normal plastic tank and just put the tubes from the keeper inside this way they cant get out the keeper went in the bin lol waste of time.


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## cubeykc (Aug 8, 2008)

i cut the top of a 2ltr bottle and put half a egg carton in there a cotton pud soaked in water and some greens 2 gut load them 
then i put some nettin on on top with a band 

cheap and works a treat


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## Sarah-Jayne (Jul 4, 2007)

crickets don't escape from Kricket Keepers, they escape from your vivs  they can squeeze through the gap between the glass sliding doors when they are small crickets

I have been using kricket keepers ever since I started keeping leos and had no problems with them whatsoever

As for chirping crickets, it is only the large sized crickets that make a noise, smaller crickets are not mature enough to have grown wings yet, I always buy smaller crickets, then there is no noise


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## XFile (Apr 13, 2008)

Sarah-Jayne said:


> crickets don't escape from Kricket Keepers, they escape from your vivs  they can squeeze through the gap between the glass sliding doors when they are small crickets
> 
> I have been using kricket keepers ever since I started keeping leos and had no problems with them whatsoever
> 
> As for chirping crickets, it is only the large sized crickets that make a noise, smaller crickets are not mature enough to have grown wings yet, I always buy smaller crickets, then there is no noise


Well these definately came from the Kricket Keeper as the viv isn't setup yet so little humbug is still in her faunarium and I know the x4 we put in there didn't escape as I went back to check after I spotted the x2 escapees and they were still in the faunarium...

There is x1 big cricket amongst the smaller crickets so Im going to stick them in the freezer for a few minutes and then remove him to see if that makes a difference... He's way to big for little humbug to eat anyway - how on earth he made it into a small tub of crickets I don't know - he's huge!! :lol2:


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## Mal (Jul 22, 2007)

I have no problems with large Kricket Keepers but did have escapees from the small ones in which I housed tiny crix. To overcome the problem I used shiny parcel tape. A strip all round the top of the clear plastic walls, the little blighters cant cling to the shiny tape. I then taped the inside of the lid covering all the vent grill, again with shiny parcel tape, leaving the tiniest of openings at the top of the slit. Since doing this I have had very few escapees even with 1st Instar crix. Very few systems will however be 100 % escape proof when dealing with these awful creatures.


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## gazflybye (Jan 8, 2010)

I am new to keeping reptiles and have been looking at the kricket keepers for my leopard geckos din dins. just got a storage box from homebase and made into a temp kricket keeper till the weather lets up n i could get a proper one, but reading on hear i dont think i will bother and just use what i made today. Had issues with small brown crickets getting out of my viv and leggin it around the living room. have now cured that problem so dont wanna create another one with a kricket keeper, lol.


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## Manoona (Jun 28, 2009)

I dont use a kricket keeper, I just lift the corner of the tubs they come in and sprinkle in the calcium, give the whole tub a good shake up before I chuck em in the viv, there you go all dusted - the less I have to touch them and transfer them from tub to tub the better! :lol2: Ive only had one escapee for the viv too - I make sure I put a little bit of vasalene around the vents as they cant grip to it and then have no way of escaping that way - this little bugger just happened to be champion sprinter and I missed him! lol


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## nuttycrunch (Apr 28, 2009)

ive never had a problem with my cricket keeper, but then again I dont have anything small enough to need small crickets.


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## Nic B-C (Dec 4, 2008)

Big plastic tub and pair of cheap tights from pound shop as a lid buy in 100s from livefooddirect pour in with the egg cartoons and away you go


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## lungz (Dec 30, 2009)

I have no major troubles from my large cricket keeper and but had regular esacape parties from my small. In my experiance the escapees from the large keepers seem to be "overspill" from the bottom of tubes when they're removed. They manage to cling to the lid un noticed and either squeeze through the gaps later or escape through the flaps when your back is turned. 

I found a getting cat helped deal with the escapees


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## awh (Aug 20, 2008)

kricket keepers i have two of them full of bits a bobs

to keep crickets in them someone is having a laugh they should be call kricket escape boxes when i got them i kept crickets in them and had many escapee's how do i know well i hand feed all my reptiles 
now keep them in deep rubs no escapee's since


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## *Liil-Roo* (Oct 15, 2009)

_*We had a cricket keeper & it was useless!!!!

(this is when i wasnt used to crickets)

I went up to give spike his rocket one morning when my Boyfriend went to work and oh look guess whats sitting ontop of the viv staring at me!!!!

I shit myself & got the hoover quick & found about 20 of them that escaped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!
*_


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## Mikeysm (Sep 26, 2009)

I have the smallest size and the largest size cricket keepers and havnt had one single escapee yet.

You lot must be doing something wrong :whistling2:

:lol2:


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## Geckogirl_88 (Apr 24, 2009)

the best cricket tub I ever had i got in a rep shop. It wasn't marketed as a "Cricket Keeper" and didnt have the tubes like they usually do. It was just like a really small faunarium with the little door in the lid. 
The only escapees happened when I bought micro crickets for my baby leos and they managed to fit through the ventilation gaps in the lid lol
xx


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## tanyarussell (Apr 9, 2009)

XFile said:


> Just discovered these bloody things are next to useless - of course we discovered the hard way...
> 
> Bought one of these yesterday with a tub of small crickets for our little leopard gecko... stuck the crickets into the fridge to make them docile and then poured them into the Kricket Keeper after about 5 minutes...
> 
> ...



i keep my kricket keeper inside another box with a pair of tights stretched over the top. Job done, no more escapees


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