cricket enclosures?

[boutiquegecko]

Alright, well except for I think 2 of my leos liking worms, everyone else is nuts for crickets. So though I don't like them with the noise and smell, it looks like I'll be buying in bulk. Those of you who do, what do you keep them in? I was thinking about some type of mesh/screen enclosure instead of a 10 gal to help with air circulation and smell. I don't even want to go to crickets, but I've tried almost every worm out there and am at the end of my rope. They'll eat the worms, but not with cricket gusto, and they seem to do so much better with the crickets-weight and health wise to me.

 

[gothra]

Why not try roaches? There are types that don't climb walls and don't fly. I have both dubia and discoids, they really are not that scary compare to crickets!

 

[acpart]

How many crickets do you have at once? I keep mine in one of those Hagen plastic critter keeper type things (12"x8"x7") with the colored ventilated tops. I get 100 every week since most of mine thankfully eat mealworms.

Aliza

 

[Jeremy Letkey]

I keep my crickets in 72 quart (I think) serilite totes. I cut the tops out and replace with screen. Then add paper towel tubes, egg crate, food and water. I keep about 4,000 in each and I have 3 of them. Maybe tomorrow I'll snap a pic of the tubs.

 

[Grinning Geckos]

Heehee...you neglect to mention where they're kept!

I say up with roaches, down with crickets. If you can get past the creepy factor they're awesome. You just need a good dose of patience to get your colony started. They hardly smell at all, and live for a very long time. So far, I've had more than 90% success rate with feeding roaches to my geckos. I don't plan to EVER buy another cricket if I can help it.

Kudos to you for going with what your geckos want, and not what's convenient.

 

[boutiquegecko]

Well, I thought briefly of the roaches that don't climb, but here in Fl I'm so afraid to get them. They get out......we had a hard enough time getting rid of the palmetos when we bought our new house grrrr. But I keep the feeders in the garage, so maybe.
What are the ones that don't crawl out and do they move fast enough to catch a leos attention? How do you keep/feed them? I might try getting a small amount just to see if they like them. How do they do with heat? Garage stays about 80-85 in summer.
As for the crickets, we used that critter keeper for a bit, when we got only a few dozen at a time, but any more than that and they got to overcrouded. The bins sound good, just need to make a screen to fit. The noise drives me crazy though. I've been known to get up at 2am and go fish out the one making noise from a leo bin to toss it outside. This was all before I switched back to worms.

 

[Grinning Geckos]

Hummmm, if I remember correctly, Florida has some fairly strict regulations on roaches. I would look into that before trying them.

As for the crickets, I would try to feed them off before their final molt...that way they don't make noise!

 

[boutiquegecko]

Not allowed to get lobsters, but they climb anyhow, right. I have to check on the others. Are there any other Floridians who feed roaches here? Dan?

 

[herpencounter]

I live in Florida and have roaches, but I got them from a friend that had them (I cant remember where he got them). If you live in Florida you can’t buy them or sell them, and people from other states can’t sell to Florida (That is what I heard last so I could be wrong).

As for crickets I get 3000 a week for my baby bearded dragons, and I keep them in a 58 Qt (17 1/4" /17" /12") with egg cartons, and that does good.

 

[herpencounter]

Oh! If you don’t like the noise of crickets at night get a size smaller then that, and just feed them more (You may have to pay a bit more for food for them but you don’t have the noise).

 

[gko reptiles]

There is a great invention out there for this sort of problem!!; Take a HUGE sterelite container (probably 2 1/2 - 3 feet tall x 3 feet wide x 1.5 feet across) and scratch the inside down with coarse sand paper from the bottom of the walls till about 5 inches from the top. NO TOP NEEDED! You can also put egg crates and such in there to give them more room just be careful that the crates don't get too high or they can jump out. This is a beautiful invention because you don't need the top at all, the crickets still can't get out, and there's plenty of air circulating around in there! What happens is, the crickets can get up the sides (giving them plenty of room/not too hot) but they still can't jump out! Crickets can only jump UP; therefore if they're sideways, like on a wall, they jump "up from the wall" which is actually "sideways" when they're on the wall...

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Make sense? Hope this helped!

Oh yeah, this fits about 2500 - 3000 crickets

 

[boutiquegecko]

Ok, after some research no roaches allowed so far. So, what's the best place you guys found so far for crickets ordered?