Dieing Crikets

[Andy Baker]

Help! I havent bought crikets in a long time. The last three times i've bought them, they died the next day. I keep them in a little plastic container with about 100 air holes in it. Usually they all start jumping like crazy at about midnight, and then are all dead by the next morning. Whats going on? I feed them oat meal or other cereal flakes. Could this be killing them? I usually put in a few wet flakes for the thisty criket. Could that be killing them?

It could be temperature related. How cold does it get at night?

[Andy Baker]

Not cold at all. Its a total mystery.
Actually it does get pretty hot, due to heaters. I have to sleep with the windows open in the winter. Hmmmm.

Is there moisture condensing on the inside of the container or the lid?

Ed

[Andy Baker]

Yes. I think it does at some point. Now that I think about it, they do seem to die when i put in a wet flake or two of oatmeal or other cereal.

You crickets are dieing from dehydration and possibly lack of good food. You can't just assume that they eat, you have to see it. However, I found food that has water and vitamins in it, and better then the fact they are getting what they need, they also eat this stuff like crazy as soon as it is dropped in.
Flukers Cricket orange cubes i think is the name of it. Locally, only petsmart carries it. The best part is that the crickets are loaded with vitamins when you feed them to the newts.

Jeff,
If there is moisture condensing on the inside of the container the crickets are not dyeing from lack of food or water. It is more likely that they are suffocating from too much moisture.
It amazes me that people are willing to spend a lot of money for what is in effect polyacrylimide gel when oranges are a lot cheaper and peform the same function.

Ed

I agree Ed. I have always fed my crickets either dog or cat food (or tropical fish flakes) and as a water source I generally alternate between sliced apples, oranges, and dark,leafy greens. I have always considered cricket diets to be in the same category (of useless herp supplies) as carnivore spray and the like.
Chip

For small crickets, in my area the experts recomend a ripped off leaf of
lettice. That keeps my alive for a couple of weeks. You can also see that they're eating it because of the holes in it.