Interesting Find in the Cricket Bin

So, I was catching crickets in my cricket bin for Beetlejuice, my chameleon, to eat.. and I discovered this abomination.

Oh yeah.. he's very alive too. :twisted:

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...sscricket2.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...esscricket.JPG

He looks like something out of Half-Life :shock:

:o That is some scary stuff right there.

I wonder how long they can live like that.I know roaches last a long time.

What the heck? That thing's gonna give me nightmares... crickets are creepy enough when they have all their body parts, let alone zombie crickets!

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Originally Posted by invadertoast

What the p00? That thing's gonna give me nightmares... crickets are creepy enough when they have all their body parts, let alone zombie crickets!

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lol,its just a crick with an amputated head!

I didn't feed him to Beetlejuice, so we'll have to see how long he lasts.

I wonder if that little black nub is his brainstem. :twisted:

I saw a chicken on 'Ripleys Believe it or not' who was going to be used for dinner, they chopped off the head but the chicken was still alive, there was a nerve or somthing that didnt get severed.The chicken was even trying to peck at the ground to feed, i think it died the next few days.Either due to infection or no food.

Yeah.. that's the first thing I thought of when I found that thing.

There was another incidence of that where the rooster lived months.. maybe even a year or two. It traveled around the country in sideshows and other things. The thing's name was mike or something..

I remembered right.. it was Mike.

http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/headless_chicken/

Ok so I checked in on the sucker this morning. He's still alive. The kicker is, he was standing right next to... a cricket head!

I didn't check to see if that was alive too..

run!!! the zombie crickets are comin!

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He looks like something out of Half-Life

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HEAD CRABS! I thought the same thing heh.

oh not the chickens! what is the world coming to?

Mike's running for President, too. :)
http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/

I like Mike, but zombie crickets I can do without! :shock:

lol! a headless chicken runnin the U.S.... Now i can beleive that!

Well ladies and gentlemen.. I fed the headless zombie cricket to Pog, my salamander. A sad end to an.... interesting life.

:wink:

Wow, what a frightening cricket.
Reminds me of my horrible experience with mealworms. Whenever I grab a bunch out of the petstore's feeder bin, I always end up grabbing the ones whose insides are all eaten away (or are these merely cast-off skins? I will have to look this up.) Then I go to feed them to my frogs, and this gross, nasty shell is all I grab, and I am revolted. I hate mealworms with a burning passion. :(

How do they feed the headless chicken, anyway? Through IV?

ew!!! i hate bugs..... even crickets creep me out. :? just like Lindsay said, the things gona give ME nightmares too...

Mealworms don't bother me at all. Their shed skins are very thin and brittle, almost transparent, but dead ones are eaten by other mealies and they leave a harder, thicker skin behind. Not very charming.

Superworm beetles are disgusting though. They're big, and smelly. I fed one to my tarantula the other day, he kept trying to pierce it with his fangs.. finally.... *CRUNCH*

MMMMh mealworm fondue and cricket crepes.

Sadly though crickets refuse to live longer than a few days in my care.

Yeah, I've had to mess with my cricket setup a lot. I'm at the point now where I finally have a water source that they can't drown in, can't lay their eggs in, and doesn't have to be refilled every ten minutes due to evaporation. But still, the stupid things won't breed. I think I just need more mature crickets..

I gave mine everything they need - on a variety of substrates, decent temps and humidity, food, drownproof drinking source - but never will any of them last more than a few days before just becoming part of the lil kritter keeper cricket carpet.

:cry:

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kritter keeper cricket carpet

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WOOHOO!

Say that fast ten times!

I wonder if you could you cut the head off a cricket and if it would live. Hmmmmmm...

Smulkin, I did a research project last year on the nutritional value of mealworms for people and actually discovered some recipies that use dried, ground mealworms mixed with flour to make tortillas, and other breads as well as a soup. It is being explored as a cheap way for underdevloped countries to get needed protien. It may be published, my professor is redoing it to refine some of the techniques, if he can do it and repliucate it he said he will consider submitting it for publishing, but that is beside the point. The point it there are actually recipies usung meal worms. Fun huh? I will add here that I did not actually try cooking aby of the food items. I lived in a dorm at the time and did not have access to the facilities. Even if I did. I am not really sure that I would eat it unless I really had to

i've eaten fried mealworms before... haha, i went to St. Louis or something, and at some bug thing they had a bag of fried Mealworms. they sorta taste like those Funions chips or whatever.. it's pretty nasty, i had one and that was it, because i knew i was eating a dead bug. :chew:

You said you used substrate for your crix? I never put anything on the bottom. Just paper towel tubes to crawl in.

I wondered the same thing about cutting a cricket's head off.. lol don't think I'll try it though.

I don't think I could ever bring myself to eat a bug.. though mealworms would be one of the least unappetizing.

Mealworms are slightly bitter & eggy.

K

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You said you used substrate for your crix? I never put anything on the bottom. Just paper towel tubes to crawl in.

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Everything possible.



I'll stick to my raw octopus, thanks.

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Originally Posted by KLG

Mealworms are slightly bitter & eggy.

K

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You people are nuts. :shock:

I'll hold almost any bug you want, but eat? No way.

My boyfriend ate a mealworm once... just to show up another friend that wouldn't do it, lol. Then, several months later, I made him come get mealies with me from Petco. There was a woman in line with us who asked what was in the cup, I told her they were mealworms and when she recoiled in fear, Daniel grinned and told her that he ate one once ;) yummy! lol Poor woman...

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but dead ones are eaten by other mealies and they leave a harder, thicker skin behind. Not very charming.

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That must be what I picked up.
For some reason, dead mealworms gross me out mroe than live ones. Live ones don't bother me, but the dead ones do. I know I am odd.

EDIT: here ya'll go; mealworm recipes!

http://www.socs.k12.in.us/schools/ov...web/toffee.htm

Don't you mean the U.S.A?

you fed your salamander to the evil cricket? GROSS!

Ginevive, I will admist that I did not put that one in woth my research. haha, i can't wait to use it for my squemishh friends on april 1st. The ones I had were more along the line of meal food, as opposted to exciting and exotic desserts and treats, but is only because of the subjuect matter of the experament.

I actually think that it's superworms I was thinking of, and talking about. They're about 2-3 inches long, is that a mealie or a super? :)

That site would def. be a good piece to go with your friends. You should make the recipe, feed it to them and not tell them what it really is until later! (How mature I am, lol.)

I plan to. I looked up all the stats to make sure the larvea are clean inside and out. I will raise my own and make some fabulous grub, hehe, in which all the courses have a common ingreditent. I will talk my friends that they have to try and guess the common ingredients. They will love the meal :hungry: , not be able to guess, then I will tell them. I cannot wait :twisted:

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make some fabulous grub

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"Grub..." hahaha!
Hopefully your friends will not ahte you after the factor.

They may not be happy, but if they don't know by now that I am sneeky that way then they really don't know me. They will get over it fast and laugh about it. Hahaha

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Originally Posted by BallPythonBabe448

you fed your salamander to the evil cricket? GROSS!

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No, silly. I fed the cricket TO the salamander. :p

And yes, the 2-3" worms are superworms. Those things can be creepy. They're too strong for being a worm. And the beetles are worse.

I have met my match with superworms. I always thought that no living creature could really gross me out, but now I found one. I was feeding Rust a few of those vile things last night; here's my method. I had them in a rubbermaid container but I did not want to touch them ( ! ) so I would flip a few onto a sheet of paper and then toss them into his tank. I hate picking them up because they swing their ugly little heads around like they'll bite you! When I dropped one, I actually shrieked like a little girl, something I haven't done since I watched one of those Halloween movies a few months ago.
A bunch of them were also walking backwards; is this some sorta defense mechanism?
I hope none of them turn into beetles. I will make my boyfriend deal with them. Seriously, I can deal with insects, but for some reason the superworms horrify me to no end. For live food, it's going to be just crickets for Rust from now on!

Superworms don't actually gross me out.. I just worry about them biting me. As long as you aren't squeezing it (just hold it loose in your hand) they don't bite, but if you hold it in your fingers, they will try. I just hold them right behind the head, then they can't do anything.

They walk backwards a lot.. helps them to burrow down. They always try to burrow.

You don't have to worry about them turning into beetles. You actually have to separate each worm into it's own little container (like a film canister) And leave it undisturbed for a couple weeks in a dark warm place. Then they turn into a pupae, at which point you could just get rid of them, or wait about a month for it to emerge as a beetle. So really, no worries.