House Crickets...

[Ginevive]

I have a bit of a problem with crickets in my house. I got my B. dragon a few weeks ago, and I feed him crickets every day. So I keep the bunch of crickets in a spare tank with food, etc. Well, I am apparently not the world's greatest cricket pourer, because whenever I pour them from their tank into the dragon's, a few undoubtedly attach to my sleeve or hop out, and escape.
This morning my cat was going NUTS about something. He was chasing a cursed little cricket around! The cricket escaped the cat and ended up somewhere under one of my fish tank stands, and he'll probably set up a nice cricket house, complete with bedrooms, miniature TVs and the whole works.
from time to time, I fond crix climbing around on curtains or skittering across the floor. I guess they're not as bad as roaches or ants though!
Anyone else live in a cricket house?

[BallPythonBabe448]

I do, I am a clutz any ways, and the crickets would ALWAYS escape when I feed my Leopard Gecko, and I stopped feeding crickets like 2 weeks ago (and switched to mealworms because they are a lot less of a hassle) and I STILL see them runnning aroundmy floors, in the toilets, on my bed, etc. They drive me INSANE!!!!!!!! but luckkilly the mealworms wont escape!

[freakoverdose1]

i use the cricket keeper with the black tubes sticking out of the top. The crickets hide in the black tubes and you jsut pull them out and tap on them and they fall out into wherever you need them. It worked perfect for me and got rid of my cricket problem.

[First_time_herp]

I once had an anole, we tried to feed him the crickets and every single one got out! Till the day we moved we still found crickets every now and then.

[Marla]

I love my cricket keeper too, just like Justin. The biggest problem I have is when I get a deli cup of crickets in the mail and have to get them into the cricket keeper, but I started doing that outside after opening a box to find a deli cup with a long gash down one side and crickets jumping all over. Better to lose crickets to the yard than to have them all over the house. I don't so much mind a loose cricket in the house, but I really don't like bugs jumping or walking on me in the dark, so I'd rather not have 'em loose in there.

[mlededee]

yeah i got a box of 500 crickets at the last show i went to and silly me opened the box inside thinking that i would just lift out the egg crates and place them nicely in the cricket container and everything would be just dandy. needless to say it was a flurry of little bodies flying every which way. i got my kitty, who loves to catch loose crickets, and let her have at it. the kitchen was a cricket massacre area for about a week. good times.

oh, and bpbabe--about those mealies not escaping--my sister once accidentally knocked over her mealworm container in her room when we were younger and still living at home. zillions of microscopic worms and eggs nestled deep down into the plush carpet where the vacuum couldn't get to them. we found mealies crawling out of her room for years. :shock:

[Schlyne]

Eewww, mealies in the carpet.

Yeah, I put my cricket keeper and the mealies into a empty plastic clothes bin (which I remind myself I cannot use for herps..cause then I'll just have to buy a new plastic container for PSG, and I can't have that. PSG being pagan spirit gathering..camping out in the woods in a tent for a week). The plastic bin has a lid which is propped open..and then a clothes bag goes on top of that. Somehow nebula got into the bin when it was just proped open an inch. So if crickets or mealies escape, they should be at least semi contained in the bin... Also, this way the crickets should get enough airflow, and I won't come home to discover Nebula has gotten into the keeper and freed all the crickets..so she can eat them.

I like the idea of filling the cricket keeper outside. The last thing I want is crickets roaming around in my apartment upsetting my neighbors... resulting in my landlord coming out and spraying or getting an exterminator.

[chong_python]

Funny you mentioned that,
About 3 weeks ago i bought 150 crickets. HUGGE crickets at that, they were for my full grown female bearded dragon. Any way long story short i must of ripped the bag getting out of the car -- walking into the house, im still not 100 % on why there was a hole in the bag. any way, i layed the bag down for a minute, went to get some siccors to cut the bag open, and there were none left in the bag,
they were all ( 150 of them ) we floating around my room, and eventually found all over the house ( in the sinks, chesterfield, in my BED, eveeeerywhere. ) I was a good week to 2 weeks finding theese MONSTER crickets everywhere. I coudnt sleep... it was crazy, it still gives me the chills.

Chris

[Brandon.O]

I dont really mind bugs, mice creep me out WAY more, but i couldent deal with crickets in my bed, thats just to wierd.

mlededee's story about the meal worms...........oh...that is some scary mess. LOL

[mlededee]

hee hee, well it did come in handy a few times when we had lizards escape their cages and whatnot. they always ended up in my sister's room--gotta go where the food is ya know. i think if our rooms hadn't been in the basement though, my mom probably would have had to tear out all the carpet to get rid of the crawlies.