Collard Greens Killing Crickets??

Kat77

Kat77

New Member
I just got about 700 crickets yesterday afternoon. I threw some orange slices, a length of banana peel and a few leaves of collard greens in with them for gut load. This morning I woke up to many dead crickets. I figured they had had some sort of a cricket war, removed the dead bodies and added more peel, fresh orange slices and a few fresh pieces of collards as they had thoroughly munched everything down.

I got home from work to see many more dead crickets, some twitching, lying right next to the collards. What is going on!? They don't seem to be dying anywhere but right by the greens! I removed the greens, but now I'm a little concerned. Any ideas?
 
I thought that I had washed them pretty thoroughly! I've not had this problem before. Should I wash them WITH something in particular? Could it be something wrong with the greens themselves?
 
dead bugs

Every time I feed my crickets orange slices they die. I have read that you can feed them oranges but for some reason mine always die. I now feed them grated carrot, finely sliced potato, and romaine lettuce. Out of the last 10,000 crickets I have only had maybe 50 die on me.
 
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I have definitely never had crickets die from the orange slices. My last few rounds of crickets ate all of the things listed above with no troubles whatsoever. I don't think I had ONE single die off, actually, amongst the last group. Granted, i went through the last ones fast, but I already have about 50 dead this time.
 
Crickets eating orange slices...Beware!!

Hi everybody!
I hear long ago from cricket vendors never to use oranges to gut-load the crickets.....Causes massive diarrhea!!
Yeah, I sure learned a lesson when I ignored my cricket vendor as a beginner Chameleon owner and discovered yellow/orange diarrhea all over my the cricket bedding and food!! The crickets communally eat the contaminated greens..etc. and end result, a sick Chameleon from eating those unsanitary crickets.

Christine
 
I stick to dry cricket feed and water. Sometimes I will throw in some Carrots. I had very litle die off last batch of 1000.
 
I feed mine kale, sweet potato and carrot. I shred the potato and carrot with a potato peeler. No deaths and they eat it all. They don't like the Fluker gut load much. I don't use it any more.
 
I have fed my crickets everything listed above as well. In fact my chams really like the crickets after i give them oranges, don't go it very often, and don't have any problems. However, starting about 2-3 weeks ago i also started having massive dying off problems. I usually buy from the same place so that wasn't it, same container, same food, same everything and couldn't figure it out. 1000 cricket gone in 10 days. So i ordered from another place, same thing. I never figured out for sure what the problem is but my best guress is the heat. I started putting the container outside and the problem slowed down dramatically. The way i figured it the only thing that had changed was this crzy heat. We had a short heat wave awhile back as well and you got 1000 crickets in a plastic container without a whole lot of air vents. Anyway that is helped in my situation, i don't know if that is what your problem is but if that is it maybe you can split them up and put them in 2 containers or if you can put them outside or near a fan where they won't die off from heat. Hope that helps.

Debby
 
chrisandpugs said:
Hi everybody!
I hear long ago from cricket vendors never to use oranges to gut-load the crickets.....Causes massive diarrhea!!
Yeah, I sure learned a lesson when I ignored my cricket vendor as a beginner Chameleon owner and discovered yellow/orange diarrhea all over my the cricket bedding and food!! The crickets communally eat the contaminated greens..etc. and end result, a sick Chameleon from eating those unsanitary crickets.

Christine
Click to expand...

Hmm, I have been using orange slices in my cricket enclosures, at least once in a while, for more than five years without any problems. And one of the main things that the Kammers recommended to me as a gut load are orange slices. Maybe everyone has different problems, but I don't think it's the oranges for me, and I have never experienced cricket diarrhea.
I rotate out my fruits and veggies also, and feed a wide variety of things to my crickets. It does seem to be the greens, killing them, as I just put more in to see and there were about ten more dead before I took it out. Maybe high pesticide content in this particular batch of collards....
 
chamlover said:
I have fed my crickets everything listed above as well. In fact my chams really like the crickets after i give them oranges, don't go it very often, and don't have any problems. However, starting about 2-3 weeks ago i also started having massive dying off problems. I usually buy from the same place so that wasn't it, same container, same food, same everything and couldn't figure it out. 1000 cricket gone in 10 days. So i ordered from another place, same thing. I never figured out for sure what the problem is but my best guress is the heat. I started putting the container outside and the problem slowed down dramatically. The way i figured it the only thing that had changed was this crzy heat. We had a short heat wave awhile back as well and you got 1000 crickets in a plastic container without a whole lot of air vents. Anyway that is helped in my situation, i don't know if that is what your problem is but if that is it maybe you can split them up and put them in 2 containers or if you can put them outside or near a fan where they won't die off from heat. Hope that helps.

Debby
Click to expand...

Wow, 1000 in ten days! That is a drain on the pocket book! It isn't really hot here yet. So I don't think that could be it. I also don't think it's coincidental that they're all making their graves right next to the collard greens...hah.
 
I think the likely culprit would be some kind of pesticide residue left on the your greens. crickets like leafy green stuff so most farmer will use something good to keep them away. The levels left may not be toxic to humans but may still be enough to take care of any crickets.

Consider soaking your greens in freash water for a couple of hours before serving up din din for the crickets.

Hope that helps

OPI
 
That is a great idea! I haven't tried soaking them but I did scrub the heck out of them, with the same die offs later on. I went back to the store and bought some organic romaine. I will try soaking the greens, but I can't afford to lose many more crickets!

The major question in my mind, now, is will the circkets that consumed this stuff, but not enough to kill them, harm my little cham?
 
Ok another thing to consider is overcrowding. I have 3 buckets of crickets: 1 with 3/4" (started with 1000), 1 w 1/2" (started with 1000), and 1 I started to try to breed them (maybe 100) because i do go through so many. Now mind you they are in different sized containers going from large-med-sm and I feed them all the exact same thing and again in the last couple of days i have had a pretty large die-off in 2 of the 3 containers. The only 1 I didn't have ANY die-offs was the one that i started for breeders. What is the only thing different? There was very few in the breeder bucket. I went today and bought a very large container and am going to put larger vents in them to see if that makes a difference. I' ll let you know.

I also wash thoroughly all the vegies but have never soaked them, i will try that as well. All the more reasons to go to roaches. Still haven't lost any of them in 2 months and they are making babies and everything. Can;t wait till i have enough to feed off of them.

Debby
 
This is my cricket keeper with the lid off. The screen box is where I have a fan that draws are in from the opposite side of the container.

IMG_6881RS.jpg


This is the opposite side:

IMG_6880RS.jpg


The air seems to keep them cool and fresh..... If I keep the egg crate upright 1000 Crickets will last me almost a month.
 
Summoner is like Tim the tool man taylor :D

Those waterers are sold everywhere for crickets & if I remember correctly, it comes with some sort of lining you can place inside the red circle so the crickets don't drown.
 
mika said:
Summoner is like Tim the tool man taylor :D

Those waterers are sold everywhere for crickets & if I remember correctly, it comes with some sort of lining you can place inside the red circle so the crickets don't drown.
Click to expand...

LOL I loved watching Tim Allen on that show! hehe and thanks for the compliment;)

You can kinda make out the ring in the dish... Mine is for older/larger crickets so it is a plastic ring with holes. You can buy a water dish with a foam ring so you can water younger crickets. I got it at the Anaheim show from Rainbow Mealworms for like 3 bucks.
 
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