Cricket Containment

[Chadbot]

Hi Forum-ers,

I am having a problem I'm sure many of you are familiar with: Cricket escapes. I live in a small apartment, so this issue is a big one for me. I realize that escapes of feeders are inevitable, but I'm seeing 2-3 per day wandering the baseboards. I have a plastic tote-bin with metal mesh-screen in the lid and the bottom for air circulation which is superglued in place (with excessive glue) and taped as a double-up. I also have packing tape all around the interior of the bin so the crickets slip off when they try to climb, and inspect the bin for holes/gaps daily yet still they escape somehow! I don't even take the lid off to collect them, I have a secured flap on top that I use to gather them up when it's time to feed my cham. I keep careful count of the numbers eaten by my cham, and use a cup-feeder so they definitely aren't escaping that way either.

I have 2 questions really:

1) How do you prevent escapes of crickets and what is your escape-rate?

2) Is there any way one of you has found to attract crickets that DO escape to one place so they don't scatter around your domicile? What I mean is, do you know of anything that is absolutely irresistible to them so they will remain somewhere? I'm tempted to rent a storage locker in my building and keep them there, but I feel like it might generate some complaints from the neighbourfolk.

-Chad

 

[laurie]

I have the cricket escape problem under control. I heat light about 14" about the floor with an industrial glue trap under it. They always come to the heat. If you use the industrial glue traps be extremely careful, if it touched the trap it is stuck for good. Only a hospital can get it off you, and I am told it is painful.

 

[Dave]

I use those little Sticky insect papers around the house. They do a good job of catching stray insects for removal, including crickets.

 

[Beachbabies]

i used this have this prob big time! i have a 10 y/o and a 4 y/o that try really hard to help care for the animals, but in the prosess we ended up with more crickets loose in the house than in the cham cages. the last straw was when one of them bit my 4y/o while asleep in her bed! since then we waged war on the chirping bastards! glue traps work well, but were a problem for us with kids running around, so we started using plastic bottles with a little bit of molassas in it, it's contained, the crix are attracted to the sweet smell and the shelter of the bottle, they go in, get stuck, and don't come out. then every few weeks throw it away. in the mean time, switch to roaches, they're awesome!

 

[moviemanmania]

Hi Forum-ers,

I am having a problem I'm sure many of you are familiar with: Cricket escapes. I live in a small apartment, so this issue is a big one for me. I realize that escapes of feeders are inevitable, but I'm seeing 2-3 per day wandering the baseboards. I have a plastic tote-bin with metal mesh-screen in the lid and the bottom for air circulation which is superglued in place (with excessive glue) and taped as a double-up. I also have packing tape all around the interior of the bin so the crickets slip off when they try to climb, and inspect the bin for holes/gaps daily yet still they escape somehow! I don't even take the lid off to collect them, I have a secured flap on top that I use to gather them up when it's time to feed my cham. I keep careful count of the numbers eaten by my cham, and use a cup-feeder so they definitely aren't escaping that way either.

I have 2 questions really:

1) How do you prevent escapes of crickets and what is your escape-rate?

2) Is there any way one of you has found to attract crickets that DO escape to one place so they don't scatter around your domicile? What I mean is, do you know of anything that is absolutely irresistible to them so they will remain somewhere? I'm tempted to rent a storage locker in my building and keep them there, but I feel like it might generate some complaints from the neighbourfolk.

-Chad

I bet your escapees are getting out of your cup that your feeding from. Placing clear packaging tape on the inside walls of your feeding cup and around the inside walls of the cricket bin will prevent them from climbing out. But the tape walls will have to be cleaned regularly as when I dust the Crix in the cup the dust residue on the walls allow them to sometimes crawl up. Also, I've seen my panthers crawl into the upper half of the cup to eat and when they were in there Crix would jump on their bodies and climb out.

As others said, putting a source of heat or water in one place on the floor will attract the stray Crix.

 

[Chadbot]

I don't think they're getting out of the cup as I stand and watch my cham eat everything I give to him (I count the tongue shots). However, I have doubled up on the packing tape inside the cricket bin, re-sealed the lid, and just for good measure re-glued all the screens today. Additionally, have deployed the molasses-bottle trick. Hopefully that fixes my problem as I don't want to have to start breeding dubias in an apartment building (they're illegal to import and sell/trade in ontario).