Cricket Virus and breeding

[mangopixie]

I had just started to breed my crickets with a dish of soil in their enclosure for them to lay eggs in, and then I realized I had the virus.
Will the babies that hatch already have the virus?

 

[OrionMyChameleon]

What virus?

 

[Vegas Chad]

If they come into contact with anything that has the virus on it they will be infected. its not something they are born with. AFAIK

 

[mangopixie]

What virus?

Oh it's horrible they are flipping over on their backs, unable to move until they die at alarming rates!

I think it's called the Cricket Paralysis Virus

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Wow that's a worse way to die than some wild crickets... they can have these parasites that eat them alive, only leaving the major functioning organs until the parasite grows to adult, then the parasite somehow controls the cricket's brain to drown itself, and it eats the rest of it, then lays and dies.

 

[mangopixie]

If they come into contact with anything that has the virus on it they will be infected. its not something they are born with. AFAIK

Thanks, I wasn't sure if the virus somehow could get into the eggs or not. But I'm thinking the soil itself will have the virus on it so it's probably not worth it to hatch them out

 

[mangopixie]

Wow that's a worse way to die than some wild crickets... they can have these parasites that eat them alive, only leaving the major functioning organs until the parasite grows to adult, then the parasite somehow controls the cricket's brain to drown itself, and it eats the rest of it, then lays and dies.

OMG that sounds horrible!

 

[BocaJan]

Be sure to notify the place you get your adult crickets. Dispose of your sick crickets and make sure none escape to contaminate anything outside. Many cricket farms lost their entire businesses and had to totally sterilize their buildings or just decided to go out of business. It is a tough disease. I know Ghanns in the east is finally breeding their own crickets again after almost a year of fighting this nasty business.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Ya.. wonder how it controls the brain though. Sounds like something a terrorist would research and send to a large group of humans.

 

[Ekaj13]

The last 2 shipments of crix I have received have both died off within two days. Extremely frustrating when I used to be able to feed them off for 3 weeks with very little mortality.

 

[mangopixie]

Yes I am definitely going to let the petstore know about it tomorrow!

 

[splinter]

Were you able to breed the crickets? I tried with a little bit of sand in the bottom of the cricket holder with two females and one male cause I don't want a lot of babies, but so far I have not see any eggs.

 

[jdog1027]

Yes I am definitely going to let the petstore know about it tomorrow!

I would go ahead and just see if they hatch and survive or not. If they do great, but if not, you'll at least know without a shadow of a doubt that it was the virus. Not that I'm saying that you misdiagnosed them, but you said the key word, 'Petstore', and most I've had to deal with are notoriously awful at keeping healthy crickets. You could have just gotten a half starved batch of crickets. But nonetheless, I would go ahead and just let them hatch out. If they drop dead suddenly then you'll know. I'd hate for you to throw out a couple hundred or thousand eggs for nothing!

 

[mangopixie]

jdog that is an excellent point. I'm not like a cricket vet or anything so I could be wrong I guess it could be a number of things and if the babies are healthy than that would be awesome! If not I'm going to be frustrated though because these dead crickets are super icky! I'm also worried about contaminating new crickets that come in. I would need to bleach everything that comes into contact with the crickets right? I might as well wait until I know for sure its the virus before I deal with that.
The OTHER petstore gave me healthy crickets, now I know why they were more expensive lol!

Splinter, I wouldn't say I'm successful yet as they haven't hatched, but I definitely have seen a lot of females laying eggs. Make sure the sand is moist and mist the enclosure regularly. I don't think they will lay if the sand is dry. I actually found eggs at the bottom of their water dish recently!