Having Cricket Issues - Anyone else?

DragonLady

DragonLady

New Member
I order my crickets in bulk from a well known cricket supplier. I order 5,000 (three different sizes) the week before last, and had to completely clean, change and sterilize everything in the bins and the bins themselves every two days, and they were still dying left and right. E-mailed the company and they did send me a replacement shipment, but now the replacement shipment is doing the same thing. They assured me that there was nothing wrong with their cricket stock and told me I was the only customer that was having this problem. I got the replacement shipment in Thursday afternoon, and again, had to completely redo everything yesterday with at least 1/4 of the 4,000 of one size dead. Today, another 1/4 of the 4,000 dead and I cleaned everything yesterday. Since the company has already replaced one shipment, I'm not going to bother with it again, but it is going to get expensive replacing 5,000 crickets every week.

Anyone else having a cricket dying problem? Thanks.
 
Was the supplier on the West Coast? My supplier has been wiped out by what they assume is a virus and is importing and reselling from another farm now. What he told me is that many if not all of the west coast farms are having the same problem. Crickets hit the 3-4 week old mark and become paralyzed before dieing. Google "cricket paralysis virus" and you'll see something similar happened in Europe with the cricket species commercially available now in the U.S. Apparently the farms there still can't reproduce Acheta domesticus because of it. It's really, REALLY frightening to think what would happen, at least temporarily, if all the cricket farms in the US were decimated by something like that.
 
Its a bit of a stretch but..... could USPS or the courier be shipping them through a facility that has been recently sprayed for some kind of infestation???
 
Kent,

What you talking about... is what I think happened at Mulberry Farms, am I correct?

Literally the same day I decided to order in bulk I went to their site, went to place my order - page reloaded, BAM - crickets suspended.

Local pet stores don't seem to be having much of a supply problem, and as for survival rate... I buy about 90 at a time to last about 2 weeks.... over those two weeks about 10 will die. Its not a great survival rate with more than 10% dieing... but then again they are crickets..... I don't expect much.

Im not the biggest fan of Pet Store feeders.... for some reasons I get the vibes their supply chain is parasite infested ( just a thought, not stated as fact or libel ). But when I ordered 500 in bulk from another seller.... It was too much to handle for the first time... and 200 died and another 100 escaped.... to die to the drive way hose. :p
 
another stretch

DragonLady said:
I order my crickets in bulk from a well known cricket supplier. I order 5,000 (three different sizes) the week before last, and had to completely clean, change and sterilize everything in the bins and the bins themselves every two days, and they were still dying left and right. E-mailed the company and they did send me a replacement shipment, but now the replacement shipment is doing the same thing. They assured me that there was nothing wrong with their cricket stock and told me I was the only customer that was having this problem. I got the replacement shipment in Thursday afternoon, and again, had to completely redo everything yesterday with at least 1/4 of the 4,000 of one size dead. Today, another 1/4 of the 4,000 dead and I cleaned everything yesterday. Since the company has already replaced one shipment, I'm not going to bother with it again, but it is going to get expensive replacing 5,000 crickets every week.

Anyone else having a cricket dying problem? Thanks.
Click to expand...
have you ever noticed any threadlike excretions? gordian worms is a cricket parasite that sometimes cause paralysis and then death of the cricket. http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/horsehairworm.shtml i know, its a bit of a stretch too
 
That's about the size of the 4,000 quantity I ordered - 3/8" - and this is the size that it is affecting the most. And yes, when I have been cleaning them, I find dozens that seem to be "paralyzed." They can only partially twitch their legs, but can't properly move. These were also ordered from a sponsor, but again, they assured me they were not having any problems with their stock and I was the only person experiencing this issue. I believe this supplier is located in Georgia. I've ordered some silkworms, silkworm pods, and phoenix worms to try to supplement. I truly hope things turn around soon.

And the question was raised that they may be exposed to somthing when FedEx is transporting them.
 
I have seen this in a michigan supplier that also supplies a sponsor they told me it was the weather than that the crickets might of been too close to the exhaust of the UPS vehicle.
 
SpinyFranky said:
Kent,

What you talking about... is what I think happened at Mulberry Farms, am I correct?
Click to expand...

Brian decided to stop selling because of this iaaue... I am not sure that he had the issue..... From what he was telling me. (Brian owns mulberry farms).

All of the wesst coast guys are wiped out. :(

And what Kent was saying about this spreading through the entire country...... could be very very bad for all us herp people.

Brian did tell me in the UK there is a cricket that is immune that is similar to the brown crickets we get now. I don't know much about crickets species.... Kent, any ideas?
 
Thanks, Kevin. I wasn't sure I should say it but my supplier did tell me everyone on the west coast has been wiped out by it. They can hatch their old eggs but they can't get any to live long enough to reproduce. He did say that they'd be able to import a new species of cricket, I think he said from China....that would replace A. domesticus as our main species here. But...how long will/could that take?
 
Kent67 said:
Thanks, Kevin. I wasn't sure I should say it but my supplier did tell me everyone on the west coast has been wiped out by it. They can hatch their old eggs but they can't get any to live long enough to reproduce. He did say that they'd be able to import a new species of cricket, I think he said from China....that would replace A. domesticus as our main species here. But...how long will/could that take?
Click to expand...

Brian told me there is another type of cricket that is darker in color.. black? He said they are more aggressive though.... I am sure if whatever this species is were used, we'd hear a lot of 'i found my cham has bites' or 'my cham is bleeding....' :rolleyes::mad:

I really do hope they figure it out. I get my crickets from rainbow and the people they get them from... well the large crickets don't seem to do very well.... not sure if it is because they are in the box for too long with no fresh air or if these bugs are sick. I do have high die off rates though :(
 
We get as well as many other vendor get our crickets from this Georgia sponsor and have no problems. We get about 30k every 10 days or so with a wide size range and have not had a problem. Now with that being said I have been keeping an eye on all of the crickets that we order trying to spot it should we a batch with them. As a result of this problem I know lots of roach breeders that are going into overdrive, I have herd the same things from worm breeders too. As much to my dismay I think it is not a matter of if... But when it will make its way everywhere else.
 
Im in Texas do you know if armgstrong was hit by this. They are located in louisiana. I used to order from them, and was thinking that was who i would order from.
 
i picked up a box from underground reptiles and my box only had 395 crix maybe 20 dead....a serious undercount. this was on sat and i cant do anything about it till monday....
 
Reeves Cricket Ranch in Washington State sent me 2,000 last week, and Reeves said they have no problems with the virus. Perhaps because they are a local out-of-the-way cricket farm.:D

Nick

Their web page shows expired.....
 
summoner12 said:
Brian told me there is another type of cricket that is darker in color.. black? He said they are more aggressive though.... I am sure if whatever this species is were used, we'd hear a lot of 'i found my cham has bites' or 'my cham is bleeding....' :rolleyes::mad:(
Click to expand...

I believe the cricket species your talking about is what i breed, gryllus bimaculatus or the african field cricket. They are more aggresive as you already stated. They are also a tad bit bigger than the acheta domestica. Care is identical to the house cricket and i use them as the only source of a feeder, coming from the cricket section of the insect world (i also use hoppers, mealworms, silkies, flies and the occasional mantis.). I have no problems with using them instead of the house cricket, provided you stay a little careful when leaving them in with the chams.
 
I've heard things are getting for the cricket breeders first hit with this. And I've heard the cricket supplier up in Washington is using air purifiers in the cricket rooms to combat the virus.
 
nick barta said:
Reeves Cricket Ranch in Washington State sent me 2,000 last week, and Reeves said they have no problems with the virus. Perhaps because they are a local out-of-the-way cricket farm.:D

Nick

Their web page shows expired.....
Click to expand...

If he doesn't have the virus it's because he isn't sharing with other people who may have been infected..... I think the reason for cross contamination is breeders sharing their colonies to mix the gene pool.
 
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