how to clean the cricket container?

[stepho]

Alright guys. I have some questions about cleaning out the cricket container. Currently I have them in a large empty pretzel container with some cardboard for them to hide in. How do you clean out the container to keep it from smelling?

Do you just get enough crickets so that you use them up before it starts smelling?

 

[Zubi]

No they will ALWAYS SMELL. What do you mean by pretzel container?

 

[stepho]

Holds around 1.5 gallons. It comes full of pretzels.

 

[Zubi]

How many crickets do you plan on keeping, I just use two rubbermaid containers, and when i want to clean them i put the live crickets in the clean container, and just spray down the dirty one with a hose. That way it is really easy to separate the live and the dead ones without losing any

 

[Panthergirl11]

When i clean my crickets i dump all the crickets into a different container then clean out all the poop and stuff and spray it down with a green cleaning product and wash it all out. But with that pretzel container you could just throw it in the dishwasher lol.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Multiple things can help. Some cricket breeders will pop in free dermestid beetles (eat the dead crickets) and there's a plant some people use in their containers that help the smell. I'd have to find the videos again to tell you what.

 

[Branman]

I usually clean mine with alcohol-water. It helps to eliminate bacteria and the BAD smell.

 

[bradley]

I have been cleaning my cricket container once or twice a week. I give dry food mainly which produces dry droppings mostly but when I give veg a few times a week the droppings are wet. these smell so i tend to clean them out the day after feeding veg.

 

[Rottsko]

i clean my bin usually 2-3 times a week. my cham room doesn't smell at all. i went out and bought a wide drywall spackle. i shake the egg cartons in cricket bin i'm cleaning, take out all the egg cartons and food bowl. then i just scrape everything to the middle of the bin and scoop it up w/ my drywall spackle and throw it out. then i just put the egg cartons back. don't need to dump crix or wash or do any of that. i have 3 bins for different sizes too. here's a link to what my crix and dubia bins looks like...

https://www.chameleonforums.com/insect-keeper-85239/

 

[hpc1979]

Cricket container

You can also do what I do. I have two seperate containers. I order a 1000 crickets at a time. I put the first 1000 crickets in the 1st container until they get low in supply, then i reorder the next set of 1000. Since there will be some overlap, I put the next set of 1000 in the second container. I use up the first 1000, then when they are all gone, I then wash out the first container. Its a pretty easy process. Does keep the smell down.

 

[Garrett]

Most of the smell comes from dead crickets and\or a bacteria slurry of moisture and droppings at the bottom. If you keep the container as dry as possible it will cut down the smell and bacteria growth considerably. I use a 75W spot bulb over the container with lots of ventilation. Also remove any uneaten food daily.

 

[Adam Harrelson]

10% bleach and 90% water