omg, they stink!

[Psychobunny]

Healthy, live cricks should not stink!!
Only dead crickets stink.

Make sure 2 buy only the virus free cricks, they do not smell bad at all.

 

[bradley]

The best thig to do is keep them in something with as much ventilation as possible. When one cricket dies it lets out gas as it decomposes which kills the others if they are kept in small spaces with little ventilation.

I keep mine in a plastic box with ost of the lid with mesh. It has a bare bottom and has just two egg cartons in it. I keep around 100 adults in it at a time and feed about three times a week. Once a week i wash the container out and disinfect the box and mne never smell.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Healthy, live cricks should not stink!!
Only dead crickets stink.

Myabe my sense of smell is different than yours. ALL crickets stink to me. Even fresh crickets freshly added to a fresh new clean container. I just dont like the way they smell, ever.

But the stink isnt too overwhelming if you keep them in a well ventilated clean container.

dont forget to change out the egg carton frequently too

 

[Psychobunny]

LOL! I guess your right, I actually cant smell them at all when they r a new batch

 

[sandrachameleon]

LOL! I guess your right, I actually cant smell them at all when they r a new batch

neither can my husband. must be different for each person.
consider yourself in the lucky group LOL

I may have a freakishly good sense of smell. I can smell metal. I cant stand to touch metal door handles because of the stink of the metal transfers to my hand. My husband believes I am insane in this regard.

 

[Baldy]

crickets

So I use to raise them by the 1,000s one is they need good clean water and food they will start eating each other and stink if not you can use a chicken lay mash for the dry feed and either crystals or chicken water with paper towles in the base to keep them from drowning try this an see

 

[Elizadolots]

Here's a picture of my cricket bin:

Note the ventilation holes all around as well as on top. I think that's key to good ventilation.

Many people (including me) are allergic to cricket poop and that's going to be interpreted as "they stink".

Faith, if your ventilation is good, you might try tossing a bit of hay (like you'd feed a bunny or a guinea pig). I tossed some into mine to see if they'd eat it (they do) and found it really helped with the smell.

 

[JonRich]

i went B.dubias and never looked back!!

 

[jaredg87]

they are stinky little bugs. I clean out the cricket cage once a week so they don't smell. I keep them in my living room so its a must there is ZERO smell cause it would be embarrassing to have company over.
I just get a wet rag and rub the cage clean moving there food plates and knocking them off the cardboard so I can remove it all.

 

[Carlton]

really? they die faster with other dead ones in? okay.. thanks for letting me know.. im getting tongs tomorrow anyways.. so itll be easier for me to pick out the dead ones..

and my house temps are around 77-79.. so its not too cold or warm.. its not humid either..

and yes i know that the rolls are good too.

Definitely keep the dead ones cleaned out. Increase the bin ventilation. Crix like it drier anyway. There are some crix populations that are still being affected by the virus that wiped out whole breeding colonies over the past year or so. Sometimes you do get a batch that just doesn't survive very long. Possibly they were stressed in shipping or not fed very well before you got them. And, I'm sure they do have little crix diseases that spread throughout the group. Somewhere I heard that depending on the brand of TP or paper towel rolls, the glues can contain some arsenic or cyanide compounds. I use cardboard egg crates instead. Seemed to help with survival (or possibly the fumes are affecting my memory).

If you buy them as juveniles and raise them on your own good gutloads they tend to survive better than crix bought as adults unless your source really takes good care of them. Most pet shops hardly feed their crix because they don't plan on keeping them very long. Also, remember, juveniles don't chirp!

 

[Carlton]

Here's a picture of my cricket bin:

Note the ventilation holes all around as well as on top. I think that's key to good ventilation.

Many people (including me) are allergic to cricket poop and that's going to be interpreted as "they stink".

Faith, if your ventilation is good, you might try tossing a bit of hay (like you'd feed a bunny or a guinea pig). I tossed some into mine to see if they'd eat it (they do) and found it really helped with the smell.

Yes, good tip. I used alfalfa hay for rabbits. Smelled great!

 

[sandrachameleon]

and its a good gutload too

 

[MollyT]

I may have a freakishly good sense of smell. I can smell metal. I cant stand to touch metal door handles because of the stink of the metal transfers to my hand. My husband believes I am insane in this regard.

O.M.G...Me too!! I am almost fanatical about that metal smell when it gets on my hand! I have to wash it or put some kind of lotion on immediately. My husband thinks I am a weirdo! haha But I don't think my crickets smell. Of course, the most I've had is around 60, so maybe that's why. I plan on ordering them in bulk here pretty soon, so I may be eating my words then!

 

[Elizadolots]

It's off topic, but I would wonder if Sandra and Molly have allergies to metal. That's something that is hard to recognize. I just really feel that your body warns you away from things that it recognizes as a problem.

And, while scenting metal falls out of the normal human range, there are a lot of variations on that (ask any woman who's ever been pregnant!) and it's obvious that metals have a smell. We're just not good enough to smell it all. That's why we need to use dogs to find stuff.

On topic, we always use 2 hays for our guinea pigs, so both go into the cricket bin now. Currently it's Alfalfa and Timothy, but often we can't get Timothy so we use Orchard. Alfalfa seems easy to get all the time.

 

[MollyT]

It's off topic, but I would wonder if Sandra and Molly have allergies to metal. That's something that is hard to recognize. I just really feel that your body warns you away from things that it recognizes as a problem.

And, while scenting metal falls out of the normal human range, there are a lot of variations on that (ask any woman who's ever been pregnant!) and it's obvious that metals have a smell. We're just not good enough to smell it all. That's why we need to use dogs to find stuff.

On topic, we always use 2 hays for our guinea pigs, so both go into the cricket bin now. Currently it's Alfalfa and Timothy, but often we can't get Timothy so we use Orchard. Alfalfa seems easy to get all the time.

That is really interesting and I had never considered that. I can barely touch a penny bc of how I know it is going to make my hands smell. I have never understood why it never really bothered anyone else but me. The smell is so strong and pungeant, it does remind me of the way that smells overpower you when you are pregnany. It is very similar to that.

 

[Elizadolots]

I'm very allergic to flowers. My husband will say "oh, those smell so nice" as we go on our walks....I think "ach, they stink!".

Hence my theory that your body can reject things that are bad for you.

 

[asongforyou]

neither can my husband. must be different for each person.
consider yourself in the lucky group LOL

I may have a freakishly good sense of smell. I can smell metal. I cant stand to touch metal door handles because of the stink of the metal transfers to my hand. My husband believes I am insane in this regard.

Me too! and coins! I hate touching them because of the smell.

 

[TheLivingLegend]

Anyone else have a problem with their crickets stinking?! I can't put them anywhere else besides my room, because they chirp, and get on my familys nerves.. I can't put them in the garage because of ants. But my gosh, they stink!! Not to mention, I feel like I live outside every night because of their chirping. Haha help on crickets stench?

I read that when a cricket dies its body releases a gas that is deadly to other crickets. Ive noticed the smell will linger a bit until you rinse out your cricket hotel.

 

[bootsiemonroe]

No Stinking Crikets

I had the same problem, and made my own cricket keeper by using a plastic bin, cutting a hole in both ends, and putting an old computer fan in one end. This puts a breeze through the enclosure, that gives them air. Then you have to clean once a day. I have No Smell, and very little deaths. I am able to keep up to 1000 crickets for weeks until Yoshi eats them all, YUM YUM!! Here are some pics of mine.

 

[redline]

I had the same problem, and made my own cricket keeper by using a plastic bin, cutting a hole in both ends, and putting an old computer fan in one end. This puts a breeze through the enclosure, that gives them air. Then you have to clean once a day. I have No Smell, and very little deaths. I am able to keep up to 1000 crickets for weeks until Yoshi eats them all, YUM YUM!! Here are some pics of mine.

Hahaha. As a tech.. You just hit my spot with that computer fan. Nice idea and reading on Dubia not legal here in FL. Plus the idea of a Roach in the house dosent set on my wife head. Thanks