Shut these crickets up!

[fatedgod]

So, I'm a student and I live in a small apartment. I don't have a lot of space for animals, so all of my herp racks are in my room. Thats 5 snakes, some pet feeder anoles/house geckos, and Merlin the chameleon. Merlin's food also lives in my room which is fine except that the crickets are driving me crazy. Lately they have been chirping all damn day and night, I can't sleep. When they are in the holding tank it is fine because I can put that in my closet, but once they go into Merlin's tank I'm effed. Anyone have a trick they use to quiet the crickets?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Ha ha!
Perhaps you could feed only females. They don't make any noise.
Feed male crickets during times you won't be home.
You could also ditch the crickets altogether and get a nice colony of Blatta Lateralis started. They are comparable in size to crickets and a better feeder anyway. No smell No noise!

-Brad

 

[titan501x]

pinch the crickets at the knees on the back legs, or pull the legs completely off, then they won't make noise.

 

[Tygerr]

Cut their wings off... I know it sounds a bit cruel, but you were going to feed them to a chameleon anyway, right? Some people cut off their hind-legs to prevent injury to the cham's mouth...

If you do it with a nice sharp pair of scissors, it doesn't affect their health at all - they can go on with a normal, albeit quiet, life. And it probably doesn't help their mating chances, but that isn't really an issue either.

I don't do this very often, since it is rather time-consuming on a large batch of crickets.

The best solution is just to buy small crickets - only the adults chirp. It may mean your cham will eat more crickets because of their smaller size, but that's worth it for the silence...

 

[Marc10edora]

ummm... I know that they sell sound proof blankets at guitar center. I guess you can put up a curtain around your chams cage with the sound proof blanket. But they can be pretty expensive and it won't be totally sound proof. But it will definetely help.

 

[Jewel]

I use to have the same problem so now I buy 3/4" instead of 1" and not a sound from them, of course I need to feed him more of them but it is so worth it.

 

[Will Hayward]

As I understand it, the wings aren't nutritious and most difficult to digest, and therefor would benefit from being avoided in crickets that you feed. At 3/4" few of them will have developed wings. At 1" not only are they noisy, but they are passing their prime and will soon expire.

Consider roaches.

 

[fatedgod]

I would consider roaches but I have a mind numbing fear of them annnnnd my roommate would most likely move out if he found out. I try to diversify the worms I feed him so he gets ore than just meal worms and crickets, but roaches are going to be hard for me to deal with, mentally.

Also, thanks for the advice, I think I'm going to go with the 3/4" crickets! I am also looking for a good gut load recipe, anyone have one?

 

[ChameleonsTree]

I would suggest earplugs

 

[Vegas Chad]

I had and will soon have the same problem as you… Chameleons in the room and that damn chirp, chirp, chirp all day and all night! I did what has already been suggested, when I buy my crickets I put them into a plastic bag and pinch all the wings/legs off, takes care of the problem and with them inside the bag it only takes a few minutes if you only have the one Cham. Or… Silk worms (which are probably my fave food to feed) don’t make any noise, easy to care for and don’t scare the girlfriend.

 

[Laragail]

don’t make any noise, easy to care for and don’t scare the girlfriend.

or boyfriend

 

[boothy]

go with vutting there wings off i do it all the time because i had the same problem with them being in my room and them chirping so bad i couldnt sleep so now i just feed females or cut the males wings off so he cant rub them

 

[boothy]

sorry i meant cutting

 

[im faster]

i would say buy smaller crix.
i thinkt its better to feed a few smaller ones than one big one. but thats just me

 

[fatedgod]

I just culled all the males tonight, I was getting to the end of this batch anyway. I was going to put them up on toothpicks in the cricket tank as a reminder to the others, but then I remembered they are bugs so I went downstairs and fed my snakes instead

 

[titan501x]

I was going to put them up on toothpicks in the cricket tank as a reminder to the others, but then I remembered they are bugs so I went downstairs and fed my snakes instead

lol, real nice. hahahaha

 

[Jordan]

I got a plastic storage bin 16.5"x16.5"x20" from WalMart for about $6. I just drilled holes about 2" from the bottom all the way around and all along the top on the sides so air would flow through. You can kind of hear them chirping but not unless you are pretty close (say within 3'). Works good for me. Really I only keep on set of tore up egg crates on the bottom so they really can not jump out of it either.

 

[clay5769]

noise

teach them sign language.

 

[sebastianthechameleon]

For those of you who are reading this now... lol... crickets will only chirp at night. But they can be tricked out of that noisy mess. Take the crickets and lock them in a closet and turn the light on inside. Make sure there is ventilation. This way the crickets will not chirp as the believe it is day. Be careful as this may stress them out.

 

[medgecko]

Before I switched to dubias, my crickets chirped 24/7.