What to do if the cricket suppliers fail due to the virus

Todnedo

Todnedo

Avid Member
I think now is a good time to start finding alterative feeders to replace crickets.
Grasshoppers would be a great choice if they would breed year round.
Most species only have one brood a year.
Green stripe grasshoppers are said to be cultured year round but they grow very slowly.
 
Try getting them to eat alternative insects. We started Stanley on crickets, but also bought a colony of roaches to breed and feed. He also gets various worms. Varying their diet is a good thing in my opinion even when crickets are readily available. That way when something like a cricket virus happens, you can find alternatives more easily.
 
We have been thinking the same thing. As a result we have started to take our roach breeding much more seriously growing our Dubia and Hisser colonies as large as we are able allocating them much more time and space. We have also been feeding out many more superworms than we used to because they are able to last longer. Our main concern though is what to feed baby chameleons if the crickets die off. . . I can give house flies a good gutloading however dusting and transferring them is a pain.
 
Vegas Chad said:
We have been thinking the same thing. As a result we have started to take our roach breeding much more seriously growing our Dubia and Hisser colonies as large as we are able allocating them much more time and space. We have also been feeding out many more superworms than we used to because they are able to last longer. Our main concern though is what to feed baby chameleons if the crickets die off. . . I can give house flies a good gutloading however dusting and transferring them is a pain.
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Yeah chad thats what I am getting at, crickets are a valuable feeder for breeders. They start out small for most baby chams, they are cheap and easy to breed yourself. Unlike roaches they breed in mass so it's easy to produce alot of small feeders for babies.
 
rendos said:
Try getting them to eat alternative insects. We started Stanley on crickets, but also bought a colony of roaches to breed and feed. He also gets various worms. Varying their diet is a good thing in my opinion even when crickets are readily available. That way when something like a cricket virus happens, you can find alternatives more easily.
Click to expand...

Offering a varied diet is always a good idea and is not a new concept. However some chameleons don’t eat roaches or worms and prefer crickets. Also, it’s not so much of a big deal for people who only have a small # of animals, what about all the larger breeders who order 100k crickets a month? Are roaches or wax worms going to solve our problem? I think not.
 
I thought that i read the virus only effects one type of cricket. How about mantids as an alternative for crickets? They have a huge size range. Though i havent ever messed with them so don't know how easy they are to breed and or how fast they grow.

Gpmo (him)
 
Todnedo said:
Yeah chad thats what I am getting at, crickets are a valuable feeder for breeders. They start out small for most baby chams, they are cheap and easy to breed yourself. Unlike roaches they breed in mass so it's easy to produce alot of small feeders for babies.
Click to expand...

Exactly... I dont know, I have been trying to come up with ways to make feeding HF easier but that usually ends up with tons of flies buzzing around our reptile areas... Maybe black crickets? Whatever it ends up being the bug farmers have to adapt to them, its’ a large enough market that I like to think that somebody will find a good replacement or answer.
 
I've been using the same cricket bins for years now so say hypothetically, I get a box of virus free crickets and dump them into my existing tubs. Is the virus present in my existing bins? I'm very diligent about feeding and cleaning my bugs and bins on a daily basis but I'm certainly not sterilizing things here. Are we as keepers exacerbating the situation?
 
I am sure that you are right about someone figuring it out. The market is large in the states. I am only feeding six at the moment and i have a local guy that breeds his own crix. He doesn't get any feeders in from outside so i am hoping he will miss getting hit by the virus. I still am amazed at the amount of feeders you guys require 100k a month is massive.

Gpmo (him)
 
If you are going to increase your roach colonies and try locusts...why not just breed crickets? If you start off with healthy ones, it should work. No saying that variety still isn't good, but why give up on a perfectly good feeder?
 
If you have had infected crickets in your / our tubs then they are infected. I have the same concern… I can get large crickets but are my tubs infected? If I place crickets over ½” into them then they would start to die off as a result of the new infection (or so I have been told). Also I guess that a good scrub is not good enough you have to start over and get rid of everything that the virus may have come into contact. From what I have herd the farmers that are trying to restart are TOTALLY starting over even going so far as to get rid of old cloths, shoes, tools, supplies, ECT…
 
I am actively trying to breed crickets. Now I am trying on a very small scale to see if I can get them going. I have the space but the time and the smell are what kills me. i have a really good dubia & superworm groups going so if it comes down to it my kids may not have a option. I even feed my baby quads very tiny supers and dubias. I am just trying to keep the bases covered. Anr I only feed an average of 20 chams. This it really scary for people with a large collection.
 
If you are talking about anything they came into contact with, thats alot of stuff to replace for a breeder. Has there been anything from UK or EU about the cricket populations returning?
 
Todnedo said:
If it's airborn no amount of scrubing is going to work.
Click to expand...

Even if it is airborne, contact still applies. Generally viruses can live on surfaces for a long time. Not all viruses are eradicated by the same cleaners/chemicals. For the most part, viruses are rather weak out side of the host, but not always. Depending on the incubation time, crickets that are infected may not be symptomatic for days to weeks. In the meantime, they have now infected and exponential amount of others.
 
Todnedo, you seem to have the grasshopper's under control. From a thread you posted a while back it seemed you had a million grasshoppers breeding. Everyone else needs to learn how to breed those things like you!
 
about what to use instead of small crickets for baby/small chameleons...

I find baby roaches (baby turkistans are smaller and better liked than dubia and hissers), baby silkworms, baby mealworms, baby indian walking sticks, small terrestrial isopods, and of course fruit flies are very well received. All of these can be raised in quantity and year round.
Aphids are not a favourite, but they'll eat these also.
 
I am starting to try growing crickets. Had one batch of pins and then failed with the second batch. It is easier to feed my larger chams because of the variety of things they will eat but its the babies that are hard - and the brevs. My adults are eating a variety of things but their poops vary with the various feeders. I keep watch to make sure they don't become impacted but sometimes they get a little loose with the silkies.

It's like having a room full of human babies! ACKK I order about 25-30K of crickets a month and am hurting for sure.
 
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