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

[mlw50]

In regard to the issue of dealing with fruit flies, have any of you tried flightless fruit flies? There are many different types available that are a result of a single allele genetic mutation. Many research labs use them because they are so easy to deal with.

 

[Vegas Chad]

I dont know anybody who keeps anything other than flightless FF. Houseflies are the ones that are a pain.

 

[tkilgour]

I dont know anybody who keeps anything other than flightless FF. Houseflies are the ones that are a pain.

Chad one thing I found that helps is to cool the flies down in the fridge first. The cold makes them lethargic and easier to feed off w/o having escapees. It seemed to reduce the amount of loose flies for me any way.

 

[Vegas Chad]

Chad one thing I found that helps is to cool the flies down in the fridge first. The cold makes them lethargic and easier to feed off w/o having escapees. It seemed to reduce the amount of loose flies for me any way.

We do that too however we have alot of cages and it takes a while for us to make the rounds, going back and forth to the rater takes more time that the loose flies cost.

 

[Elizadolots]

Dropping in a bit of advice for the other people who need very few crickets so don't consider breeding them: find a clean source and stay with them. Odd as it will sound, my best source for the 30 crickets I need at a time is one particular Petco. Not all Petcos. I happened to need crickets and be short of time one day so instead of going home and loading the family into the car for a trip to the reptile store, I stopped at the Petco near my office.

And found virus free crickets. I bought 15 large and 15 small figuring I'd get to feed 5 or 6 of the large (I'm down to one chameleon) and hopefully feed all of the small. I lost 1 cricket over 2 weeks.

I went back and bought another load, just to see, and yes...the same thing happened.

This week I bought more, but I also commented about the fact their crickets were hanging in there and got the chance to see how they are kept.

They are constantly fed and watered (okay, it's Fluker's but really, they are in the business of cricket keeping not gut loading)they clean the bins out every few days (they have an extra bin so they can move all the small crickets to the clean bin, then clean out their bin and move all the large crickets to the newly cleaned bin).

Obviously, they have a clean source and they keep their crickets healthy.

Note that this Petco doesn't sell any reptiles. I asked and was told it was store policy.

I understand that this is unusual. What I'm suggesting for the "small needs" person is to shop around. Try the crickets at different stores to see which ones can last more than a couple of days. Try different stores from the same chain because they are not all the same.

 

[kinyonga]

Something that I just thought of too...if/since the virus doesn't hurt the chameleons, if you bought small quantities and didn't put them in your cricket keeper but just fed them off your cricket containers wouldn't get contaminated.

 

[tkilgour]

We do that too however we have alot of cages and it takes a while for us to make the rounds, going back and forth to the rater takes more time that the loose flies cost.

Yes, I get what your saying. I had the same issue, by the time I would get down one row of cages the flies would be buzzing all around the cups and as soon as I popped open the lid I'd lose flies. Which was so annoying!

So I added a fridge to the chameleon room. Here I keep the vegtables for gut loading and other miscellaneous chameleon stuff in it. Maybe a few beers too Anyway, I'll keep 8 cups of flies in there and I use a cup of flies for each row of cages. By the time I get down 1 row of cages the cup is gone, then I just reach in the fridge and get another cold cup of flies and a beer. and repeat the process. I started doing this because I was dealing with the same issue your talking off and it was so annyoing to have huge green and gold colored flies buzzing around everywhere.

Never the less, they are kind of a pain and so is the extra work but the chams love them. Which makes it all worth dealing with the flies, I guess.

 

[Todnedo]

Yes, I get what your saying. I had the same issue, by the time I would get down one row of cages the flies would be buzzing all around the cups and as soon as I popped open the lid I'd lose flies. Which was so annoying!

So I added a fridge to the chameleon room. Here I keep the vegtables for gut loading and other miscellaneous chameleon stuff in it. Maybe a few beers too Anyway, I'll keep 8 cups of flies in there and I use a cup of flies for each row of cages. By the time I get down 1 row of cages the cup is gone, then I just reach in the fridge and get another cold cup of flies and a beer. and repeat the process. I started doing this because I was dealing with the same issue your talking off and it was so annyoing to have huge green and gold colored flies buzzing around everywhere.

Never the less, they are kind of a pain and so is the extra work but the chams love them. Which makes it all worth dealing with the flies, I guess.

OK thread jackers take your buzzy fly stories to the cham food forum

 

[tkilgour]

OK thread jackers take your buzzy fly stories to the cham food forum

Lol, sorry Todnedo. Seriously though you make a great point about feeder alternatives to crickets.

 

[Todnedo]

The thing about crickets is they have a short life cycle and grow rapidly.
Flies would be a good alternative but culturing them is nasty to say the least.
Plus to raise chams with flies you would need to culture FF then HF and then BBF to get the sizes you need.

 

[tkilgour]

The thing about crickets is they have a short life cycle and grow rapidly.
Flies would be a good alternative but culturing them is nasty to say the least.
Plus to raise chams with flies you would need to culture FF then HF and then BBF to get the sizes you need.

Yep, agreed and that is a pain. To find another insect that works as efficiently as crickets will be quite the challenge. Not all my chams like dubias.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Turkistan roaches are about the same size as a cricket (babies are very small similar to 1-week crickets, adults are like 6-week crickets). they breed fast too. They dont climb.

they do RUN.

 

[mwebb]

Superworms

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.

Come on Todneto you Know supeworms are the best.