Cleaning out cricket housing for bulk cricket buys

[Lol999]

Hi all, just took delivery of 500 standard/large black crickets to try and save a few bob. I've got them in a 35l plastic storage box with holes drilled in the lid. Thing is, how often do you clean them out and do you change their tank at all, i.e. move them to a clean one say once a week? i lifted the lid tonight and they stink like old soap. i cleaned the dead ones out today and most of the bran they came with but bearing in mind they must crap, do they need a clean out if I'm going to be keeping them for a few weeks?

Cheers, Lol

[speedy123]

with mine i clean them out once every other day, just get a brush and get rid of all the poo and few dead ones.

i have a food and water bowl i leave in for 2 days and they all seem fine.

if its in your house you will need to keep it clean because they make a big stink! mine is in the garage so they dont need cleaning as often.

put moss in the corner and keep it damp, i got mine of the roof and they laid there eggs in it, so that will save you a bit more money

[Lol999]

Yeah I've got them in the outhouse, no way will the wife have them in the house, and I can't blame her they stink like old soap! I do the maintenance bit then I'll just give the tank a good blasting when they've all gone. definitely cheaper than buying a tub at a time though!

Cheers, Lol

[speedy123]

yeh it is, put the moss in though because i left mine and little crickets appeared so they must of hatched out, keep in the really big crickets because they will probably be breeding, keep about 3 females and a male. you can tell its a female because it has 3 spikes on the back the middle one being black.

even if they dont breed at least they survive long enough to be fed and they have a better life like you said then in a plastic tub.

[tombraider]

Originally Posted by speedy123

you can tell its a female because it has 3 spikes on the back the middle one being black.
.

Ah thanks for that bit of info, i want to try breed some pin head but didnt know the sex of the crickets

[purejurrasic]

I get them in 1000's and to be honest, they are used with in a week, so only clean them out if the seem to be getting a bit stinky !

[DeanThorpe]

If i get a thousand they are divided into 3 containers, clean them fairly regularly, or at the least take out a tube, shake all crix off, bin it and replace [with all of them one at a time] and ofcourse keep veg fresh and bran topped up, but atleast once a week a full clean out and dissinfect.

Just get a big carrier bag with no holes in it and shake all the crix in there, grab whats left [usually takes longer than the rest combined]
clean and then put new tubes in and fresh food etc and put them back.

The hardest part fo rme is getting them from that poxy fabric bag thingy to the tubs, as the egg cartons they come with are toooooo damn big to put straight in the containers, and the amount of shit in there to begin with...eeeew.
I just shake the shit out of the cartons from within the bag [closed] and take them out one at a time leaving just all the loose crix plus a hole loada crap and scoop them up by hand and sort them into containers that i have ready open [and tube filled plus food and veg] as i go.

I got in a right mess the first umteen times i tried this but have it sussed now lol...nightmare...the horror i felt first time i realised my "bulk" crix werent gona come conveniently packaged....