Why are my crickets dying???

Question

Out of 5 dozen,about 3 dzn have died. I have been Gut loading them and feeding them monkey biscuit. They also have fresh water. (They ARE NOT drowning in the water.)What am I doing wrong? They just keep dying.

How long is a cricket's lifespan?

Answer 1

Adult crickets (ones big enough to chirp) will only hold out for about a week or two. You shouldn't buy more crickets than your reps can eat in a week.

They have water cubes and commercial cricket diets available at petsmart, try using those instead of monkey biscuit and water. Also, you're not dusting them right away, are you? Only dust them as you're putting them into a cage to be eaten; crickets breathe mainly through their skin, so if you dust them and then return them to their container, they'll die.

Lastly, is there something on the bottom of the container? Leaving them on bare plastic seems to cause them to die faster. Use aspen shaving or the cardboard egg crate they are normally packaged with to cover the bottom of the container, and change it out every week to prevent them from becoming diseased. Personally I've always had the best luck with crickets using aspen shavings on the floor, and the orange feed cubes and water cubes from Petsmart. Oh, and keep them in a dark, cool place, like a closet.

Answer 2

I'm not sure how long crickets live, but I am curious about the water. Is it just a dish of water? I know that some insects won't drink from large bodies of water and instead like to suck the water off of materials such as cotton or tissue. There are little things called water pillows you can get. Crickets love them! I can't think of any other reason your crickets might be dying. Are you cleaning the cage out regularly?

Answer 3

Crickets are meant to live long to begin with. I use something called "Cricket Bites" that gives them enough water and the nutrients they need to live until they get eaten by my reptiles. Crickets are killers & are carnivorous (well not fully fully, but they do eat eachother, so technically omnivorious),but If not provided enough room and space to crawl around, they will kill each other and even pick and eat at the corpses. Try using egg carton for them to climb on if no terrarium objects are present. Good Luck!!

Answer 4

I have bred crickets for years. 3 simple rules to keep healthy crickets...

1. Food
2. Water
3 Elevation!

Egg cartons, paper towel rolls, anything that they can climb on. It makes it easier for them to breathe. Also if you are keeping them in a plastic container you can get some steel wool and score the sides about halfway up. They should be able to climb the sides if you do that.

Answer 5

Life span is 3-4 weeks. Cooler temperatures also keep them alive longer. I have discovered they seem bothered by both heat and humidity. I moved my sons bug house downstairs this past summer.

Occasionally we have run into a bad batch were they died no matter what we did. They could have had less then ideal conditions before getting to the petstore.

Answer 6

It depends how old they are when you got them. They only live about a month total, so when you buy them, ask how old they are. Sometimes they are even sold by age (2 weeks, 3 weeks etc.). Make sure they are not getting to hot or cold. That will kill them right away. Keep them inside if you are not, usually that is the problem.

Answer 7

the crickets need protein in order to stay alive so cut a potato in 1/2 (uncooked) and put it in the cage they should start staying alive. MAKE SURE THEY EAT IT!! oh yea dont give hem tap water give them bottled.tap water gets them sick.

glad to help w/ luv,
Emily

Answer 8

ok here is what u do cut a potato in hafe to give them moister and a ball up wet paper towel too .

Answer 9

they live a little time

Answer 10

if to hot they die or if you don't clean cage regularly.