# Crickets making ghosts sick?



## albedoa (Oct 29, 2008)

I had to switch my main food for my sub-adult and adult mantids from flies and moths to crickets about a month ago because summer is over here in Massachusetts, and I used to just catch the former outside. Now I buy the baby crickets from a local pet store.

One of my mantids began violently pooping soon afterwards. The other two were fine, so I assumed it was a bad cricket. Yesterday I woke up and found that my adult female pooped all over the place. Today, she is dead.

Is it safe to assume it's the change of diet? I don't know how to raise house flies or blue bottles, so I would have to keep buying them. Do people breed them? Is it easy?


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## sidewinder (Oct 29, 2008)

I used to use crickets to feed mantids, spiders, lizards, and chameleons. One incident caused me to use crickets for spiders and a few lizards, but not for my mantids or chameleons. Basically, in the course of a few days, I lost three adult mantids and a Jackson's Chameleon to bad crickets. I never found out what was "bad" about them. I switched to roaches which are much cleaner insects than crickets and never experienced another problem with food related deaths.

Scott


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## cloud jaguar (Oct 29, 2008)

Scott, you buy roaches or breed them? I am considering trying that but it just seems too creepy to have roaches anywhere near my house.

~Arkanis


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## sidewinder (Oct 29, 2008)

Arkanis,

This was many years ago. We established a culture and bred them. But I think we started out buying them. Someone else was tasked with that job.

I haven't bought roaches lately so maybe someone else could chime in with a good place to get them for someone in California. I think you will want your own culture since they seem expensive to buy compared to crickets.

Here is a place:

http://www.doubleds.org/roaches.html

Scott


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## Rick (Oct 29, 2008)

It is best to get crickets from a reputable breeder, not at your local petstore. When you get your crickets feed them a healthy diet of cat or dog food, leafy greens, etc. I put mine on a substrate of plain dry oatmeal with a small gravel filled dish with water. What you describe has happened to me as well but don't let it make you refrain from using crickets as they are fine as a food item. Many people are going to post in here about how you should not feed crickets because they will kill your mantis. I use 90% cricket diet for all mantids and very rarely have issues. I care for my crickets well and that is probably the difference.


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## LittleBro859 (Oct 29, 2008)

Exactly what Rick said.

Most pet stores simple mass produce crickets with little care as to where they're going. The workers there don't take enough care of the environment that the crickets live in. From there mold begins to grow in the cricket enclosure and the crickets will soon get that in there system, along with other unsanitary things. That then transfers to your mantis.

Basically crickets are good if you can get them from a good source. Personally i'm starting to raise my own, feeding them healthy and cleaning regularly.. No problems yet and my mantis is on an almost pure cricket diet right now for the winter with no side effects. (Careful with ooth's heard crickets will gnaw at them)


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## vafan13 (Oct 30, 2008)

Can the negative effects be significantly reduced if the pet store bought crickets are given a clean and healthy diet for a week or two before feeding to the mantids? I would also figure that because I buy the smallest ones they would have spent the least amount of time in the store before I get them.

I use Cricket Chop from Mantis Place as the main food, throwing in some fresh salad greens and a fresh slice of orange every few days. I also periodically mix some of the Yen's Blend powder with a bit of orange juice (just squeeze a little out from the orange slice before I put it in the cricket cage). This makes a paste that I then put on the end of a long toothpick and feed to the mantids. I used to do the whole "put the cricket in a bag with the Yen's and shake it around before feeding" but I found this to be a much better method. Plus they get the orange nutrients that they wouldn't get from Yen's alone.


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## Rick (Oct 30, 2008)

23yroldkid said:


> Can the negative effects be significantly reduced if the pet store bought crickets are given a clean and healthy diet for a week or two before feeding to the mantids? I would also figure that because I buy the smallest ones they would have spent the least amount of time in the store before I get them.I use Cricket Chop from Mantis Place as the main food, throwing in some fresh salad greens and a fresh slice of orange every few days. I also periodically mix some of the Yen's Blend powder with a bit of orange juice (just squeeze a little out from the orange slice before I put it in the cricket cage). This makes a paste that I then put on the end of a long toothpick and feed to the mantids. I used to do the whole "put the cricket in a bag with the Yen's and shake it around before feeding" but I found this to be a much better method. Plus they get the orange nutrients that they wouldn't get from Yen's alone.


Probably.


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## Headspace (Nov 13, 2008)

It's not that crickets are bad, it's that crickets sometimes eat bad food, and are able to live in an environment that you could politely describe as "putrid".

If you end up having to buy crickets from the pet store, keep them in a clean enclosure with clean food for a couple of days before you use them as feed. This will allow them to gut load on clean food and divest themselves of large concentrations of bacteria. I've never had a problem with crickets, probably because I don't let the crickets live in their own filth.


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## shorty (Nov 24, 2008)

Rick said:


> It is best to get crickets from a reputable breeder, not at your local petstore. When you get your crickets feed them a healthy diet of cat or dog food, leafy greens, etc. I put mine on a substrate of plain dry oatmeal with a small gravel filled dish with water. What you describe has happened to me as well but don't let it make you refrain from using crickets as they are fine as a food item. Many people are going to post in here about how you should not feed crickets because they will kill your mantis. I use 90% cricket diet for all mantids and very rarely have issues. I care for my crickets well and that is probably the difference.


What's the purpose of the oatmeal, just a substrate?


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## revmdn (Nov 30, 2008)

Rick, do you breed your own crickets? If not, who would you recomend to buy from?


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