I disagree, mine love crickets. and they probably are fine with crickets, cricktes climb on plants and creobroter will be in contact with them
A pure cricket diet hasn't been proven to kill anything; they are quite nutritious. My thoughts are now on your cricket husbandry.
Absoluite statements, my friend, will get you every time. Check Superfreak's copy of the Prete book, last para on p.313 and over to the next page.
Yes, yes, and YES.Absoluite statements, my friend, will get you every time. Check Superfreak's copy of the Prete book, last para on p.313 and over to the next page. Since we are never sure of our charges' nutritional needs it is a sound practice to give them a variety of foods.
Young Alex, of course, is talking nonsense about crickets being generally available to ambush predators on flowers. Not just flower mantids, but even mantids like Asians and Giant Shields do very well on bees, and Tucker and I usually collect about 16 every morning. I have noticed that if I feed a couple of crickets at about 0900, they are often still alive and well when I check around noon, but a bee is frequently taken within seconds of being placed in the enclosure. This does not speak to one's nutritional value over the other, of course, but it does suggest that a variety of mantids have a predeliction for flying prey.
I know that you can obtain crix in Sidney, which must be particularly useful at this time of the year, but I do recommend that you eschew any store where you see crix exposed to mould and rampant nasties!
Blaming crickets isn't likely to result in a solution to the problem. The statement you quote is at best a guess.
At no time have I "blamed crickets." I do stand by my statement, though, that a variety of foods is always a good idea for any captive critter.
I agree. It can be hard to do however I do try to give variety. If I can't then I give a variety of foods to my feeders.
There are a myriad of insect species where your statement is absolutely wrong (remember your warning about absolute statements?). I'll give you two that are very popular: milkweed bugs and silkworms.
Am I wrong in saying that feeding a mantid nothing but crickets won't kill it? There's no sufficient evidence either way, so I guess it's a draw. I base my statement on the fact that Orthopterans (mantids, phasmids, crickets) are closely related to Blattodeans (cockroaches), which make very good feeders. I whole-heartedly agree with you when you say a variety of feeders is best. At no point did I say that crickets were superior feeders to anything else.Absoluite statements, my friend, will get you every time. Check Superfreak's copy of the Prete book, last para on p.313 and over to the next page. Since we are never sure of our charges' nutritional needs it is a sound practice to give them a variety of foods.
Young Alex, of course, is talking nonsense about crickets being generally available to ambush predators on flowers. Not just flower mantids, but even mantids like Asians and Giant Shields do very well on bees, and Tucker and I usually collect about 16 every morning. I have noticed that if I feed a couple of crickets at about 0900, they are often still alive and well when I check around noon, but a bee is frequently taken within seconds of being placed in the enclosure. This does not speak to one's nutritional value over the other, of course, but it does suggest that a variety of mantids have a predeliction for flying prey.
I know that you can obtain crix in Sidney, which must be particularly useful at this time of the year, but I do recommend that you eschew any store where you see crix exposed to mould and rampant nasties!
Congrats, Rick, on your flawless cricket feeding but you can't just stamp out this suspect in this case. Also, I implore you, give better reasons for your answers than "mine do and that means everyone else's does too."
Hi I`ve been away from pc, well crickets come from a breeder, the gemmatus are 7 month old and some are not even reaching adulthood, My theorie is temp vs age, what do you say?
