Crickets and roaches together?

[meaganelise9]

I know. Sounds kinky. So this may be a dumb question: Can little roaches and crickets be kept in the same enclosure, or should I get a new one? What's a good container for roaches? Back story: everyone is out of crickets after the holiday, so yesterday I bought a few roaches. On the whole, they weren't a popular change for the kiddos, so I have a feeling they may last a while. For right now, I had to stick them in the cricket keeper. Hopefully I don't have a hard time getting them out of the tube..

 

[ismart]

I would not put them together. Crickets are omnivores. They may eat your roaches!

 

[Psychobunny]

+1

I have had a few molting mantids eaten by cricks, so there is no reason to think they

would not do the same with roaches.

I put mine in one of those large plastic Tupperware storage bins with a heating pad

under it (because they are in a cold basement) at 90F.

This seems to be the magic temp for them to breed.

Need lots of egg cartons for them to hid and feel secure and I give them plain ground up

roach chow and water gel cubes plus a piece of apple or pear.

P.S. I just ordered 500 cricks from Premium Crickets, so they do have them in stock.

 

[meaganelise9]

Duly noted. Thanks, folks.

 

[jcal]

crickets are nasty creatures. i believe they cannibalize almost as much as mantis. I would always open the container to find one nibbling on another.

 

[gripen]

crickets are nasty creatures. i believe they cannibalize almost as much as mantis. I would always open the container to find one nibbling on another.

yeah me two. it gets really annoying after a while!

 

[jcal]

yeah me two. it gets really annoying after a while!

i don’t mind bugs eating other bugs. but there is just something unsettling about bugs cannibalizing. For some reason I don’t get the same reaction with mantis though. I guess I am immune now!

 

[gripen]

it is annoying monetarily speaking!

 

[meaganelise9]

I had more of a problem with that at first, though I find that if there isn't excess crowding and if there is plenty of food, I don't see them injuring each other as much. Like when I get crix from Petsmart versus the local reptile shop, they're always starving when I get them home, overcrowded, some dead... I was rather disgusted with crickets at first, but I've kinda gotten used to them. The dubias are a first for me though, and I have to say I'm still uneasy about having them around and paranoid about having escapees. My neighbors would be none too pleased!

 

[happy1892]

It is strange that I have kept about 15 crickets in a plastic container most of the time with my mantids to keep them from eating each other. It did not work for two male Chinese Mantis nymphs but it worked for my adult Asian Grass Mantids. And I have never had a problem. I still usually keep one cricket in a container with a mantis. Even though if the mantis stops eating. A few days ago I saw a cricket eating the molt of one of my mantids that just molted.

 

[hibiscusmile]

ditto and of course!

 

[Orin]

I kept crickets and hissers together for years in a mixed habitat. The cockroach body is pretty well protected by a rounded shape and the legs are held underneath during the molt.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yeah, I've done this too. A good way to greatly reduce the incidence of crickets attacking their tank mates is to make sure that they get a good supply of dead animal prorein, like cat or dog food, in addition to their greens, and of course, roaches like animal protein, too.

 

[patrickfraser]

My roaches did a great job of cleaning the wishbones from the holiday turkeys.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Some people keep crickets and dermestid beetles together. The beetles eat the dead crickets.

 

[gripen]

all be darned! i wonder if you could add spring tails as well...

 

[Psychobunny]

My roaches did a great job of cleaning the wishbones from the holiday turkeys.

LOL!! that's funny.

I never would of thought of doing that.

I do grind up cat or dog food (dry, of course) and they like that.

I mix it with my usual cricket chow and put a little bee pollen in it as well (which they absolutly LOVE!!)

Now, if only I could figure out how to keep fly pupae alive more then 2 weeks!!!

 

[jcal]

Some people keep crickets and dermestid beetles together. The beetles eat the dead crickets.

Most of the time I buy crickets I get a few of those. cricket breeders love those beetles