I have been thinking about a bottom screen for the cricket tub. It would not add ventilation, so the normal top or side screens would be needed. It would be aluminum to prevent chewing. It would be fairly normal sized, which I guess means no baby crix allowed.
The idea is that this bottom screened tub would sit in a pan, or another tub, and the frass would drop through, to be disposed of more regularly with less interference to the colony.
Anyone heard of something like this? tried something like this? Thought, theories, opinions?
Not something you even want to try, their frass sticks to the screening and will annoy you because it builds up.
This is the best way to keep crickets, always keep them clean, cleaner the better! Crickets can get dirty FAST!!!
Keeping them in a large steep plastic tub with the sides and lid cut out with screens hot glued from the inside is the best way to do it.
Stacking 8 egg crates with a piece of cardboard in between each crate and zip tying it all together is a great way to keep things organized.
I'm assuming these crickets are just for mantids? So I am suggesting to only feed them bee pollen powder with clean filtered water for hydrating them.
Put some powdered bee pollen in a shallow container lid.
Get a cricket water'er from ghann.com. These are the best source of water for your crickets to have.
Stick a red night light, 60 watt bulb inside of the giant bin and duct tape it so it stays inside without touching the egg crates.
This will keep the bin very nice and warm, 90-93 degrees is ideal for crickets, so long as you provide them water and food, more importantly water.
When I clean my cricket bins, I first remove the food and water source.
I take the egg crate bundle and tap the crud out of it, tons of crickets will be jumping out of it, along with a lot of nasty frass.
Get a clean bin, place it right beside the other bin.
I take the egg crate bundle and put it into a new empty plastic tub/bin.
The other crickets that are left behind in the bin are easy to get out.
Take the bin, and position it so it is almost 1/4 way inside of the new clean bin.
Prop it up against a wall or table so you don't have to hold it yourself.
The bin should be facing downwards, enough so the crickets are tempted to jump down into the new area, and so their sheds and frass and other stuff don't fall in.
Let them be for an hour. When you return all of them will be in their new, cleaner home.
I do this about once a week.
However, there will be daily maintenance.
Get something similar to a credit card, but bigger. A very thin and very hard plastic piece of anything will suffice.
Scrap all of the frass on the floor of the bin and get it in a pile, simply remove that.
Keeping crickets clean isn't fun, but it is easy and quick once you get the hang of it.
If you don't keep your cricket bins extra clean, your crickets will end up stinking and they will end up becoming a bad feeder for your pets simply because of their health.
