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I've had maybe two issues over the years involving crickets. Look at your cricket husbandry techniques and you will likely find your problem.

 
Rick,

I keep my cricks in a large tub with lots of egg cartons, I use Premium cricket chow and Repasey gel water stuff.

I give them potatoes and washed lettuse. They have a automatic waterer with a spong in it so they dont drown.

Their tub is on UTH regulated to 75F.

I keep their tub clean.

Now tell me, what is wrong with any of that!

I have had lots of mantids die on me for no apparent reason, but they do not go from healthy to dead and black

in a matter of hours.

This, with the brown vomit, black eyes, etc., indicates to me that they ingested something toxic to them!!

What do you see in my technique that would make my cricks toxic?

I have been keeping cricks for many years, back to the 70's when I had a reptile collection and the only problem

I ever had was that they stink!!!

 
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Precarious said:
I generally buy only 50 at a time from the local pet store at $.10 each. Way overpriced, I know, but they do tend to die off really fast. Probably because I keep groups in deli cups which isn't enough space. I don't like crickets but there is no viable replacement in my opinion. Roaches are too big for what I keep and a pain to maintain.

There are some species more susceptible to parasites carried by crickets, Orchids for instance. But that is a slow process. Your sudden deaths are not likely caused by crickets. At least I've never experienced that. I have had some vomit and die over weeks or months that others tell me was caused by crickets, but then I've also had that happen to some that never ate a cricket.

There is a lot of speculation but very little solid information.

What I can tell you for sure is that if by "shield" you mean "Rhombodra" dropping dead out of the blue is not uncommon. It happens.
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Yes, I'm sorry, I ment Rhombo's.

When you say, it happens, do you mean they can simply turn black and drop dead (dont forget the brown vomit)?

 
meaganelise9 said:
Aw.. I'm sorry to hear that, Stanley. That really sucks. Certainly good to know. I'm very fortunate to have a small, locally owned reptile store nearby that does a wonderful job of caring for their animals, invertebrates included. I quickly learned to buy from them over the big chain pet stores because their crickets aren't half dead and starving when I get them home. I should find out where he gets his.
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Thanks :)

I am not so lucky. The only pet store we have is Petstupid, and they are less then worthless.

They seldom have cricks. And their mealies are alway dried up and turning into beatles :\

I have no choice but to buy them online, and I have tried all the big breeders.

 
Newflvr said:
I go thru about 2 thousands crickets a month, I've found that 72-74 degrees has worked best for me. I feed them Idaho potatoes,fish flakes and use water crystals. Cleaning out shed skins, dead bodies and food waste is a must. I do have some die before being food but a small amount.
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I do the same.

I have my crick tub on a heater at 75F, which seems to work for them.

My dubia's will survive at 75F, but 90F is the magic number for them, they breed like crazy at that temp.

When I turn the temp down, they stop breeding. I can control the colony that way.

 
I dont heat my tub, when I got crics at grubco and ghanns and fluker, they all had die offs and weekly they would just drop dead, all sizes, these crickets do not die off, been purchasing them for about a year, In that time I have had maybe 2 or 3 just die, they are in my Bugatorium with the mantis and they do not smell, due to no die offs, the others I kept in my small feeder room, they always stank. So go head, buy your dead smelly ol cricks but save yourself the trouble and head ache, just send me the money instead.... :tt2:

 
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hibiscusmile said:
I buy mine from .... well u guys know, I find ghanns die fast sometimes, but a problem with a lot of crickets are people feed them carrots, this seems to be a bad thing, whenever I get mine, I ask for taters in with them, no carrots.
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I have not had a problem with carrots, but I very seldom use them. I mostly go with potato slices and lettuce.

I wash the lettuse because they often spray them.

 
hibiscusmile said:
I dont heat my tub, when I got crics at grubco and ghanns and fluker, they all had die offs and weekly they would just drop dead, all sizes, these crickets do not die off, been purchasing them for about a year, In that time I have had maybe 2 or 3 just die, they are in my Bugatorium with the mantis and they do not smell, due to no die offs, the others I kept in my small feeder room, they always stank. So go head, buy your dead smelly ol cricks but save yourself the trouble and head ache, just send me the money instead.... :tt2:
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Hmmm! I dont understand your post at all!! Is it just me? I read it 3 times and still dont know what you are trying to say!! :huh:

 
Psychobunny said:
Yes, I'm sorry, I ment Rhombo's.

When you say, it happens, do you mean they can simply turn black and drop dead (dont forget the brown vomit)?
Click to expand...
I've only kept one generation of Rhombodera cf. valida so I am by no means an expert on Rhombodera species, but from what I've been told by experienced keepers they are very fragile and prone to looking great one day and being dead the next. I don't know that vomiting is necessarily always a part of that since it can happen very fast.

Psychobunny said:
In the past week, I have had 3 unusual deaths of subadult mantids (not just one species).

I find them laying on the floor, they a black almost all over, including black eyes.

Also suspect, there is always brown vomit stains on the walls.

This is always after being feed crickets which looked perfectly healthy at the time.

I usually find a whole dead cricket in the container along with the dead mantis.

...

All 3 mantids had crickets the day before they simply dropped dead and turned black!!

So, I am discontinuing crickets, completely!!!

I am really upset over this. One of the dead was a really nice and healthy female shield.

Yesterday, she was healty and climbing around on me.

Today, I find her dead, turned black, and on the floor (obviously just dropped dead on the spot).

...

P.S. to be more clear, 2 of the 3 dead were shields and the other a lineola.

Other species are doing fine on the cricks.
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Based on what you wrote in the original post you suggest it happens fast. That's why I pointed this out. If you are talking about gut rot, which takes weeks or months, then we're talking about something else. It didn't seem so based on the above statements. When a mantis has that sickness they vomit everything they eat. You know they have it because it really smells. You didn't mention anything about stinky vomit, just suspected brown spots, and gut rot is mainly the illness others blame on crickets.

I can't say anything about your source for these crickets but I have never had a mantis eat a cricket and then just die. I have had a mantis just up and die for no identifiable reason. I'm not saying it wasn't crickets in your case. I'm just relaying my experience.

 
Precarious said:
I've only kept one generation of Rhombodera cf. valida so I am by no means an expert on Rhombodera species, but from what I've been told by experienced keepers they are very fragile and prone to looking great one day and being dead the next. I don't know that vomiting is necessarily always a part of that since it can happen very fast.

Based on what you wrote in the original post you suggest it happens fast. That's why I pointed this out. If you are talking about gut rot, which takes weeks or months, then we're talking about something else. It didn't seem so based on the above statements. When a mantis has that sickness they vomit everything they eat. You know they have it because it really smells. You didn't mention anything about stinky vomit, just suspected brown spots, and gut rot is mainly the illness others blame on crickets.

I can't say anything about your source for these crickets but I have never had a mantis eat a cricket and then just die. I have had a mantis just up and die for no identifiable reason. I'm not saying it wasn't crickets in your case. I'm just relaying my experience.
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Maybe I am jumping the gun on blaming the cricks, after all, I was really upset when I posted, so it's easy to let your emotions

take control. No, I have no direct evidence it was the crick that did it, and I did not know this specices was so fragile.

No, there was no odor with the vomit, it was dark brown, and smeared all over the inside wall and lid.

I had put 2 cricks in his cage for dinner yesterday. Then I found him dead the next morning. One crick was also

dead, and the other was gone and must have been eaten.

I know you have way more experience and know this species much better then I do, so what you posted is very inlightening.

Grant you, the whole thing may just be a coincidence!!

But I can tell you the cricks I have been getting lately have an abnormal mortality rate, and it does not matter with of the top

crick farms I buy from.

On the other hand, I have to date seen no evidence or scientific data showing that infected cricks are harmless to your pets.

Those vendors who insist this is true, do not provide links to scientific studies to support their claims.

 
Psychobunny said:
Rick,

I keep my cricks in a large tub with lots of egg cartons, I use Premium cricket chow and Repasey gel water stuff.

I give them potatoes and washed lettuse. They have a automatic waterer with a spong in it so they dont drown.

Their tub is on UTH regulated to 75F.

I keep their tub clean.

Now tell me, what is wrong with any of that!

I have had lots of mantids die on me for no apparent reason, but they do not go from healthy to dead and black

in a matter of hours.

This, with the brown vomit, black eyes, etc., indicates to me that they ingested something toxic to them!!

What do you see in my technique that would make my cricks toxic?

I have been keeping cricks for many years, back to the 70's when I had a reptile collection and the only problem

I ever had was that they stink!!!
Click to expand...
i have had this happen with mantids as well. it means the humidity is WAY to high.
 
Personally the ” black death” or mad cricket disease seems to be carried and contracted through crickets that have been exposed themselves or poorly kept. I had a couple rhombodera and male creo die off from what seem to be the usual case, total discoloration, and horrid smell in a day. if they are close to, molting time, or freshly molted, its a bad idea to use crix as your choice of feeder as that is when I recognize the difference in behavior the most. I do believe some hardy species are just resilient to the disease though (hierodula, heterochaeta, phyllocrania) that I have never witnessed it with..

 
Salut! I have a vodka/cran waiting for me when I get out of work. Once that's down everything will start making more sense. I don't use crickets...PERIOD! I heard way too many things about them. That made my mind up on Dubias. Crickets??? Just say no! :D

 
Maybe the crix died from one bottle of merlot too much? Then the shields got tipsy and didn't wake up!(jk)

 
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