Problems with Cricket Jumping Legs?

[avn]

Maybe try to get a batch of crickets from another source, and keep them seperately but with identical handling and see if they develop the same problem. 

That might help you isolate the problem to either "something you are doing" or "something the provider is doing" 

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Thanks guys.....just trying to think of any possible causes for my weird problem.  I am going to take a few of the jake leg crickets out separately, so I can monitor them more closely. Maybe I will do some experiments with care on them. I will let you know if I figure out anything worthwhile.

Have the ones with the leg problems you moved to a separate enclosure gotten any worse or better? The one thought that popped into my mind since there were no adults in your video is it might be possible the ones you see looking off are just getting close to shedding. Insects can get very stiff and awkward in their movements the night or two before a shedding. If you separated some this theory will be pretty easy to test.

 

[Sarah K]

Have the ones with the leg problems you moved to a separate enclosure gotten any worse or better? The one thought that popped into my mind since there were no adults in your video is it might be possible the ones you see looking off are just getting close to shedding. Insects can get very stiff and awkward in their movements the night or two before a shedding. If you separated some this theory will be pretty easy to test.

Unfortunately every cricket I have separated has died within a few days. I have treated, feed, etc., the isolated crickets the same thing as the others. 

 

[Ranitomeya]

Banded crickets are only resistant, not immune to the virus. Acheta domestica is very susceptible, so you'll see entire colonies die off. With banded crickets, you'll have just a few die off at a time after exhibiting symptoms. It's quite possible for organisms to be infected with an illness and exhibit no symptoms until something like stress causes them to unable to cope with living with the disease.

 

[Sarah K]

Banded crickets are only resistant, not immune to the virus. Acheta domestica is very susceptible, so you'll see entire colonies die off. With banded crickets, you'll have just a few die off at a time after exhibiting symptoms. It's quite possible for organisms to be infected with an illness and exhibit no symptoms until something like stress causes them to unable to cope with living with the disease.

Seriously? I cannot believe this disease is still haunting me 6 years later! But then again, after reading this article and the reference to Top Hat, I guess it unfortunately makes sense, since they "attempted to fight the virus with no success."

http://cricket-breeding.com/cricket-paralysis-virus/

Meaning, if a facility has switched to banded crickets because they had this disease in their facility and couldn't get rid of it, and now they have banded crickets living in the same facility, I guess the banded crickets could still be catching the same exact virus from living in the same facility.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Seriously? I cannot believe this disease is still haunting me 6 years later! But then again, after reading this article and the reference to Top Hat, I guess it unfortunately makes sense, since they "attempted to fight the virus with no success."

http://cricket-breeding.com/cricket-paralysis-virus/

Meaning, if a facility has switched to banded crickets because they had this disease in their facility and couldn't get rid of it, and now they have banded crickets living in the same facility, I guess the banded crickets could still be catching the same exact virus from living in the same facility.

Interesting article.  I like where it says, "Pet owners and pet shop owners may want to learn to raise their own crickets.  This way, nobody has to panic if a major supplier is suddenly out of crickets."  Yeah, that'll be the day.  I've heard more anti-cricket whining on message boards.  "Its too much work, wah wah wah."

 

[avn]

Sarah why don't you give crickets to mantises? Are they not a good food? 

Whats a good alternative 

 

[Sarah K]

Sarah why don't you give crickets to mantises? Are they not a good food? 

Whats a good alternative 

Plenty of people seem to think it is fine to feed mantises crickets, but I guess it is possible that they can carry bacteria/viral infections that can have negative effects on mantises, if cricket cages are not kept very clean, etc. One of those viruses are AdDNV, as we have been discussing in this very topic! Like I said, plenty of people feed their mantises crickets and they are fine! I just tend to be extremely cautious about certain things (sometimes to a fault ). 

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I didn't learn about the virus being a big problem until way after because I always had my own stock. I would probably email the company and see if they have something to say about the issues you are experiencing.

There is always the option of roaches to avoid the issue altogether.

 

[Sarah K]

Interesting article.  I like where it says, "Pet owners and pet shop owners may want to learn to raise their own crickets.  This way, nobody has to panic if a major supplier is suddenly out of crickets."  Yeah, that'll be the day.  I've heard more anti-cricket whining on message boards.  "Its too much work, wah wah wah."

I do breed my own, but still sometimes run out mostly because I am not diligent enough.   With so many other mouths to feed and cages to clean, sometimes it is the crickets where I slack, because they are a lot of work! 

 

[Ranitomeya]

Crickets often are not prolific enough if you have enough pets to feed. Many cricket species are seasonal and will halt development until they experience cues that tell them it's almost breeding season. Acheta domestica is one of the many tropical species where their breeding seasons are nearly year-round, but that doesn't mean they won't slow down significantly in development if conditions are not just right. In addition, females usually do not live long enough to produce more than one batch of offspring.

In order to maintain a continuous supply, you will have to have crickets at every stage of development with extras, otherwise you'll have periods of time where you have no adults to continue the colony while you're feeding them off. This is especially difficult since crickets of different instars can tend cannibalize each other more frequently than crickets of the same instar. They'll also dig up eggs laid by females to eat as well. So not only will you need crickets of every stage of development, you will need separate containers for each--not an easy thing to maintain and definitely not something most people have the room for.

Crickets, unlike popular feeder roaches, are not truly communal in nature and are infrequently found in large numbers together--this means they are less tolerant of stress caused by overstocking and that can lead to them being more susceptible to disease. If you want to maintain them in large numbers, you need to have the time and resources to provide and maintain an extremely clean environment. Their relatively solitary nature means they are less likely to have encountered diseases prevalent in situations of overpopulation during their natural history and you can quickly wipe out entire colonies with diseases like AdDNV since their immune systems would never have had to adapt to diseases that are transmitted through frequent and continuous contact with each other, the dead, and their feces.

 

[Introvertebrate]

I do breed my own, but still sometimes run out mostly because I am not diligent enough.   With so many other mouths to feed and cages to clean, sometimes it is the crickets where I slack, because they are a lot of work! 

No harm in buying them.  That's what keeps the cricket farms in business.