Where to buy crickets?

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cdcrocks

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I'd like to find a good website to get crickets from, since my mantises are getting to the size where crickets are a good sized meal. For the past couple of weeks, I've been feeding crickets from Petsmart without issue, but I've heard so many horror stories about crickets bought in store that I'd like to steer away from them. I know the crickets will be safe if I feed them good food for a few days, but my mantises are barely big enough for me to be comfortable feeding them the smallest crickets from the store the day I get them. If I keep the crix for longer, they grow and get bigger than I'd like to be feeding at the moment.

So, any site reccomendations? I'd like them to be affordable, but quality is more important.

Thank you!

 
CD - The crix are still going to grow at the same rate, even if you buy them from an online supplier. If the "small" crix from Petsmart are too large, perhaps you should try house flies or blue bottle flies in the interim. I purchase most of my flies from Carey Kurtz who runs Mantis Pets -- http://www.mantispets.com

 
I know they'd grow at the same rate, I just see online stores selling smaller ones. I could let them get good food in their system before feeding, and they still wouldn't be too big a few days later.

I guess I'll try flies too, but I'm not sure how my mom would feel about having fly pupa in her fridge.

 
I'm not sure about places to order online, but you might want to consider getting a breeder bin going. Then you can reach in and get anything from freshly hatched nymphs to full grown adults.

 
My preferred place is Grubco. They sell all sizes.

 
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I'm not sure about places to order online, but you might want to consider getting a breeder bin going. Then you can reach in and get anything from freshly hatched nymphs to full grown adults.
I have a couple bins going and it is definitely great if you have quite a few mantids of various sizes. And as long as the crickets have a clean bin, and good food and water, they will be a healthy meal for the mantids. Though it does mean more insects to care for.

 
I would love to see your containers... trying to get idea's myself.. How deep,high & wide is a good size?..

 
It's pretty simple really. You need a heat source (lamps), at least 3 large rubbermaid containers with lids, a half dozen or so smaller (like sandwich) rubbermaid containers without lids, some peat moss or similar soil, and something to feed crickets.

I will throw up some detailed pictures tonight, but for now you can see this from my terrarium album: http://soundspawn.com/image_server/a/images/terrarium/IMG_1719.JPG

Those are 60 quart, you can see the peat moss in the smaller containers (keep it very moist). I started with very little egg crate but acquired more as I went. That's a three bulb terrarium light sitting over 1-1/2 containers - found it at petco on sale. To the left is a third container with a dedicated ceramic light and no live crickets, just peat moss containers. Basically you raise them in the middle and right container (once you get a good offset you'll have subadult and adult in one and nymphs in the other) and after leaving a peat moss container in with the adults for a week you move it to incubation on the left.

You'll know the crickets are ready to breed when you hear chirping, and they only live a week or two past that - which is about the right timing for the incubators to hatch and move in to the old container. Also the lights supply a good amount of heat, you want 80's (high 80s is great, sometimes the incubator hits mid 90s, just keep it high humidity and it's great).

For food I pour oats around and regularly cycle in a container of fresh produce. We throw some of the jello type water (Flukers brand) for the younger guys because they will drown if you give them much standing water... the adults drink the moisture from the peat moss. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have :)

 

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