Buying in bulk...

[mustangwagz]

Well..odd story kinda..but figured i'd share my stupidity with yinz. lol I buy crickets regularly...LOTS of crickets...like enough that my woman is complaining about driving cuz of gas prices. lol so...i just placed orders for BULK crickets. (1500 for now..) lol i know what you all are thinking.. "holy crap...thats alot of crickets...but why so?" haha. My reason for purchasing so dang many is my chameleon..that thing eats like a tank!! Does anyone else have a reptile that eats a metric ton of crickets a year? haha.

i was buying at petco, they charge 14 cents per cricket..at first i though ahh ok, thats cheap! but...after talking to the lady at the pet store she said to buy bulk!! (she knows me on a first name basis now and is probably tired of me checkin her out.. ) oops, haha. anyhow yah...i did the math..man o man..i was gettin hammered on crickets! lol So from here on out...i'm buying crickets in bulk!!...and ear plugs too for that matter. hahahahaha.

[trevorakm1]

i had about 100 in a container one night and i didn't seal it right after feeding my chameleons, picked the container up and it fell and burst on the floor. crickets everywhere! i was catching crickets for days. what kind of chameleon do you have? i had two veiled. chameleons are my favorite reptile species. wouldn't mind getting another, with the eyes, tail, feet, tongue, and of course the color changing they are fascinating!

[Stonewall]

Sounds like you need to go fishin'!!! $.14 is way high for crickets! They're lots cheaper at Wal-Mart, and the best bait you can buy for brim!!

[brushcutter]

i had about 100 in a container one night and i didn't seal it right after feeding my chameleons, picked the container up and it fell and burst on the floor. crickets everywhere! i was catching crickets for days. what kind of chameleon do you have? i had two veiled. chameleons are my favorite reptile species. wouldn't mind getting another, with the eyes, tail, feet, tongue, and of course the color changing they are fascinating!

Have you noticed that a bazillion crickets will lull you to sleep quickly, but just one in your house chirping away to himself will keep you up ALL NIGHT! When I was a kid my family grew crickets and sold them for bait. It was a very labor intensive business, and from Memorial Day weekend through July 4th we sold over a million bugs a week, every year. Sales slowed after the I-Day holiday due to the weather being too hot, but would continue through Labor day weekend.

So if you really want to save yourself a bundle to feed your pets AND have bugs to fish with and you have a little extra space in a shed somewhere, I can tell you how to do it. When you get your 1500 bulk order in, buy some storage tubs from walmart, the plastic ones like this:
- Walmart

Use a smooth tape that the bugs can't crawl over, such as 3" shipping tape, and tape all the way around the inside if the tub about 3" down from the top to keep the little critters in the tub. Now release the crickets into the prepared tub, don't seal it tight, they need air circulation. They will need something to crawl around on, the filler flats from the shipping box will work, but they will need more than the 3 or 4 that will be supplied. Feed them chicken food such as chick starter, and also use a chicken watering jug to water them, fill the red base with coarse sand or use a foam sponge ring(what we used). Clean and fill the watering device daily.

Buy some peat moss from your garden store, boil it to kill the bad stuff, bacteria and mites, that would harm/kill the eggs. Let it cool and squeeze the water out till it is only moist, then put it in a pan measuring about 2"deep X 9" X 13" or similar. Set this in the tub with the crickets so the females (the ones with the smooth looking wings) if mature, can lay in it. Give them about 3 days laying time and remove the pan, loosely cover it with clear kitchen wrap like Saran Wrap, don't seal tightly. Place this in a place where the temp can be kept around 80deg f, and in about 4 weeks you will begin to see tiny ant sized white babies crawling all over the pan. You will need to spritz the surface of the peat daily to keep it damp, but not wet. Release the littles into another tub, prepared as above and you are growing your own lizard food.

Now, keep in mind that I've seen over 300,000 babies hatched from 1 pan of eggs, (yes we counted them) so you will probably not want to set the egg pan in the tub and let them all go in 1 tub. You can raise as many as 11,000 bugs in one of the above prepped tubs, if you are diligent, give them enough room to move around with plenty of food and fresh water. Try to maintain a constant growing temp of 80 to 90 deg, you can actually regulate how fast they mature by raising or lowering the temp.

Ok, now that the bug is out of the bag, I'm CERTAIN that the bait nazi's will have have my name at the top of their "hit" list.

[azz7772]

I have a pet garder snake he likes worms,gold fish,and frogs. I am hoping to find some good frog holes now that I have an amphib to go hunting with.

[mustangwagz]

Have you noticed that a bazillion crickets will lull you to sleep quickly, but just one in your house chirping away to himself will keep you up ALL NIGHT! When I was a kid my family grew crickets and sold them for bait. It was a very labor intensive business, and from Memorial Day weekend through July 4th we sold over a million bugs a week, every year. Sales slowed after the I-Day holiday due to the weather being too hot, but would continue through Labor day weekend.

So if you really want to save yourself a bundle to feed your pets AND have bugs to fish with and you have a little extra space in a shed somewhere, I can tell you how to do it. When you get your 1500 bulk order in, buy some storage tubs from walmart, the plastic ones like this:
- Walmart

Use a smooth tape that the bugs can't crawl over, such as 3" shipping tape, and tape all the way around the inside if the tub about 3" down from the top to keep the little critters in the tub. Now release the crickets into the prepared tub, don't seal it tight, they need air circulation. They will need something to crawl around on, the filler flats from the shipping box will work, but they will need more than the 3 or 4 that will be supplied. Feed them chicken food such as chick starter, and also use a chicken watering jug to water them, fill the red base with coarse sand or use a foam sponge ring(what we used). Clean and fill the watering device daily.

Buy some peat moss from your garden store, boil it to kill the bad stuff, bacteria and mites, that would harm/kill the eggs. Let it cool and squeeze the water out till it is only moist, then put it in a pan measuring about 2"deep X 9" X 13" or similar. Set this in the tub with the crickets so the females (the ones with the smooth looking wings) if mature, can lay in it. Give them about 3 days laying time and remove the pan, loosely cover it with clear kitchen wrap like Saran Wrap, don't seal tightly. Place this in a place where the temp can be kept around 80deg f, and in about 4 weeks you will begin to see tiny ant sized white babies crawling all over the pan. You will need to spritz the surface of the peat daily to keep it damp, but not wet. Release the littles into another tub, prepared as above and you are growing your own lizard food.

Now, keep in mind that I've seen over 300,000 babies hatched from 1 pan of eggs, (yes we counted them) so you will probably not want to set the egg pan in the tub and let them all go in 1 tub. You can raise as many as 11,000 bugs in one of the above prepped tubs, if you are diligent, give them enough room to move around with plenty of food and fresh water. Try to maintain a constant growing temp of 80 to 90 deg, you can actually regulate how fast they mature by raising or lowering the temp.

Ok, now that the bug is out of the bag, I'm CERTAIN that the bait nazi's will have have my name at the top of their "hit" list.

me and the woman have been discussing this...i read pretty much same thing on a site bout "how to" for rasing crickets...i dont got the patience. lol i know what you mean bout raising them and hgettin a ton of them..but i also dont have room for them. lol How bout you grow me a freakin ton and sell em to me cheap? LOL

[mustangwagz]

i had about 100 in a container one night and i didn't seal it right after feeding my chameleons, picked the container up and it fell and burst on the floor. crickets everywhere! i was catching crickets for days. what kind of chameleon do you have? i had two veiled. chameleons are my favorite reptile species. wouldn't mind getting another, with the eyes, tail, feet, tongue, and of course the color changing they are fascinating!

Ive got a veiled. got him about a month ago, wanted one forever. bought him at pet chain store, but dam he is big. lol about 7-8 inches from nose to vent. paid 100 bucks, plus all the other stuff ive bought so far...man they aint cheap to start or maintain are they!? lol

[brushcutter]

me and the woman have been discussing this...i read pretty much same thing on a site bout "how to" for rasing crickets...i dont got the patience. lol i know what you mean bout raising them and hgettin a ton of them..but i also dont have room for them. lol How bout you grow me a freakin ton and sell em to me cheap? LOL

no thanks, remember what I said about "labor intensive". Man was I EVER glad to get out of high school and move on to some nice, easy, not so smelly work, like cutting survey lines.

[jpswift1]

Hey Wagz, when you said girl at the pet store, I immediately thought of this scene from Deuce Bigalow.........

[LarryW]

About 5-6 years ago I was hauling 3 ton of cricket feed to a local cricket farm like once every 2-3 weeks or so. Thats a lot of crickets to eat all that up. He then got some cricket virus and killed most of them off. Last I heard he was raising some newer breed of cricket that wasn't so susceptible to the disease.

I was just searching and found they had been shipping up to 5.5 million crickets every week to zoos, local pet stores and distributors before the virus. Also said it was one of the countrys largest cricket farms. Thats cool. Its only about 15 minutes from my house.

[mustangwagz]

About 5-6 years ago I was hauling 3 ton of cricket feed to a local cricket farm like once every 2-3 weeks or so. Thats a lot of crickets to eat all that up. He then got some cricket virus and killed most of them off. Last I heard he was raising some newer breed of cricket that wasn't so susceptible to the disease.

I was just searching and found they had been shipping up to 5.5 million crickets every week to zoos, local pet stores and distributors before the virus. Also said it was one of the countrys largest cricket farms. Thats cool. Its only about 15 minutes from my house.

Larry, that might be the guy i'm referring to as a "new supplier"? His FB page is "Cheapcrickets" however i could be totally wrong.. afterall, it IS 4am and i'm trying to wake up so the ole brain bone aint quite functioning 100% yet...(or even 20% for that matter...ugh!) lol

[LarryW]

Not sure, company I hauled to was called top hat cricket farm in Portage Mi.

[mustangwagz]

Not sure, company I hauled to was called top hat cricket farm in Portage Mi.

hmm, n/m. lol this place is in MN.

[brushcutter]

About 5-6 years ago I was hauling 3 ton of cricket feed to a local cricket farm like once every 2-3 weeks or so. Thats a lot of crickets to eat all that up. He then got some cricket virus and killed most of them off. Last I heard he was raising some newer breed of cricket that wasn't so susceptible to the disease.

I was just searching and found they had been shipping up to 5.5 million crickets every week to zoos, local pet stores and distributors before the virus. Also said it was one of the countrys largest cricket farms. Thats cool. Its only about 15 minutes from my house.

Larry, we had a round of something like that and Dad closed down for a couple of years. He learned a couple of things from some fellow growers. Sweep out the growing boxes at least once during the time each batch of crickets occupy them, they will eat their crap and eating poop isn't good for anything other than mushrooms. Feed on cheap paper plates, and don't over feed. And between each rotation, wash the grow boxes thoroughly with bleach. You might pass this info on to the grower you mentioned. Maybe they'll fix you up with some free fish bait next time you get to go fishing. Heck we would have given a years supply for this information at the time our trouble started. Would have saved us a LOT of heartache.

[LarryW]

Good tips. If I ever go there again I'll let him know. He maybe already doing that stuff though but wont hurt to try to help.