| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 02/09/2010 : 15:49:24
Well, if you happened to read the thread about crickets on general keeping last night, you might remember that I googled cricket keeping and learned that in Japan they are kept as pets and are thought to bring luck to the house. Children often keep them in their bedrooms, as the chirping lulls a child to sleep at night.
As a long term insomniac, I'll try anything. I'm already growing hops (and so are two neighbours adjacent to me by now - luckily they don't seem to mind!) Invasive things, but very nice foliage and the fruits will make hop pillows in a month's time.
I went to the rep shop this morning, and bought a box of crickets for a couple of quid. I already had a spare tank, which I had covered with dishcloth material beneath its existing lid. Chopped fern out of the garden, a chipped terracotta plantpot and a loo roll inner provide cover. Substrate is dry potting compost. There are a couple of climbing branches, a shallow earthenware bowl of chopped tomato, mango and oatcake, and one of those deep coffee jar lids of water.
The crickets loved it. They rampaged round like asbos, meeting up and headbutting, crowding round for a drink, surging into the food dish and quarrelling over pieces of tomato, and burrowing in the substrate. (They ARE supposed to be nocturnal, by the way, but at time of writing they have just about wrecked their set-up and are still on the go.
The noise they make is, to my ears, delightful.
Why have I never kept these critters before? And for an insect-crazy child (or adult) they seem to be an ideal pet, cheap to buy and set up and feed, and very very lively and amusing. (They do jump, of course - if a child wanted to handle, they wouldn't be a practical proposition unless you were prepared to live with crickets free in the house ...AND they'll breed ...)
My only regret is that I didn't start with them instead of stick insects. I do like my stickies, of course, but I shall be getting a cheap tank from Wilkinsons for the more sedate stickies, and giving some of the crickets the freedom of the 60 litre sticky tank, while keeping others in the original cricket tank upstairs to lull me off to sleep ...
Tweet tweet ...tweet tweet ... |
| 20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| crazy JJ |
Posted - 06/09/2010 : 18:45:14
hmmm lol i feel some scheming coming along here :) ;) my last lot of crickets have died so shall have to get some more of ma mum and well thats when the scheming comes along :P Thanks
ooo they sound cool dishs but i dont have a b&q near me grrr unless i go to a bigger town but i do however have a homebase... |
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 06/09/2010 : 16:59:26
Hi, CrazyJJ.
If you want cricket babies just give them a bowl of damp vermiculite or compost in the tank, and the girls will do the rest. Then you take the bowl out after a couple of weeks, keep it reasonably warm (I've got mine in a tank on top of a viv)and when the babies hatch give them damp kitchen roll to drink from and some kind of mushy food - I imagine damp fish food would be great at first. This is what I've sussed out so far - haven't done it yet. Eggs are cream and about 1mm long, a bit like blowfly eggs.
Went to see if I could find better food dishes today - even shallow ceramic ones are too deep and slippery, and looked in B&Q for a couple of terracotta plantpot saucers. What I did find were some bamboo fibre biodegradeable saucers, nice natural olive green, 5 small for 98p, 5 larger for £1.58. Imagine these could make really good lizard/insect feeding dishes, and they look good too! |
| crazy JJ |
Posted - 06/09/2010 : 11:17:57
mooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnniiiiiinnnnnng bats
haha yea defo agree there... there great :)
lol females like lay thousands of eggs through there life times and lol i dont even know if i even want 1 baby haha :)
grrr kinda jelous though i want lil baby crickets lol :)
good luck wit m though and dont let the babys be lunch hahaa :) |
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 05/09/2010 : 11:16:17
quote:
Originally posted by crazy JJ
erm in all honesty we have never even had eggs so i have no idea :( or if we have then we aint noticed :/ but i think they hatch within something like a couple of weeks.
i know they are very cannibalistic whether food is there or not but as you said it might be just old age and the other crickets have eaten her well started anyways :( but thinking about it if there is plenty of space to hide and eat it might not be them eating each other..
as 4 age i think they live 4 about 7months ish maybe more or less
and it takes i think about a month/2months ish to get to adult hood.. i only think though i could be very wrong here :(
hope that helps with my very lack of expertese in crickets lol :D :P how are they all anyways :)
Hi, CrazyJJ, good morning - thanks for that.
Well, I changed the tanks over yesterday and put mostly males into the upstairs tank and the rest into the big biorb in the living room. There were at least a couple of males downstairs - until the girls killed one and had him for lunch ...
You're definitely right about the cannibalism ...eww!
But they are very large - perhaps old age is a factor. They obviously breed and grow like crazy. As for eggs, I found a site on the web that said they mate as babies and the females grow up pregnant ...? It's true that, along with eating and drinking the minute they were released from their cricket box, the girls couldn't wait to lay eggs. However, if they're not removed from the adults, the minute the babies hatch out, an adult notices, and thinks, ah, tasty snack! End of babies.
Charming critters eh? But interesting (if you have a strong stomach.)
I can still hear one male chirping in the living room.
Be careful mate - they'll have you! |
| crazy JJ |
Posted - 05/09/2010 : 00:02:35
erm in all honesty we have never even had eggs so i have no idea :( or if we have then we aint noticed :/ but i think they hatch within something like a couple of weeks.
i know they are very cannibalistic whether food is there or not but as you said it might be just old age and the other crickets have eaten her well started anyways :( but thinking about it if there is plenty of space to hide and eat it might not be them eating each other..
as 4 age i think they live 4 about 7months ish maybe more or less
and it takes i think about a month/2months ish to get to adult hood.. i only think though i could be very wrong here :(
hope that helps with my very lack of expertese in crickets lol :D :P how are they all anyways :) |
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 04/09/2010 : 16:08:34
quote:
Originally posted by crazy JJ
lol yes potato haha yeah they love it except it goes of and stupid reli quickly :D
but yeah ma last 2 have no long just died actually :( grrrr *runs of to mummy for more*
yeah i felt sorry for them, i cant even help/watch ma mum when she feeds the ts as i just feel sorry 4 them but i suppose its nature. but i always make sure these lot are fed watered and singing o they love fish food to and i think its dog/cat food and grass of course which i find them funny on that haha :)
nawww have fun wit m though :) i think there great... i have a spare small tank now that i might just have to fill. as i save a couple small ones and a couple large :D
Hi, thanks for that. Also, do you know, do the females die after they've laid their eggs? When cleaning out and changing over I found a couple of female corpses - one was chewed - and I don't know whether they were being cannibalistic despite food provided, or whether the deaths were natural. These are full grown ones - it may be that they hadn't much longer to live. Do you know how long they live? And how long it takes for them to reach adulthood? I'd be really glad to know.
I have put the eggs in a warm damp place, so expecting ji-mini crickets soon! |
| crazy JJ |
Posted - 04/09/2010 : 01:25:51
lol yes potato haha yeah they love it except it goes of and stupid reli quickly :D
but yeah ma last 2 have no long just died actually :( grrrr *runs of to mummy for more*
yeah i felt sorry for them, i cant even help/watch ma mum when she feeds the ts as i just feel sorry 4 them but i suppose its nature. but i always make sure these lot are fed watered and singing o they love fish food to and i think its dog/cat food and grass of course which i find them funny on that haha :)
nawww have fun wit m though :) i think there great... i have a spare small tank now that i might just have to fill. as i save a couple small ones and a couple large :D |
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 03/09/2010 : 15:43:18
quote:
Originally posted by crazy JJ
lol... ma mum has the tarantula's so i save some crickets from her and keep them as pets.. the only prob is they eat eachother and die so quickly except once i had a cricket call dot (lol tats all he was when i got him) and he grew up (kept him on his own) n he lasted a long while :D
they love tats by the way... they dehydrate reli quickly.. and its soo nice to know im not the only one wierd enough to have them as pets :)
Hi, pleased to meet a fellow cricket keeper. I'm hoping they won't eat each other - I've given them a huge food dish and there's always a few in there, guzzling. The water dish goes down pretty quickly too. When you say they love tats - do you mean potato? I'll try them with that when I change round their set-ups.
I know they're only rep food really, but I feel so sorry for them  cooped up in a cricket box with no food and water, when they are definite little personalities all by themselves ...
(Stop being sentimental, Bats. When you have a population explosion you'll end up supplying the damn shop with crickets... PLEASE take my crickets ...) |
| Tiffany-x |
Posted - 03/09/2010 : 13:22:17
quote:
Originally posted by BurnedAtTheStake
quote:
Originally posted by Tiffany-x
I want some, I love noises when I go to sleep, maybe I can come off my tablets if I am to invest, or am I just being hopeful? But I know for sure they are very interesting creatures and nice to look at.
And BATS I have a tip, invest in a test tube/boiling tube if you ever want to have a hold, put them in head first and hold it sideways they just sit there then you can really inspect them and have a little looky! :P Not that I would have any idea where to buy a test tube from! :D
Tiffany-x
Hey I just had to add, post number 200!!!! WOOHOOOOO! :D
Hi, Tiffany - congrats on post 200!
It's rotten bad luck to be having to take pills - it would be great if you could find some alternative, like cricket noise. Having said that, I didn't sleep well last night at all! However, maybe that was because just when I was headed off to bed, Cy, my one-eyed Miami, announced that she was shedding. She did - behind her mopani root, shyly, but I had to stay with her, of course. Perfect shed, but perhaps to much excitement at that time of night! At 4 I got up again and checked the beasties, and pottered about ... at about 5.30 maybe I got back to sleep and was woken again at 6 by Emily the cat being sick on the bed. It wasn't anything much, but why do cats have to be so THEATRICAL?
However, the crickets were very soothing! That viewing tube's a good idea. I'm just learning about males and females - 'why do some of them have that long feeler coming out their back end and why are they sticking it into the damp aearth round their water bowl?'
...Ah. Ovipositor? Yes. I already have eggs!
All pets are a pain!! :P I have my dog scratching on my door all night if I close it and if I leave it open he runs between mine and mums room and sits on my head and stuff. And yeah having to take pills is **** but I guess Im used to it, Ive been taking them for a few years now along with my happy pills! So irritating, Id love to find something that helps me sleep, maybe I will join you in trying crickets seeing as thats one of the noises they play in the sensory room both at the centre where I had to stay when I was having tests before I was diagnosed and at the respite centre near my home (I worked there for a few weeks last summer).
And I think you would find you will have quite a lot soon, they are always laying eggs, mind you the stickies in the school lab seemed to be pretty much the same, I dont know what yours are like but they usually lay eggs ALL the time!! :P And getting a close up view of crickets is great they are really interesting to look at and stuff.
And yeah post 200, how cool, I think I know more about corns than any other person that has never owned one! :P Soon though! Dad has said he will definitely pay for the set up for me so I just have to wait until he gets paid, WOOHOO!! :D
Tiffany-x |
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 03/09/2010 : 10:27:48
quote:
Originally posted by Tiffany-x
I want some, I love noises when I go to sleep, maybe I can come off my tablets if I am to invest, or am I just being hopeful? But I know for sure they are very interesting creatures and nice to look at.
And BATS I have a tip, invest in a test tube/boiling tube if you ever want to have a hold, put them in head first and hold it sideways they just sit there then you can really inspect them and have a little looky! :P Not that I would have any idea where to buy a test tube from! :D
Tiffany-x
Hey I just had to add, post number 200!!!! WOOHOOOOO! :D
Hi, Tiffany - congrats on post 200!
It's rotten bad luck to be having to take pills - it would be great if you could find some alternative, like cricket noise. Having said that, I didn't sleep well last night at all! However, maybe that was because just when I was headed off to bed, Cy, my one-eyed Miami, announced that she was shedding. She did - behind her mopani root, shyly, but I had to stay with her, of course. Perfect shed, but perhaps to much excitement at that time of night! At 4 I got up again and checked the beasties, and pottered about ... at about 5.30 maybe I got back to sleep and was woken again at 6 by Emily the cat being sick on the bed. It wasn't anything much, but why do cats have to be so THEATRICAL?
However, the crickets were very soothing! That viewing tube's a good idea. I'm just learning about males and females - 'why do some of them have that long feeler coming out their back end and why are they sticking it into the damp aearth round their water bowl?'
...Ah. Ovipositor? Yes. I already have eggs! |
| DannyBrown91 |
Posted - 03/09/2010 : 10:09:10
quote:
Originally posted by gingerpony
the noise of crickets is precisely why i feed my Maddies locusts instead lol our house is noisy enough as it is
Lol, Locust look cooler anyway  |
| gingerpony |
Posted - 03/09/2010 : 07:56:40
the noise of crickets is precisely why i feed my Maddies locusts instead lol our house is noisy enough as it is |
| drchino |
Posted - 03/09/2010 : 01:13:17
This is another reason why I'm prob gonna get a leo next year! The sound of crickets would def help me sleep! Whenever I go to hot countries I love the sound of crickets outside! |
| crazy JJ |
Posted - 03/09/2010 : 01:00:00
lol... ma mum has the tarantula's so i save some crickets from her and keep them as pets.. the only prob is they eat eachother and die so quickly except once i had a cricket call dot (lol tats all he was when i got him) and he grew up (kept him on his own) n he lasted a long while :D
they love tats by the way... they dehydrate reli quickly.. and its soo nice to know im not the only one wierd enough to have them as pets :) |
| Tiffany-x |
Posted - 02/09/2010 : 21:59:26
I want some, I love noises when I go to sleep, maybe I can come off my tablets if I am to invest, or am I just being hopeful? But I know for sure they are very interesting creatures and nice to look at.
And BATS I have a tip, invest in a test tube/boiling tube if you ever want to have a hold, put them in head first and hold it sideways they just sit there then you can really inspect them and have a little looky! :P Not that I would have any idea where to buy a test tube from! :D
Tiffany-x
Hey I just had to add, post number 200!!!! WOOHOOOOO! :D |
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 02/09/2010 : 17:54:44
quote:
Originally posted by DannyBrown91
quote:
Originally posted by BurnedAtTheStake
quote:
Originally posted by DannyBrown91
I got used to them after a while, and they came in handy when the neighbour was being a bit of a gentlemans dangly bit as Kehhlyr once said.
LOL! What did you do?? I have a few neighbours like that! (Don't get me wrong - most are ok but there are a few - and it's not just me that gets aggro - that are a pain ...)
Do you mean, like, leave the windows open on a warm night and ... 'What noise? I never heard anything! HONEST!'
Nothing like that, we just felt sorry for them all queing upto be food so we free'd a few (through his letter box).
LOL!
That's not cricket!
Nice one! |
| DannyBrown91 |
Posted - 02/09/2010 : 17:44:35
quote:
Originally posted by BurnedAtTheStake
quote:
Originally posted by DannyBrown91
I got used to them after a while, and they came in handy when the neighbour was being a bit of a gentlemans dangly bit as Kehhlyr once said.
LOL! What did you do?? I have a few neighbours like that! (Don't get me wrong - most are ok but there are a few - and it's not just me that gets aggro - that are a pain ...)
Do you mean, like, leave the windows open on a warm night and ... 'What noise? I never heard anything! HONEST!'
Nothing like that, we just felt sorry for them all queing upto be food so we free'd a few (through his letter box). |
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 02/09/2010 : 17:36:36
quote:
Originally posted by Sta~ple
They sound very cute :) I never knew they kept so well as pet's I may have to look into it. They are suppossed to be tastey too when fried.
I know, but don't tell my lot!
|
| BurnedAtTheStake |
Posted - 02/09/2010 : 17:35:14
quote:
Originally posted by DannyBrown91
I got used to them after a while, and they came in handy when the neighbour was being a bit of a gentlemans dangly bit as Kehhlyr once said.
LOL! What did you do?? I have a few neighbours like that! (Don't get me wrong - most are ok but there are a few - and it's not just me that gets aggro - that are a pain ...)
Do you mean, like, leave the windows open on a warm night and ... 'What noise? I never heard anything! HONEST!' |
| Sta~ple |
Posted - 02/09/2010 : 17:13:17
They sound very cute :) I never knew they kept so well as pet's I may have to look into it. They are suppossed to be tastey too when fried. |
|
|
