Anyone know how to stop crickets from chirping? Apart from clipping their wings (which is a little too hands on for me). Shouting at them only works the first few times, as does spraying them with water.
Google only handed me page upon page of romantic fiction.
They are only charming and parochial when in the country, not when in a plastic box in ones apartment. I am ready to eat the damned things myself soon! Please help me, it’s rather annoying having to walk around my appartment with ear-plugs in!
Only male crickets chirp. How many crickets do you have in that plastic box? Separate them all into different individual containers for a day or two (Tupperware?) and see which ones chirp. Feed those to the goldfish, keep the others.
…Tupperware with aluminum foil lids with airholes punched in it. Airholes are important.
And if you need the males because you’re raising crickets to feed to a lizard or something, then you’re out of luck. Male crickets chirp to attract females. It’s biology, nothing you can do about it.
You’ll never get anywhere trying to deal with them all together; take each cricket aside, one at a time and reason with them…
Seriously though, I don’t think there is a way; even if you were to make an animated model of their primary predator, I reckon it would only work for a while until they got desensitised to it.
I presume you are keeping them to feed to a pet reptile? - do you not have a balcony on which you could put them (or would they die outdoors?)
In a day or two they will all be gone burp but in a day or two, so will my sanity. Was the suggestion of tinfoil lids something specific to cut down on chirping (tin-foil-cricket-hats!) or just so I could punch the holes?
The guys and girls are at present living in a mini “pet-transporter” box where they seem to live well, but loudly. Seems they take it in turns to chirp because there is only ever one doing the loud-chirps at a time. When we feed him to the beast the next one starts over.
Oops, sorry yes, em, no balcony Mangetout and would die outdoors in this weather. I have to put them inside my jacket in a plastic bag to get them home when it’s this cold :barfsmiley:
I know what your talking about, I have 500 in a 10 gallon tank in my apartment. Luckily this batch is still small enough that they’re quiet, but normally they horribly annoying. I assume you use them for feeders for something. I usually just buy 1/2 inch crickets and feed off the loud ones first.
Put 'em on ice. No, really. Crickets stop chirping when the temperature gets below about 40 F. I don’t know if they can survive this temperature, however.
These are “lizard fodder” crickets, and you’re not breeding them, you’re just keeping them alive until it’s their turn to be eaten? Shoot, like Q.E.D. said, just put 'em on ice.
So 30 degrees Fahrenheit is the cutoff for these professional cricket-shippers.
Just keep them from freezing. Put them in the fridge–get a refrigerator thermometer, find a 40 degree spot in there somewhere.
However, bear in mind that full-stomached crickets make a better meal for Mr. Lizard than half-starved crickets, but they won’t eat if they’re too cold. They’ll just be on “hold”, with empty stomachs. That’s why all the cricket care sheets tell you to keep them at warm room temperature, so they’ll keep eating and live longer and be more nutritious for Junior. This is apparently going to be an ongoing problem, so maybe you should just get used to it. Do like Joey says and feed the noisy ones first.
What are you feeding them to?
The tinfoil lids was just so you could punch airholes.
I feel your pain, man. I keep crickets to feed to my 2 Firebelly Toads. Luckily, the toads are quite small, so I can usually get younger crickets that don’t chirp as much.
As far as noise goes, I don’t have much to tell you other than the keeping them cold sounds like it may work.
The cricks are going into our remaining Whites (Dumpy) Treefrog (Litoria Cerulea). His brother (we think) died at christmas at the age of over 8 years
I thought about hanging them out the window, but the temperatures get below that at night here still. The fridge is a no-go, as mrsIteki won’t even let old food be in the fridge, she sure isn’t going to let crickets (gotta admit, the idea freaked me out myself I might however experiment with a “freezer block” under their enclosure. Thanks for the tip! I will also be experimenting with some styrofoam insulation to dampen the sound a little.
You are lucky to be able to feed what we call “fleas” to your guys NoGoodNamesLeft, our guy is so lazy that he won’t hit them. The ideal ones are the “round” bodied cricks, bout 1.5cm, but sometimes the store only has these big, vicious, angular ones that are about 2cm. I am a little scared of them, but froggy doesn’t seem to be (although we don’t let him have more than one running loose in his house with them, cos they have attacked before :eek:
[TM Cricket I]
This one time, about 4 crickets ganged up on one other crick and ate him up, except for his head, which just lay there with the antennae twitching and waving!!! :eek:
[/TM Cricket I]
BTW, recently froggy has had little dot-things in his poop, could these be eggs from a gravid cricket, or does he need de-worming do you think? Going to examine his next couple poops to see if the situation changes, but rekoned I would ask while I was here.
I’m more of a lizard guy than a frog guy, but I doubt cricket eggs would survive the trip through the frog intact. (I never saw it happen.) Little dots in feces usually indicate parasitic “shedding”. Worming would probably be a good idea, assuming you have a treatment you know to be safe and effective.
Where I live there is (they tell me) a constant roar made by cicadas (which are similar to crickets, at least in noise). At times it is like being near an aircraft engine.
But I can’t hear them most of the time. Been living here so long I just tune them out. Someone from overseas comes to stay and says “how can you stand that noise?” and I just say “what noise?”
So the answer to your question is, keep on keeping crickets for long enough and they’ll stop making any noise, at least in the subjective sense.
In our backyard in the summer, those damn crickets are so loud you seriously cannot have a conversation without yelling.
Sorry to admit I bought myself a cannister with some insect spray and, well…you know.
Works for about two weeks, and then the next batch seems to arrive from nowhere.
Exactly what kind of lizard would I need to buy and put in the backyard and allow it to have a Vegas buffet of a lifetime?
I don’t think frogs would do too well in 114 degree weather…
Don’t complain about crickets outdoors. One of our neighbors brought a lot of frogs into the neighborhood and built a nice little pond for them. Soon, the cricket problem was eaten away, but with nothing much around that was interested in frog legs tartar and the frogs’ propensity to breed like crazy, we really are wishing the damn crickets would come back. If you think chirp chirp chirp at high decibel levels is bad, it’s blissful silence compared with croak croak croak.
Bearded dragons do well in low humidity weather. I keep mine in a tank with a cool side around 80 and a hot side around 90 and a basking spot between 100 and 115. But in the outdoors they’d probably get eaten by something else, or run away and never be found again. On the other hand, I hear cats will eat crickets too.
Get a cardboard box that is bigger that the critter box. Line the insides with 2 inch foam. Stick the critter box in and close the foam-lined lid. Stick it in a cool place like the closet. Be sure the soundproof cardboard box is not airtight.
My feeder crickets don’t chirp, but I get 1/2 - 3/4 inch, pre-wing ones and keep them for a week or less. They do make horrible little skittering noises, and they stink to high heaven. I’m lucky enough to have a boiler room in which to keep them.
Vegas would be a great environment for a bearded dragon. However, you’d need to enclose your entire yard in order to keep the lizard in and the predators out, and I don’t think they’d survive winter all that well. You’d also have to take care that they didn’t get any prey that might have come into contact with pesticides. It’s also a bad idea to risk releasing non-natives into the wild. Maybe a home-grown lizard would stay long enough to eat your crickets.
I’m in Albuquerque and I’m in the process of building an outdoor enclosure for my beardie to bask in during the summer. I have no expectations at all of her catching any wild bugs, since she’s so spoiled that she won’t eat any crickets that I don’t put right under her regal little nose.
Cats will indeed eat crickets. Unfortunately, they will then vomit the legs up onto your carpet or bed.
burp but in a day or two, so will my sanity. Was the suggestion of tinfoil lids something specific to cut down on chirping (tin-foil-cricket-hats!) or just so I could punch the holes?
I might however experiment with a “freezer block” under their enclosure. Thanks for the tip! I will also be experimenting with some styrofoam insulation to dampen the sound a little.