Melissa
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Transferring Crickets from Shipping Box to Storage Container©1995 Melissa Kaplan
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When you buy crickets in multiples of 500, getting them from their shipping container into whatever you will be housing them in can be tricky assuming, that is, that you don't want dozens of crickets running around your home! Now, the idea of crickets chirping through the night may sound idyllic, especially if you live in a metropolitan area where the wildest wildlife you see are the roaches under your sink, but having crickets hiding under the carpets, feasting on the glue, and shrieking all night tends to wear thin after awhile. If you share common walls with other apartment-, townhouse- or condo-dwellers, be advised that crickets can and will migrate from your home to your neighbors' domiciles. Now, if your neighbor is also a herper, they may welcome the free food. If yours aren't particularly fond of herps - or bugs - like some former neighbors of mine, you may find yourself eating an exterminator's bill. While I was fortunate enough to not have to pay the exterminator's bill, I did make a concerted effort to make sure my xenophobic neighbor did not again awaken to find a cricket staring her down on her pillow. This is what I've found works best for me: Slice the box open and put the whole thing in a large plastic garbage bag. Open the box, take out the egg crate layers and shake them free of crickets one at a time; remove each one when done. Shake the box free of crickets once the egg crate is out. Put pieces of egg crate in the clean cricket housing container (the clear plastic 'Pet Pal' things with the colored plastic tops with the clear trap door), and attach the top. Feed the opening of the bag into the opened trap door. Carefully slide the crickets forward to the neck of the bag, and begin shaking them into the tank. Once the bag is empty, remove it carefully to shake off any clinging crickets, and voila! All crickies transferred without escape!
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© 1994-2014 Melissa Kaplan or as otherwise noted by other authors of articles on this site