1) DISPLAYING CRICKETS
A: Most customers tend to buy their crickets on a weekly basis; therefore, it is very important to have your crickets displayed properly. This keeps your customers coming back to your store for crickets and not to the competition.
B: A display box can be as elaborate as our glass front display box which will hold up to 3,000 or 4,000 crickets or as simple as a 20 gallon aquarium which can hold up to 1,500 medium size crickets.
C: Crickets need plenty of standing room to minimize losses. In the glass front box they have three wooden walls to climb on. It is also advisable to lean one or two of the egg flats, from the shipping box, up against the side walls for extra standing room. In an aquarium standing room can be achieved by lining three of the side walls with cardboard from the bottom to within three inches (8cm) of the top. Crickets cannot climb across slick surfaces and this will help keep them in your aquarium. You should also tape a slick sealing tape or scotch tape over the silicone seams. To finish adding standing room to an aquarium cut one of the egg flats from the shipping box in half and place it at each end of the aquarium.
2) PICKING A LOCATION FOR YOUR CRICKETS
A: The location should be visible and not hidden in a back storeroom. Visual display will dramatically enhance sales.
B: Poisonous fumes will kill crickets so be careful not to have your display box near tick and flea collar displays or close to bird protectors. Paint fumes, No Pest Strips, cleaning supplies and ammonia fumes from Windex can all be poisonous to crickets. Crickets that die from poisonous fumes will always be on their back.
C: Direct sunlight through a glass window may cause excessive heat to build up inside an aquarium display.
D. Your crickets will live longer at moderate temperatures between 60°F and 85°F (15°C to 30°c). Heat speeds up their metabolism; therefore, you will get longer liability at 75°F (24°c) than if kept at 85°F (30°c).
3) FEEDING AND WATERING YOUR CRICKETS
A: You should always have dry food and a separate water source available to your crickets.
B: Chicken laying mash or chick starter is very similar to our feed formula. We also recommend using oatmeal or cornmeal as an excellent dry food.
C: We use potatoes in transit to give our crickets a water source and food. There is nothing wrong with feeding crickets potatoes or apples, but we do not recommend this because it can cause a damp environment which is not good for our species of cricket.
D: A watering device can be as simple as a sponge kept saturated or one of our plastic watering devices which keeps a constant supply of fresh water available for the crickets.
E: It is very important to ALWAYS have water available to your crickets. One of the quickest ways to kill crickets is to take them away from their water source. If you are using a sponge for your water source, check it daily to make sure it is damp!
F: We recommend cleaning your water source once or twice a week.
4) ARRIVAL AND DUMPING YOUR CRICKETS INTO DISPLAY BOX
A: Your crickets should always arrive in good shape. If any substantial problems occurred during transit, contact us for replacements.
B: Winter shipments that appear lifeless may be in a state of hibernation. During cold weather allow your crickets to warm up for two or three hours after dumping before passing judgement on their condition.
C: Each box of crickets will contain an extra 10% to 20% overcount to make up for small losses in transit.
D: Do not worry about injuring your crickets while dumping them into your displav box.
E: If your aquarium or display box has an opening less than 14" (35cm) wide, you should find it easier to dump your crickets into a plastic trash can finer, then pour them into the aquarium. Another method is to cut the box open around the small end with the vent window and dump them into the aquarium.
5) CLEANING THE DISPLAY BOX
A: Keeping your display box clean at all times will not only enhance appearance and customer appeal, but will increase the livability of your crickets.
B: We recommend sweeping the bottom of the box out two to three times a week to clean out any debris and dead crickets. We do not recommend using bedding because it may contain or absorb odors which could kill crickets.
C: Every two or three weeks it is advisable to scrape down the side walls to remove any cricket droppings.
6) CATCHING CRICKETS
A: Crickets like dark corners and will hide in paper towel rolls placed in the corner of your box.
B: It is simple to pick up a paper towel roll and shake the crickets into your measuring device or cricket counter for dispensing to your customer.
