# Parasites in Crickets?



## BBJ (Feb 26, 2010)

Heya

I have been looking into expanding the variety of food items to offer my frogs lately, at the moment i feed with FF, Springs and Isopods.
After looking at my options i concluded that the easiest way to do this would be for me to order some micro crickets every once in a while.

I read somewhere (exactly where escapes my mind) that crickets often carry potentially harmful parasites.
Is this the case, and if so should i worry about ordering crickets from an insect supplier and feeding them to my frogs?

Regards Bjorn


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## poimandres (Mar 28, 2009)

Giving them ffs, springs, and isopods is a more varied diet than most receive in captivity.

I wouldn't bother with crickets, they provide very little of nutritional value in themselves and will quickly become too big for your darts. Plus no crickets is one of the best perks about keeping darts!

I know from first hand experience that crickets can introduce wood mites into your enclosures. Nothing too horrible, but something I would rather not deal with again.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

poimandres said:


> I wouldn't bother with crickets, they provide very little of nutritional value in themselves and will quickly become too big for your darts.


This keeps cropping up and is completely and totally incorrect. Crickets actually have a comparable nutritional make-up to other commonly available feeders... 



poimandres said:


> I know from first hand experience that crickets can introduce wood mites into your enclosures. Nothing too horrible, but something I would rather not deal with again.


What are you calling wood mites? 

As for the OP's original question... crickets are only a risk when the cultures in which the crickets were reared were kept unclean and cockroaches or rodents were leaving droppings for the crickets to feed on... This is comparable to other feeders getting contaminated or for example escaping and moving from one enclosure to another... 

Ed


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## poimandres (Mar 28, 2009)

Ed said:


> What are you calling wood mites?


I were told they were wood mites, tiny white/clear spider-like bugs. They infested the wood of the tank and everything had to be striped out. This was in an enclosure for large geckos who would not see the "mites" or whatever they were as food.


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Ed said:


> As for the OP's original question... crickets are only a risk when the cultures in which the crickets were reared were kept unclean and cockroaches or rodents were leaving droppings for the crickets to feed on... This is comparable to other feeders getting contaminated or for example escaping and moving from one enclosure to another...
> 
> Ed


Ed,
Does this apply to Coccidia as well?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Yep.. crickets can be a vector but the coccidia has to come from somewhere else. I would consider coccidia to be established in all collections, as treatment does not actually eliminate the coccidia from the frog.. it simply stops the shedding. If you treated a frog and then necropsied it, the histopathology would still show infection. 


Ed


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## BBJ (Feb 26, 2010)

Hey guys

Thanks for the replies.

Well, it is my hobby and i like to provide the best possible conditions for my animals, so adding more variety to their diet seems only logical for me 

I suppose when ordering from a reputable supplier of feeder insects there "should" not be any problems (i would expect them to rear the crickets under appropriate conditions), i think i am going to go ahead and give it a try, see how it works out.

Regards Bjorn


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## daryl34 (Feb 24, 2007)

Crickets can carry coccidia, as well as hook and tape worm. Plus a ton of other worms. Not a great idea parasite wise. Decent food too many down sides.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I don't think anyone is argueing that crickets cannot act as a vector for various parasites.. however as stated above, this depends on how much contact the crickets have with other infected vectors (like the aforementioned cockroaches). Crickets reared in clean conditions are not likely to be a vector for parasites for amphibians. (For an anecdotal example, at work I deal with a large amphibian collection that is routinely (minimal 2x year) monitored for parasites (and the monitoring includes necropsies on all animals). The majority of the diet for these animals are crickets which are ordered in from a supplier.. parasite outbreaks to date have not been linked back to the crickets, instead the outbreaks are linked to feral roaches gaining access to the enclosures.) If we are going to rule out the risk of arthropod transmitted parasites, then we need to move the frogs to hermetically sealed enclosures and all cage furnishings need to be autoclaved to prevent feral arthropods from gaining access to the enclosures at any time.... 

Ed


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## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

To add to what Ed said, it is also good to rotate your supply of crickets every few months if you plan to breed them. That way they are kept fresh and the likelihood of any nasties is kept down.


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## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

I`ve been feeding crickets for 15 years to dart frogs and have never had the collection get coccidia or anything throughout the whole collection, which leads me to believe that crickets have low liklihood of passing parasites on to your collection unless you have a situation where roaches and the like can get in and out of your cricket boxes. Not that it can`t happen but hasn`t happened here.


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## BBJ (Feb 26, 2010)

Well, i just fed my frogs their first crickets today, man do they go nuts for crickets!
They are currently up on the glass hunting down the last few survivors desperately trying to make an escape 
They crave these buggers even more than the springtails hehe.

Anyway, the company i bought them from seemed really professional, they strictly breed insects for the herp/bird hobby, delivery was quick and the container they came in is nice and clean, everything seems alright! 
So i am not worried anymore about feeding them crickets on occasion, dont want to get into breeding them though as i reckon that is too much trouble 

Thanks for the advice and opinions guys.
Regards Bjorn


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