# gryllus assimilis- Jamaican cricket



## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Is anyone raising Jamaican field crickets? Several cricket farms are raising these instead of A. domestica since the virus destroyed many businesses.

However, I've read several accounts online that these crickets are very aggressive, can bite and draw blood, and have maimed many keepers' herps in the process.


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## BlueRidge (Jun 12, 2010)

I've read that they chew alot, possibly on your animals.


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## Hatmehit (Jul 9, 2012)

I've been working in a pet store since before the switch and in my experience the new crickets are FAR more agressive. I've dumped a handful of small sized jamaican crickets into a container with some baby cresties and seen them make a beeline to start biting the reptiles. The store I work at now won't carry them because they're so aggressive. I actually received a pretty painful bite on the shoulder from an adult cricket and developed hives. Clearly I'm slightly allergic, but I've never been bit by a house cricket.

I would recommend being extremely careful feeding jamaican crickets to anything smaller than a beardie. More than with house crickets, make sure everything is eaten and remove any extras or you'll almost certainly see nibbles on your more delicate pets. They're really nasty.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I've been using them as well as _Gryllodes sigillatus._ I have not seen any aggressive behaviors above that of a house crickets (and I've been using them consistently for weeks now (I buy several thousand at a time). I also make sure that my crickets have had access to food and water for at least 48 hours... With one of the lizards I'm trying some things with, I simply put a small piece of orange in the tank and the crickets ignore the lizards and feed on the orange. 

I suspect that the issues people are seeing is because they buy the crickets, offer them unpalatable high calcium food and water sources and the crickets are reacting to the poor diet and insufficient time to fully rehydrate and maximize nutrition...... 

Some comments

Ed


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Ed, what age group and type of animals are you feeding the crickets to?

Where did you get the sigillatus?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Ghann's...they are switching from the assimilis to the sigillatus. Both of the Gryllodes ssp have a much better survivial rate than A. domesticus. 

I've used them for lizards (leopard geckos), Ceratophrys stolzmanni, C. ornata, Anaraxys terrestris and D. ebraccatus and even tried smaller ones for my D. truncatus. 
Even with very sedentary species, I have yet to see any attempts of predation by the crickets. 

Some comments 

Ed


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I thought I'd link to this topic, since it was discussed a while back.

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/57709-getting-other-feeders-approved-aphis-usda.html


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

Ive been using from Ghann's since their switch and buy 5000 at a time. I have not had issues with aggression but I always feed/water the crickets b/f feeding them off [gut load]. 

They are easier to work with IMO, slower, less 'hoppy', and the survival rate [5000 crickets takes me a while to feed off] is better IMO.

S


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Shawn, that is pretty much my experience with them. One of the things that really seperates them in my opinion is that they are more capable of a verticle jump than regular domestic crickets. I had to put lids on the aquariums to keep them in.....

Ed


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