# ranting about crickets and phoenix worms



## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

Here is my rant about my recent cricket and phoenix worm order.

I have been buying crickets from pet stores or bait shops, but they run out all the time, so I decided to buy from _______ (I know I can't mention the business) At the same time I placed an order for extra small phoenix worms since they have such a high calcium content so I thought I'd try them. Well, their 2-3 day delivery turned into a full 7 days. The crickets arrived yesterday and the worms arrived today, along with some moss that I also ordered. The crickets were actually in the box that was the shipping box. What I mean is that there was no second box and I didn't know it so I opened the package and crickets started jumping out in my living room. Who does that?!?! How was I supposed to know they were not double boxed? I thought that was not a very nice thing for them to do to unsuspecting customers. I expected another box to be inside there that contained the crickets. Anyway, they also have a live guarantee, but about half of the crickets were dead on the bottom of the box. By this time I was too disgusted with the whole process to bother contacting them AGAIN about the dead crickets. They don't return emails right away, it might be the next day or the day after, and they don't give a phone number, so I havent' been able to actually speak with a person. So about the phoenix worms. They are too big for my darts, and they are too small and slow moving for my tomato frogs to take notice of them. I know they will grow, so I guess I will try to keep them alive until they grow and see if the tomato frogs will eat them then. 

So anywhere, where is a good place online to order crickets? I don't want to order from this place again. MAybe I wouldn't have been so mad about it if my three kids hadn't been sick ALL WEEK LONG, and whiny, and I have been taking care of them, and every once in a while you just need a break from it all...


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

> The crickets were actually in the box that was the shipping box. What I mean is that there was no second box and I didn't know it so I opened the package and crickets started jumping out in my living room. Who does that?!?!


Actually, that's how all of the cricket shippers do it. The only reason you didn't know is because you bought the tiny crickets that don't get a screened box, the larger crickets get a box that has screem windows so you know there are crickets in them. Reguardless, that is really crappy. 

If you don't mind, PM me who you ordered from. I have a place I won't order from because of a lost shipment and not returning emails.



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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

defaced said:


> > The crickets were actually in the box that was the shipping box. What I mean is that there was no second box and I didn't know it so I opened the package and crickets started jumping out in my living room. Who does that?!?!
> 
> 
> Actually, that's how all of the cricket shippers do it.


Not true!

ebugco.com ships their pinheads in a bag, with eggcrate, inside a box.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Pardon me, change "all" to "most". All of the cricket shippers I have ever used ship crickets in one box. I've never even heard of ebugco.com.



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## Guest (Mar 18, 2006)

I have a friend that gets his crickets from superior ent., he swears by them....not at them! He's been very happy with them.

Peace out,
kenny


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Like defaced said most people ship crickets like that, and there are tons of good places to order them from. Check out the links as there are a couple cricket sites on there as well.


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## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Anyone I've ordered from has crickets in the same box as the shipping box as well. Try http://www.wormman.com. I've had a few issues, but they've been resolved in timely manners, which is just as important anything else.


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

I will try a new place to order from next time. I still have not got an answer from my last email about this shipment, and I don't know of any other way to contact them. Oh well. ITs funny looking back on it how I opened the box in the living room and the crickets started jumping out. I have always gotten mine from local stores, I didn't know they would ship them like that. Now I do and I won't open the box up inside anymore!


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

A good way to get crickets out of one of the shipping boxes is to make a 'vee' cut across an upper corner, then invert the open end over a container and start gently tapping the sides of the box. I do this over a sink (utility sinks work great). It takes a little time to get all the crickets out of there, especially with pinheads, but keeps any stray crickets down to a minimum.

Bill


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

I have one of those cricket boxes like pet stores and bait shops use outside in my shed. I just took the whole box and set it over in the cricket box. It had egg crate in it, so I just pick it up and shake it over into my dusting cup.


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## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Don't worry, that happened to me with 1/2" crix one time.... awful mess, they were everywhere! Luckily I was able to close the door and the ones I could get by hand were trapped by my free-roaming tarantulas (haha, I wish). Aka, the Roomba!


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Not to get off topic, but I found that glue traps (for mice) work fairly well to catch free ranging crix...


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

So are pomeranians. Bugs in the house drive her crazy and she won't rest until they're gone. She's better at catching houseflies than my nepenthes (pitcher plants).


Josh, you have a roomba? I've thought about getting one of those, does it work well? Talk about driving the dog crazy...


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

ouch, that sucks. main reason i don't like buying live stuff online.
but...why can't you name the place you baught them from?
it'd sure save any members here from having bad experiences with them.


i had a somewhat similer experience with crickets last janurary.
i had just gotten a box of 300 3/4 inch crickets from a local petshop. i opened the hinged flap and dumped some into the viv and then closed it up again and went elsewhere. i came back a few hours later to see the flap wasen't closed all the way. atleast half the crickets escaped into my bedroom, they were everywhere and my 3 cats were going nuts playing with them. i was able to catch some of them over the next few days. i was finding them in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in my shoes, in my bed, pretty much everywhere in the house.


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

zaroba, unless the seller is listed in the "registered venders" section on this site, we are not allowed to post anything negative in case of a lawsuit. If it was a good experience I had I could say it. I'm not sure why they are so strict about it here on this site unless someone sued in the past. Other sites you can mention things like that with no problem. But we can get around that rule by saying we had a bad experience with someone, and then if you are interested in who it was you can PM me to get the name.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13913

I pressed for an answer to that exact question in that thread and basically got that it's because it has happened to other forums, though no specifics were given. I took the discussion to PM later in the thread and have since deleted them so I can't be of more help.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

For right now the only vendor feedback that is allowed is for "registered vendors". It’s ok to recommend places and etc, and if needed say send me a e-mail and I can give you some information. I know this may seem rough, but as already sated we can not risk a lawsuit.

So things like "you may want to check out so and so... "and "if you want to hear more about the cricket issue I had, send me a e-mail." Are ok, but not direct comments with their business names unless they are registered. If you'd like you can feel free to contact the business and ask them to become a registered vendor.

There have been a number of forums that have been sued out of existence over minor comments like this and I hope everyone as well as I do, does not want that to happen here. I can honestly say one of the main reasons I wanted to take over this site is that it was constructed with a good legal sense of mind. In the long run this offers protection to the site and its users.

If you have any questions please feel free to send me a PM or an e-mail.


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## ~Fluff~ (Feb 10, 2006)

I order my pinheads from http://www.nyworms.com/. I have been using them for years and my crickets are always double boxed. My pinheads come shipped in deli cups inside a box, inside a box. I to would expect the boxes to be doubled.


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## snmreptiles (Feb 26, 2004)

We have ordered from reptilefood.com for years. They only double box in the winter months with heat packs. In the summer you will just get the box that the crickets are in. They too have a live arrival guarantee, but are very easy to contact when you have a problem. Better luck next time.

-Shelley


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

sued over comments? thats pathetic.
if the company diden't do anything wrong in the first place, then they would get no negative publicity.
also, since when is it the sites fault when thiers freedom of speech?


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

Well, I deal with that on ebay. Ever shopped there? When I have a bad experience with a seller I will leave either nuetral or negative as it warrants. What do they do? They retaliate with negative feedback even when I did nothing wrong. That is how there are horrible sellers there who will steal your money and ebay does nothing about it. I have had that happen on more than one occasion. Why do I keep shopping there? I don't know, except that sometimes I need something that I can't buy anywhere else, and they are not all crooked.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

This is the world we live in... Sure I don't agree with it, but none factual bashing can also lead to many other things. In many ways I understand its a better safe than sorry approach, but really a forum full of bashing really has not place as well. As long as people know who the good vendors are does it really matter other than to rant?

Also remember on the eBay comment they employ an entire staff to mange that headache... Boy would I not want to be them...




zaroba said:


> sued over comments? thats pathetic.
> if the company diden't do anything wrong in the first place, then they would get no negative publicity.
> also, since when is it the sites fault when thiers freedom of speech?


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

Supposedly they emply staff, and so does paypal, but not once have I gotten anything done about deals gone bad on ebay. Still to this day there are people out there who have taken my money and never sent the product. The most recent was some plants I ordered, and it was someone that I had bought from before! Go figure. He never shipped and wouldn't answer emails. I complained to both ebay and paypal and never even got an answer. I went through all the hassle of filling out everything, but nothing was ever done.


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## bgexotics (Feb 24, 2004)

I reccomend reptilefood.com as well. I have been using them for years. They are quick to resolve problems such as dead crickets (which rarely happens).


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

bgexotics, I will try them next time. I am ordering 1000 at a time, and I am only feeding two tomato frogs with them, so they last a long time.

Zaroba, the one time that I had money given back to me through a paypal incident was when I was able to get my bank to refund the money. Banks are great about it. PP and ebay are not.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

> Sure I don't agree with it, but none factual bashing can also lead to many other things.


What about factual information that is negative in contex?


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

defaced said:


> > Sure I don't agree with it, but none factual bashing can also lead to many other things.
> 
> 
> What about factual information that is negative in contex?


The problem is "whose factual information". There have been several situations where a poster stated that they had been 'cheated' by a vendor...the board gets all fired up cyberlynching said vendor (after of course offering tons of 'expert' legal advice and also adding their own horror stories about working with other vendors), and when all is said and done, either both sides are deemed to be in the wrong or worse yet, the poster has placed false or misleading information on the board. 

I suppose if one had taken a person/business to court and won a legal judgement it might be a different situation. 

Bill


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Makes sense. 

Then what about threads like this: (Ex) where a person makes negative claims about a product without solid proof? Why are these posts/threads allowed? Is it because the post is about a product and not a particular company?


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

We had an interesting discussion about that particular thread as to its disposition. Without recapitulating all the discussion, we concluded that leaving on the board with a reminder to folks to stick to facts and avoid jumping to conclusions was adequate. But it's a fine line. Too much moderation and people scream censorship, try to be a bit more flexible and get accused of inconsistency....Oy Vey!!

I always advocate that people use some discretion is discussing these types of situations....there is a big difference between "Product A totally sucks" and "I tried Product A and didn't have much luck with it" The first obviously a broad categorical statement unsupported by facts and the latter being presented as personal experience.

Bill


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Thank you for your explaination. I totally agree with the necessity for facts to be presented and opnions/assumptions to be stated and the evidence to support said said opnions/assumptions.


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