NationStates Jolt Archive

I've recently acquired a juvenile Green Water Dragon, and all of the required accessories -- 55 gallon tank, porous substrate, plants, large water dish, heat lamp, UVA/UVB day bulb, humidifier, etc. I've also got 50 crickets sitting in my bedroom and chirping. It's gotten quite annoying over the past two nights.

To my fellow reptile keepers -- is there any way to shut these blasted things up? They're in the standard plastic Cricket Keeper from a chain pet store, complete with the weird little black tubes. I've properly fed them, cleaned out the dead bits from the last batch of crickets, and left several cubes of the all-purpose food/water/gutload stuff in there, along with a bit of cucumber for extra water. They're still chirping up a storm and it's not only irritating me, but my pet rabbit is becoming quite restless from the constant noise. He's begun to fling wood chips and cloth around his cage while rattling the bars with his head, so I know he can't be too thrilled about these stupid little invertebrates.

What makes them chirp? Is it the lighting? The sheer number of them in a small area?

Do they chirp all they? You could test whether it's light dependant by trying different lighting intensities (at the very least dark vs light).
Considering they're coldblooded, cooling would take some of the energy out of them..

Do they chirp all they? You could test whether it's light dependant by trying different lighting intensities (at the very least dark vs light).
Considering they're coldblooded, cooling would take some of the energy out of them..

I've tried dark, light, heat, cold, and even shaking their little house a bit. Nothing seems to work besides feeding them to the lizard.

I've tried dark, light, heat, cold, and even shaking their little house a bit. Nothing seems to work besides feeding them to the lizard.You could wrap rubber bands around each cricket... Or maybe just soundproof the box they're in.

You could wrap rubber bands around each cricket... Or maybe just soundproof the box they're in.


Right now I've decided a nice warm spot on top of the fridge will suffice. Since I took them out of the bedroom, they've quieted down a bit. Perhaps it was the room.

Right now I've decided a nice warm spot on top of the fridge will suffice. Since I took them out of the bedroom, they've quieted down a bit. Perhaps it was the room.

Its temperature that makes em chirp. Put them in the fridge and you wont hear em at all.

I dunno about shops in the US, but here in the UK they sell silent crickets in most shops now. Ask around. I used to have the same problem as I live in a small flat. It's a bastard when they escape, you can't find 'em and all you hear all night is them chirruping.Cooling them helps but can kill them. Best thing I did was to put them in a polystyrene box and stick 'em in another room.

Silent crickets are the way forward!

I may be wrong but I believe the sound comes from the males rubbing the back legs together (they got little barbs on the back legs). I believe it's a mating thing, calling for females.

put them in a different room?

No, you can't get them to stop chirping. It's a cricket thing.
FYI, that 55 gal aquarium will be too small in two years. If you want to get knowledgable answers to your questions, try this link www.faunaclassifieds.com. There is a whole forum dedicated to water dragons/agamids.

Take heart, before too long your dragon will be big enough to eat mice. No more chirping!

Aha. Not rubber bands then. But you can still pig tie them with dental floss.

No, you can't get them to stop chirping. It's a cricket thing.
FYI, that 55 gal aquarium will be too small in two years. If you want to get knowledgable answers to your questions, try this link www.faunaclassifieds.com. There is a whole forum dedicated to water dragons/agamids.

Take heart, before too long your dragon will be big enough to eat mice. No more chirping!

http://www.pulseplanet.com/archive/Jun00/2159.html
http://mealwormsdirect.co.uk/shop/catalog/Silent-Brown-Crickets-p-1-c-250.html

I have a lizard, and I used to feed it crickets.
They were HORRIBLE LITTLE BEASTS!!!
You have to be SO careful with them... because if they escape... well, you will hear chirping from places other than the damn plastic cricket home.

Solutions?
1- Get a cat. Cats hunt crickets to extinction.
2- Live somewhere cold. Crickets will probably head for the basement where it's moist. Leave a door open in the winter, and they freeze to death.
3- Find alternative food that the lizard will eat. I found out my Spiny Tailed Swift will eat soft meat... DOG FOOD. Yep. No more crickets. Pure, blissful silence. And all I do is get a little container of soft meat (FAR cheaper than crickets), give her a few chunks now and then, and my dog's happy too with the extra meat the lizard doesn't eat. ;) It's win-win!

I've recently acquired a juvenile Green Water Dragon, and all of the required accessories -- 55 gallon tank, porous substrate, plants, large water dish, heat lamp, UVA/UVB day bulb, humidifier, etc. I've also got 50 crickets sitting in my bedroom and chirping. It's gotten quite annoying over the past two nights.

To my fellow reptile keepers -- is there any way to shut these blasted things up? They're in the standard plastic Cricket Keeper from a chain pet store, complete with the weird little black tubes. I've properly fed them, cleaned out the dead bits from the last batch of crickets, and left several cubes of the all-purpose food/water/gutload stuff in there, along with a bit of cucumber for extra water. They're still chirping up a storm and it's not only irritating me, but my pet rabbit is becoming quite restless from the constant noise. He's begun to fling wood chips and cloth around his cage while rattling the bars with his head, so I know he can't be too thrilled about these stupid little invertebrates.

What makes them chirp? Is it the lighting? The sheer number of them in a small area?

I think there's some thing where if you count the cricket chirps in a second and then subtract 40 you get the temperature...

No, wait, it's the number in fifteen seconds, and add 40. Sources (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/elp/wxcalc/formulas/cricketChirp.html) are fun.

Edit, even better, a government site (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/elp/wxcalc/cricketconvert.shtml).

My daughter keeps crickets for her tarantulas. Not only is the chirping irritating, but the damned things are ventriloquists. They don't shut up. If your parents (assuming you live with them) are agreeable, try putting them in another room at night. It's the only solution she's found.

1. Get rid of the lizards.
2. Crickets make good bait for fish.
3. You can eat fish, I'm not so sure about lizards or crickets.:eek:

Whats wrong with owning a dog these days....

*mutters about young-uns'*

You could try feeding them locusts also. Get less in a tub and they cost more, but no noise. One of the main problems I've found with water dragons is their tendancy to rub their snout raw on glass (that's something worth looking up how to avoid). It doesn't seem to matter how big an enclosure they have (at college we had a pair in an 8ft x 2.5ft viv) they all seem to do it. I've worked in 2 pet shops (one was a reptile shop) and it seems to be a common trait. they just don't understand glass as a barrier. This can lead to mouth rot.

I've found the one place the crickets refuse to chirp -- right in front of the tank. Apparently they're not interested in making any noise when the lizard's less than a foot away.

Also, I know the tank's going to be too small in 2 years. We only paid $50 for it, so that's no huge loss. Our next step is getting a 100 gallon(within the next year) and putting it in the storage room until the lizard gets too big.