# How long do frozen crickets stay good in the freezer?



## ReginasMommy (Apr 13, 2011)

I'd like to buy a box of 500 or 1000 live crickets to freeze for Regina, but before I do that, I was wondering, how long can I keep the crickets in the freezer before they go bad?

(I'm sorry if this has been answered before. I searched through the topics but I couldn't find an answer.)

Thanks for the help!


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

i wouldn't get more than 500. Even at 10/day with Sumo, it is going to take a few weeks to run through 500 of the little creatures. I don't know the official answer but have had some for two months and they were fine - I would think the usual six months is a good guess. A lot depends on the container: I was using a recycled margarine container and there were a lot of ice crystals so I switched to a Ziploc 4 cup freezer container.

What I learned the hard way: Put them in several smaller containers, rather than all in one. Firstly, you're always opening and closing it, so more chance for ice crystals and germs or whatever. And if you put them all in the same container a lot getting squished, so you'll end up with a mound of legs, antennae and heads and odd looking, streamlined crickets. :shock:


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## rivoli256 (Mar 1, 2009)

MissC is the cricket expert!

i plan on getting mine in batches of either 150 or 300. my cricket eater is a DIVA so i don't want to waster them if she doesn't like them if they have been in the freezer too long. so i started with 50. moving up to 150 since i am increasing cricket intake.

just a note...PLEASE make sure you gutload your crickets. i am AMAZED at the difference. after having 1 gutloaded cricket, she would not TOUCH the ones that were not. she pushed them away & left them in a pile for me to find in the morning. she destroys the gutloaded ones...she is ON A MISSION to find them. 

if you are squeamish & don't mind looking silly, take your container with fruits & veggies already in it to the store & have the employee put the crickets in there with them. voila! then pop it in the freezer when you are ready.


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## JLF1995 (Jun 22, 2011)

Wow, you guys have containers for about 500 crickets!  The place I get my crickets the offer 100, 200, or 300! Never 500 or even 1000! I am jelouse! :lol:


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

My plans for gutloading my next batch were put off for now because I was offered a box of 500 crickets free that are already frozen by my boss. :lol: I'm going to have to get a second container to keep them in though, I don't think they'd even FIT in the one I have now.



MissC said:


> And if you put them all in the same container a lot getting squished, so you'll end up with a mound of legs, antennae and heads and odd looking, streamlined crickets. :shock:


I second this, I was initially keeping mine in a baggy and quickly ended up with this problem. :lol: Made it much harder to put the crickets in hiding spots while avoiding feeling how squishy they were after thawing. :?


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

JLF. We special order them. We just asked and they told us the date they do orders - a LOT of ppl do this for lizards etc. We paid less for 500 than we do for 150.


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## ReginasMommy (Apr 13, 2011)

MissC said:


> And if you put them all in the same container a lot getting squished, so you'll end up with a mound of legs, antennae and heads and odd looking, streamlined crickets. :shock:


Eew. Thanks for the tip. Whatever I can do to minimize the "ick" factor, I will. Also, I noticed in some of your other posts, you said you pick out the good ones. Do you actually go through all 500 one by one? :shock:



rivoli256 said:


> if you are squeamish & don't mind looking silly, take your container with fruits & veggies already in it to the store & have the employee put the crickets in there with them. voila! then pop it in the freezer when you are ready.


I have no problem looking silly :lol: And that's actually a really smart idea.



Lilysmommy said:


> My plans for gutloading my next batch were put off for now because I was offered a box of 500 crickets free that are already frozen by my boss. :lol: I'm going to have to get a second container to keep them in though, I don't think they'd even FIT in the one I have now.


How big should the container be to hold that many? Sometimes I'm a bit spatially challenged...



MissC said:


> JLF. We special order them. We just asked and they told us the date they do orders - a LOT of ppl do this for lizards etc. We paid less for 500 than we do for 150.


Ooooh that's quite smart. I'll be stopping at Petco on my way home from work...


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## zorropirate (Aug 13, 2010)

With Daisy's recent discovery of love of frozen crickets, I was totally talking to my mom the other night of getting one of those big boxes of crickets to freeze!!

I am NOT scared of bugs, even the live ones, I just feel bad freezing the crickets, because then it is me who is killing them. Sort of a inner delema for a vegetarian you know... 

Plus I have a chest freezer... and was going to foodsaver up the crickets in smaller batches once initially frozen to ensure no freezer burn.  I do that with my large boxes of turtle pellets. hahah.


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## beautsbelle (Jul 19, 2011)

Sorry if this is a repeat question, but what does "gutload" mean when you talk about crickets?? Do I even wanna know??


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

Yes...we go through them one by one...500 crickets takes a loooong time. If jamie is around and not crazy busy, he sits in the bathtub and grabs them as they jump out of the box (500 pack crickets are sold in a cardboard box :shock: ) and puts them in the gutloading container. If he's not here, I dump the entire contents in the gutloading container, then after they're frozen, I go through them and basically ditch any that don't look good, then when I take them out for Sumo, I check them again. You can just pick through them as you're feeding them.

"Gutloading" is just feeding them good food - green/orange veggies usually - before you freeze them. That way you get healthy stuff into your hedgie. The stuff crickets are fed in petstores SUCKS. As Rivoli says: hedgies can tell. Her girl won't touch the non-gutloaded crickets now.

I'm not a vegetarian but don't even kill mosquitoes...BAD karma!! BUT...I know I need to freeze the crickets. It's the most human way to murder anything - they slowly go to sleep (I checked). I also do it very 'mindfully' and feed them good food and in a bright sunny window first, then kinda thank and bless them as I put them into the freezer and when I am feeding them. I know it sounds weird but it makes me feel better, okay???!!!! :lol:


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## beautsbelle (Jul 19, 2011)

Whew! Okay, I thought it was going to be something gross, like taking out their guts (which I couldn't figure out how you did considering they are pretty small to begin with... not to mention mean...)

MissC, I too have a hard time killing anything (mosquitoes are they exception for me, because I respond to bites pretty bad)..... so I had a very hard time tossing anything live into my freezer. I too found out they just slowly go to sleep, so it is not as bad as one would think. 

What size do you feed your hedgie? I usually by 12 large ones a week for my daughters salamander, Jack. He is a hunter, so he wants his live and running around. I can't watch him eat. Did once and almost tossed my cookies. Legs all sticking out of his mouth wiggling.... ACK it was AWFUL. But for Rox, I got tiny ones, but I was not sure what a "good size" would be.


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## rivoli256 (Mar 1, 2009)

my girl is big so i get the large ones too. if Roxie is small or you are uncertain, you can start with the small ones & see how they go. you can try out some large & then see what she prefers.

ReginasMommy - for 50 crickets i got a container that was 6"x8"x2". it was plenty big enough, though at first it did not seem like it. for 150, i am going to get something either the size of a brownie pan (but not a brownie pan, obviously) or maybe one of the large, tall square plastic containers made for salads & the like. i will probably go with longer & more shallow as it gives them more space to spread out & not be on top of each other. i plan to get it in the next week. i will share what ends up working.


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