Caution! Where do you buy your crickets?

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up. I ordered some crickets from reptilefood.com and the first time I received a nice little brown spider hiding in the egg carton with the crickets. I thought, okay, it's just one spider maybe I just got one by mistake, no harm done.

The next time I ordered, I received not one, but six of these little brown spiders. Upon closer inspection, and browsing several web sites for identification, I realized that these were what appeared to be Brown Recluse spiders. If they truly are Brown Recluse spiders, than this is very dangerous because they do not occur everywhere in the United States and they could be spreading them throughout the country. If you don't know about these spiders, they are one of two dangerously venomous spiders in the US, the other being the black widow. If you are bitten by one, it can potentially cause the tissue in the area to become necrotic, or die off, leaving you horribly disfigured, in some cases even parts amputated. I would hate to think what would happen if your herps were fed one by accident.





Anyway, I will no longer be buying my bugs from reptilefood.com. I have tried Armstrong Cricket farms, they have a good reputation, but a bit expensive. Currently I am buying from http://www.wormman.com and I have been very happy with their service. Not only are they less expensive, but I recently bought 2000 crix from them, and to my surprise I got probably 4 times as many crix as with the other companies. The best part were that all of the crix were of approx. same size with no adults mixed in and best of all, no spiders. I am not trying to put in a plug for wormman. I am in no way affiliated with them, I'm just merely making a recommendation and warning you about reptilefood.com.

Thanks

 

how big are they

 

Size

They are approximately the size of a quarter with their legs outstretched.

 

man retilefood.com seems to be going downhill lately, we picked up a hitchhiker trying to get to the hospital after being bitten by one of those his whole leg was swolen so bad and it was black and it had to be very painful for him. i think he was okay but he was hurt pretty good by that little tiny thing.

 

Brown Recluse

Yeah they're bad news. They say that 90% of people that get bitten by them are usually okay, but I'd hate to be one of the 10% that suffer bad reactions. I've seen way too many bad things that can happen because of them, which is why I'm warning people. They've obviously got a problem with them. I've received them with every shipment. I didn't get any extra critters with Armstrong Cricket Farms or with Wormman.

Has anyone else had any spiders in with their crix from reptilefood? The first time it crawled out when I was shaking the crix out. The second time, I made sure to check, so I opened the box and pulled out the little egg crates one at a time and found six! Those were actual pictures of them I posted, by the way. I wanted to show proof to reptilefood in case they didn't believe me.

 

ew i saw smiders like that but there like the size of a grain of sand and perfectly harmless

 

Have you contacted anyone from reptilefood.com or at least sent them an email? I have also ordered from them many times in the past with no problems. It's great that you posted this, it will make many people like myself much more aware of these spiders arriving with my crickets.


Thanks for the info!

 

Brown Recluse are very dangerous. A former co-worker of mine was bit in the leg last year and she's been to the docs many many times and its still not totally healed. Another woman I know must have had a nest in her home because the whole family has gotten bit and are currently reciveing treatments. And one more woman amost had to have her arm amputated. Very scary stuff!

I would definatly be contacting the site you have ordered from and let them know, as well as passing the word along to check your crickets first. Its not only dangerous to our beloved herps, but to us as well. Thank you for the heads up!

Oh, and for the record, I buy my crickets locally--no specific place, just whoever has them in stock, which, having the small ones in stock, seems to be a rarety around here!

 

My GF just goes to a local pet store for her crested gecko. there are several stores around us that sell crickets

 

Goto superwormfarm. Cheapest ever! Great quality. My mother has been bit by a recluse... Her leg is digusting. She has to pick off dead skin every single day. And her leg is full of open wounds where sometimes she has to cast it even Her leg turns black(dead skin) and gashes and cut dead skin. Its horrible..

 

Reptilefood

I have brought this matter to the attention of Reptilefood.com. In fact I emailed them just today. I'll let you know what they say when they reply.

Wormman beats superwormfarm as far as pricing is concerned, at least for me. I usually buy 2000 crix at a time and it costs me $25.75 shipped. I checked superwormfarm and they would cost $29.03 with shipping, but that depends on where you live. It may be cheaper for someone else who lives closer to their area.

 

I guess I was lucky, I was bitten by one on my leg right above the top of my riding boot when I was 16. It turned black and blue, got very puffy and hard, but eventually healed itself with no need for amputation. I'm 20 now, and you can still see where it was, but it was absolutely no fun. I think it would be deadly to a herp to get bitten.

 

Wow thanks for the heads up!!! :shock:

I buy mine from my work. So I know where they come from ect..

 

I received a reply today from reptilefood. They thanked me for pointing it out and said that they would pass the message on to their vendors and that they would definitely take care of the problem. The signature was from William F. Lytle, Director of Marketing and Sales.

 

At least you got a response.

I had a bad experience with an order from them earlier this year, they shipped to the wrong address, and when I finally got the crickets most were dead. I emailed them several times, and never to this day have they responded.

So many people say the owner is a great guy, and the quality is excellent, but I won't buy from them again.

Your story is just frightening!

 

Actually I find the best place to buy crickets now is lllreptile. I can get 2k crickets for 26.99 no shipping charges and its 1 day delivery. Or 1k crickets for 15.99 no shipping and its 1 day delivery.(overnight shipping.

 

do they ship to canada?

 

No clue... goto there site and call them, whenever they have there store open.

 

well another heads up but this ones about wormman .com i ordered A order of 250 crix, it said that the order diditn go through so we kept trying different stuff.well it turns out every one that said it hadnt got through went rthrough, we wrote them via email, and my gramma called them. no response so now i have gotten 1,500 crix and we have to pay for about 8 or so orders that said they didnt go through.

 

Why did you keep clicking? Anyways atleast youll be loaded on crickets... Take care of them too! There like your pets too! until you rip there legs off and let your herps eat them that is.