Back to reading this again because I'm picking up crix tonight.

I have a 20 gallon tank with a wire mesh top. I'll pick up a new timer so they can have heat/light for half the day since you say the drying of the air helps with the smell. They will probably be kept in my basement so I don't have to listen to them. i have 2 egg cartons and some shallow dishes for water and food. do you put anything on the bottom of the tank? Like paper towels? Or do you just clean once in a while?

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I use newspaper on the bottom, makes it easier to clean

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Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "

thanks~

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I would keep the light on 24/7. It keeps the air dry and you don't have much circulation in a glass tank so it would help. You only need a very low wattage bulb.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

And don't give them a bowl of standing water. Crickets are exceedingly stupid and if there is a drop of standing water they will figure out a way to get in it and die!
You can use cotton balls soaked in water or just give them peices of potato for moisture.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

ok, for water I have a dish, but I filled it with small pebbles so they can't drown.

for food.. how stupid are these bugs? I have the food in a very shallow ceramic cat bowl, maybe 2 inches tall. Will they find the food well enough? I see them all around the base of the bowl but never in it. idiots!

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

You can put the egg crates over top of the food container. They will find their way in from there. But an easier way is to carrots. They can get food and water from it and they don't mold very easily. That's how I keep mine. Usually 1000 in there at a time. Take out the ones you're feeding for the day in the morning and put them in a gutload container. I only clean it out once a month when I put in a new batch of crickets. Using a water dish will become very messy.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

so the stupid bugs need a ramp to get to the food. Got it. I was thinking of putting it on a tupperware lid instead so it was ground level.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I use crumpled newspaper for substrate, filling the container 2/3 full with it to give me work space near the top, crumpled damp paper towels for water - they'll drown themselves even in a dish w/ pebbles, or a sponge filled w/ water. as someone else said, if there's even a tiny drop they can reach, they'll suicide in it.
for food, i use crushed rat pellets, but dog food, cat food etc work well too. just crush them to a powder and sprinkle around the container so it sifts down thru the crumpled newspaper - that way there's food at all levels, and w/ several damp paper towels, there's water at all levels too. i replace the paper towels every couple of days - the old ones just serve as more floor space.
for containers, i use tall 6 gallon or so garbage cans from the dollar store, take a cheap dish towel or other fabric, and fasten it over the top w/ a large rubber band.
some of the commercial food products are only gut loads, and the excessive amounts of nutrients actually are harmful for the bugs, so many people end up buying 2 dozen for every one dozen they get to feed. if you use a commercial product, make sure it isn't a gut load, until the last few hours before you feed them. also, if you use the rat pellet/ dog food as crix food, you can add lots of stuff to it to make it essentially a long term gut load, such as vit and cal powders, powdered milk, crushed cereals, basically, anything dry that you can put in the blender and crush into a fine powder, they will eat. just match up the nutrients on your favorite gut load w/ dry ingredients, in a lower percentage, and your bugs will have good nutrition long term, cheap, and you won't even need to gut load, and you'll have lower mortality rates. toss in the occasional fresh fruit or vegetable, like carrots, apples, etc, and its even better.
Oh, btw, i've been successfully raising crix to feed my six lizards, a tarantula, and have several hundred excess each week to sell to a local shop, for over 2 years now.
good luck
brim

Crickets are drawn to dying for some reason. They are pathetic.