🦗🦗SPRICKET CENTRAL 🦗🦗

hey there! you can call me monster or Ray (ey/em or they/them)

this is a journal of sorts where i talk about my sprickets! theyre greenhouse camel crickets (Tachycines asynamorus), an invasive east asian species thats a very common household visitor where i live (new york, USA). i caught these dudes in my apartment, ahaha. i started keeping them on 12/6/2022

i mostly keep this blog for myself, but id love to bring other folks happiness with the antics of these lil guys. im very new to invert husbandry of any sort (my only real area of expertise is cats, ahaha), so if youve got any tips id be super grateful if youd share. theres so little info out there about T. asynamorus irt care.

I'll introduce my lil guys and chat about them below! [desperately in need of an update oops]

it sounds minor, but its actually the first time he hasnt freaked out when hes felt my hand near him, so im super proud of him! 💚 i always like to let the sprickets know im nearby by gently brushing against their antennas with my hand and giving them a moment to “sniff” me with them (and decide if they wanna run away), and King just sat and let me do my thing. so brave!

check this lil guy out!

i found him a few days ago at like 4am, ahaha. i was playing video games in bed and suddenly there was a lil guy on my shoulder???

heres a size comparison to my finger. not a fresh hatchling by any means, but still quite young! id probably guess only about a month old.

lil guy has a nicked antennae, but itll grow back just fine as he grows. hes still got plenty of molts left before hes full grown! they generally hit that point after about 4 months, so. no prob.

(also, im saying “he,” but in reality this little buddy is likely too young to tell his sex yet. i just tend to default to “he/him” for young spriggies because all sprickets look male at birth, with females only starting to differ in appearance around a month or two in when their ovipositor starts coming in)

anyway, here he is in his nice, proper enclosure! he actually managed to escape during the transfer process, but luckily i was able to spot him, recapture him, and escort him safely to his new home :)

hes definitely a fan of carrot! i think he feels more secure with that nice dark substrate too. nice camouflage.

no name yet, but he’ll have one next week!

good morning, Nutmeg.

i named him after the “king cheetah,” because his markings instantly made me think of their bold spots when i first got a good look at him!

Nutmeg is on the ceiling. of course.

and Paprika is out for a morning stroll!

the first is Nutmeg! last time i posted about him, he was still just a little nymph, but hes all grown up now! heres a pic of him enjoying some veggies!:

hes a huge goof who LOVES hanging out on the ceiling, lmao. hes up there right now, actually.

hes almost always up there when i check on him, ahaha. lil dude just loves to climb.

my other friend was still unnamed last time i posted, and was still just a speck! he, too, is all grown up now. im happy to finally have a chance to formally introduce Paprika!

hes much more shy than Nutmeg, and usually prefers to stay hidden in his cereal box or under his tp tube, but sometimes i’ll find him enjoying his climbing wall, or even the ceiling! regardless, as long as he’s happy, i am too, even if hed prefer to stay out of sight!

i like calling these two The Spice Boys 💃🏻

unfortunately, Halfpipe, Handkerchief, and Broccolini are all no longer with us :( thats always the sad part of keeping sprickets as pets; their lifespans are so tragically short. my dear Spice Boys are both approaching their one year Catchaversaries even, so who knows how much time we have left together. still, as tragic as the goodbyes are, the joy of watching these nervous little beans grow up healthy and happy makes it all worth it. theres a reason ive been doing this for three and a half years now.

as far as physical differences from my usual sprickets go, besides his stunning markings, i think the biggest difference ive noticed is, well… hes BIG.

like. this boy is ENORMOUS. he makes my adult T. asynamorus boys look like growing nymphs! i felt so bad keeping him cooped up in that tiny temporary tank for a day!

thankfully, hes all set up in his new home and, after about 2.5 hours of sitting on the floor in front of his tank waiting, i finally got to see him come out of the tube i used to move him! he went right for the food, ahaha.

GOD hes beautiful… hes like a clouded leopard, or a king cheetah! i really hope i find more of these guys in the future :,)

its also interesting that hes munching betta food pellets in that pic! ive offered them to my sprickets before, but i dont think ive ever seen anyone take much interest in them before now. i treated him to the full dry food buffet (cricket chow, bloodworms, betta pellets, dried baby shrimps), as i thought itd be interesting to see if D. japanica has different food preferences. he annihilated the bloodworms i left him with last night, so he deffo likes those too (theyre a favorite of my T. asynamorus buddies), but its cool to see someone finally go for those pellets. hey, if he keeps eating them, ill keep offering them!

ive GOTTA show you a pic of him from above though. look at THIS:

i just… MAN. i know i keep saying it, but i can NOT get over how gorgeous his markings are!!!

he hasnt done a ton of exploring yet (hes staying very still near his food tray as i type this), probably because i just reached in and removed the tube i transported him in and hes nervous about catching a predator’s attention by moving, but hopefully he’ll feel at ease enough to look around as the night goes on, especially once i turn all the lights off!

BUT… im back with VERY exciting news.

so last night, while i was chatting with a friend, Wembley started chasing something which, upon further investigation, turned out to be a spricket! this alone was exciting to me, because its been ages since ive seen any around the apartment, but it became even more exciting once i caught the poor fellow and got a chance to get a better look at him.

this guy had the most beautiful markings id ever seen on a spricket. big, beautiful, BOLD spots and stripes all over his otherwise light colored body.

upon some reflection, however, i realized i HAD seen markings like his before, never in person, but in pictures, way back when i was first trying to figure out what those giant, round crickets were the first time i spotted a spricket in my apartment.

and, friends, this beautiful fellow is NOT one of my beloved greenhouse camel crickets, aka Tachycines asymamorus.

hes a japanese camel cricket, Diestrammena japanica!

much like T. asynamorus, D. japanica is also invasive to the united states. however, while T. asynamorus has become a common sight all over the eastern half of the country, D. japanica is far less common, almost entirely seen in the northeast, with NYC as the “epicenter” of its invasive range.

looking at the observation map of D. japanica on iNaturalist, it seems like these guys are far more common on the western half of Long Island than they are on the eastern half where i live, so i suppose its not terribly surprising that this is my first time spotting one.

luckily, despite being a different species than my usual sprickets, i see no reason why this guy should require sigificantly different care. just like T. asynamorus, D. japanica is a dark- loving, humidity- loving, opportunistic scavenger who will eat just about any organic matter they stumble upon, so ive set him up in the same type of enclosure i provide for all my sprickets!

like “o okey dont mind if i doo”

SO SWEET…

he just kinda hung out, investigated a little bit, then eventually climbed back down at his leisure and hopped down onto his tube.

i have never had a spricket do this before. what an absolute sweetheart!!! im not shocked that he, of all my sprickets, would be the one to do it, as hes long been pretty relaxed around my hand, but… im so touched :,) …literally, lol

now hes munchin some squash :)

im happy to report everyones doing great though! no new editions to the family since i last posted, nor have we had any tragedies; everyone’s straight-up vibing!

heres Broccolini munching some veggies just now :)

firstly, that lethargic nymph with the missing foot is doing great! my mom suggested the name Broccolini for her, and i think its an adorable name for her :)

i know her tank is messy, but im about to set up a nice, clean one for her after i post this, i promise!

now, she HAS molted since i caught her, but instead of regenerating her lost foot like id hoped she would, shes actually… lost more of the leg? shes now missing everything up to the elbow :(

im not sure what to make of this tbh. i suppose its possible that there was internal/structural damage to her forearm that wasnt visually obvious, and that either the leg started regenerating from the point at which the damage started (it DOES look like theres some sort of dark little nub sticking out of the tip?), or perhaps she decided to gnaw off that part of her leg just prior to the molt, or that the leg was damaged in the process of the molt? she always walked around with the leg lifted and folded up close to her body anyway, so it hasnt actually worsened her mobility, at least.

i think she may have had her final molt recently, which means the window of opportunity for the leg to regenerate further may have closed, unfortunately, but shes thriving otherwise! im excited to get her into an upgraded enclosure with some nice substrate and more climbing opportunities!

next up, that tiny hatchling i found on my pillow a few days prior to finding Broccolini: early on, the name “Nutmeg” came to mind for her, and, well… guess i ended up naming her early, whether i wanted to or not, ahaha. luckily, shes been thriving! :)

i like calling her “Dearest Nutmeghan,” lol.

i ALSO found yet ANOTHER hatchling, last wednesday, i believe? i spotted the lil goober ambling across my bathroom sink, and, well… we all know i cant say no to a baby, ahaha.

no name yet, of course, but she was super energetic and curious when i caught her, and has had a healthy appetite, so her future is looking bright!

the boys are doing well too, dont worry! heres Halfpipe, sticking his lil head behind his climbing wall (he likes to scare me by hiding behind there):

and heres sweet Handkerchief, just hangin out!:

my first update is, unfortunately, some sad news: my sweet Holly died yesterday :( she passed peacefully in her favorite hangout spot, underneath her egg carton hide. she was probably about 9 months old, which isnt terribly old tbh, but not tragically young either, i suppose?

wednesday afternoon, i woke up and went to the bathroom and found a SUPER lethargic nymph lying on my floor. she was so worn out, the poor little thing hardly protested as i lifted her up and put her onto my palm.

i cut her a lil piece of carrot with a free hand and offered it to her, and she immediately started chowing down!

as i mention in the video, she looked very thin, and shes missing her foot on her left front leg. poor thing!

i wasn’t sure she was even alive when i first spotted her, and the ease with which i was able to handle her made me nervous, but the gusto with which she monched on that carrot gave me hope.

two days later, im overjoyed to report that shes doing fine!

ive gotta think of a name for her, but for now, im just happy to see her climbing about :)

i was able to run into the kitchen and grab the Jr. Tube in time to snag the lil goober before it wandered off. he went into Gay Baby Jail with no fuss, and immediately started munchin some carrot!