#57 - SUNDAY, FUNDAY #5

Damn, it's bed time and I almost forgot my weekly totally random, dear diary, day-in-the-life, off-topic SUNDAY, FUN DAY post!

I love to educate and I love to tell travel stories and I do love to rant now and again. But these off-topic Sunday posts are equally fun for me and I hope some readers enjoy them too. If not, just skip them.

For this week's SF post I will just share my weekend. I worked the 9-5 shift on Saturday at On Target Range and Tactical Training Center. I close on Friday nights so it has affected the ritual me and my bonus dad Joel had going with dinner and a movie every Friday night. We go to iPic Theaters in South Barrington where I have a membership and we sit in our power recliners with pillow and blanket and order good food and drink while we watch the flick. Sometimes we eat beforehand at the neighboring Wok 'n Fire, which has some really good sushi - my favorite food. Now that I am working on Friday evenings, Joel and I have only occasionally been able to catch a movie together, the last being Amy Schumer's excellent Trainwreck. So I messaged Joel on Friday, and asked if he might want to come visit me at work before the end of my shift for a full tour followed by some shooting. I've taken Joel shooting at On Target a number of times pre-employment, but now I could give him the full tour and I no longer pay for range time and have a wide range of company owned firearms to shoot. On all of our previous visits I had just taught Joel to fire a variety of my own handguns. He and I shot machine guns and the .50 cal Barrett sniper rifle out in Arizona during one of our trips to Vegas, but I never shot rifles with him at On Target. We have 12 lanes of 25 yard pistol range on one side of the pro shop and 12 lanes of 50 yard rifle range on the other. He was surprised when I told him that instead of firing any of my guns including the one I was wearing for my shift, we would instead be shooting three .45 ACP handguns from the rental selection that I had chosen (Springfield Operator 1911, CZ 97 BD and Springfield XDM-45 Match), and also three rifles (Smith & Wesson M&P15 AR-15 with an EOTech red dot sight, a Springfield M1A (civilian version of the old military M14) and a Remington 700 with a Leopold scope). Both of the latter rifles are chambered in the powerful .308 Winchester (7.62 x 51 mm).

Anyway, here's a vid clip of the Honorable Joel Greenblatt (he's a Judge!) sending some lead down range with the AR-15.

After our range session we visited Kumi Sushi, which is also in Crystal Lake, for some fabulous fresh, raw fish.

Dining on my favorite cuisine.
I've lost 30 pounds now, but this is an unavoidable diet cheat.

Joel and I are going to Costa Rica for ten days at the beginning of December, and during dinner we discussed our upcoming trip. This morning I booked our rental car and made inquiries for our first lodging, which will be at the same location as my 2006 Costa Rica field trip's first base camp - La Quinta Sarapiqui near La Selva Biological Station.

Then I drove to Wheaton, Illinois where an "All Animal Expo" is held twice a month. It's worth the hour drive each way for me just to get crickets for $15 or less a thousand. I don't need as many as I did a month or two ago, but with 500 ct. boxes for $10 that probably contain almost a thousand crickets you can't go wrong and I'll just grow up the unneeded smaller ones. What I always do when they start to mature is dump that excess outdoors! I don't want chirpers or females laying eggs in my terrariums!

On the way there I reached out to my best mate Mark Pennell via FaceTime. Yes, it was while driving. I set my phone horizontally by my dash gauges and mostly kept my eyes on the road. Afterward he texted me a photo of my mates Ray and Ange Hale on his computer screen as he had FaceTimed with them next. Ray and Ange have run the British Tarantula Society for decades and are dear friends who I look forward to seeing on every trip over. I miss Mark, Kim and Brandon and am glad that Mark should be staying with me for a week again during the first week of October.

Rayzor and Angela - the heart of the British Tarantula Society

Two more of the BTS' finest and my dearest mates
Kim and Mark Pennell

Mark is the originator of the "Sunday, Funday" tag as he spends his well-deserved day off chilling and, more often than not, keeping Tiger beer in business. Kim and Mark and their families and friends are members of a local social club and pub called the P.B.A. (Port of Bristol Authority) and Sunday usually sees the whole gang getting together there. So, of course, he had to text me a pic of his first round of Tiger. My only drinking during my now month-plus diet was when I visited the Campbell brothers and the other Minnverts up in Minneapolis last weekend. I gained a few pounds back that weekend, but shed them and more within the next 48 hours so it was another well-earned and necessary "cheat". Now I have to be good all week as we have an On Target company BBQ at the boss' house this coming Saturday. I'll be headed there straight from work with a bottle of Breckenridge Small Batch Bourbon and some blackberry brandy for my boss and maybe a bottle of wine for his wife.


I had to deliver one spider order and also return a male Harpactira chrysogaster to Jason Newland. I had paired one female with the male two weeks ago (that video is here), but hadn't gotten around to pairing my second mature female. Last night, even though I was extremely exhausted and full of sushi and a big bottle of Asahi, I did pair the male with the other female before I hit the hay. Both pairing went very well so I doubt I will need to borrow Jason's male again. The female's are extremely receptive and the males are eager and fearless. I love Harpactira.

Harpactira chrysogaster, adult male

Of course, the first people I greet at each All Animal Expo is Randy and Randy Martinez of Evil's Arachnids. This father and son team have become good friends and also are customers. Mark had asked me to say hi to them and I took this photo to text to Mark.

Randy Sr. and Randy Jr. Martinez of Evil's Arachnids
vendors at Wheaton, Illinois' All Animal Expo

After the show I did what Sundays are best for - feeding spiders and napping! The feeding part is becoming a less-time consuming task, but I've still got plenty more to do on my Tuesday day off, which also will see me sending out more spider orders. I've got to open tomorrow morning at On Target, so now it's time to sleep.

Auf wiedersehen, MJ

#17 - CRICKETS SUCK, MY TARANTULA FOOD STORY

Before I start today's blog entry I want to mention yesterday's #16B. It asks that you create a free Blogger account so you can add my KMBHS Blog to your Reading List. That's the only way I know to "subscribe". I'll was going to keep posting announcements via social media (e.g., Arachnoboards Facebook group, my Michael Jacobi's Spider Shoppe page, etc.) and sharing to my Google+ as well. However, I have learned that posting a link to something that contains profanity violates Arachnoboards' fucking Faffbook rules. So, I will have to cease posting there. Debby of AB suggested I create a FB page for KMBHS and I have just done. So click the link and like/follow for announcements of new entries if you don't want to bother with the Blogger account. OK, on to today's Blog...

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I am highly allergic to crickets. If I touch my face after touching crickets or their frass my eyes become itchy and swollen, dry and red, and I have sneezing fits. It can ruin my day. I take antihistamines every day due to this allergy. But I keep using them. Why?

Some of you will recall that from 2005-2007 I published a magazine called ARACHNOCULTURE. You can still access much of what was published in the 7 issues that were released on my website. You can use the preceding link, but the page can be found via exoticfauna.com or just use arachnoculture.com, which redirects to the Arachnoculture start page of my Exotic Fauna network of sites.

ARACHNOCULTURE contained a column I wrote called the "Back Page". Much like this Blog, it often contained a rant of sorts that tried its best to be humorous. In the premiere issue the Back Page article was titled "Crickets Suck". So you don't have to click a link to read I will post that here so you will know all of the reasons I hate crickets. Then I'll have to explain why I am still using them.

Crickets suck!

You know they do.

They chirp chirp chirp.
They attract other nasties.
They die and have a vulgar stench.
They just don't die soon enough if ya ask me.

We believe they give our critters worms.
Nematodes.
That's when they don't spring to safety just as they're about to me dropped into a cage only to die later in a corner and stink.
Did I mention they stink?

Cricket farms charge a lot of money. Apparently people still buy crickets.
Who'd want to be in the business of raising these vermin anyway?
Still, they give us a bonus.
That's right. Free flour moths and fuzzy worms in every box.
For a lot of money.

Crickets kill molting arachnids.
Crickets escape and leave hard tiny crap pellets in their wake.
Crickets have a life span of about 60 days. Two months too long.

Pet stores sell these vile creatures by the dozen.
The kid who gets them for you will count and make sure there isn't thirteen.
Eight will be alive when you get home. Probably the eight that can chirp.
Female crickets have ovipositors.
That's a fancy word for the thing pointing out of their butts.
Uneaten crickets will stick these things in the substrate and later your cage will be overrun with flea-size baby crickets.
Ain't that special?

Which brings me to the roach.
Now there's a bug to be fond of.
They breed like... well, roaches.
They eat things that are free or cheap.
They live a long time for a bug. Once a breeding colony is established you have almost free food forever.
In an assortment of sizes.
Hail the roach! The roach is good!

When I moved to Seattle to take over Tarantulas.com and become General Manager of Northwest Zoological Supply I began working for a company that among many other things sold over a half million crickets a week. They were plentiful and I began using them again. My above "Crickets Suck" states the many horrible traits of the cricket, but with obvious bias does not mention any positives. There are a few. For one thing crickets are hatched and raised in age groups, which translate to size groups. Therefore they come size-sorted and this is a major convenience. For roaches I've made nesting 5 gallon buckets with various size holes to size sort roaches and this works well, but it is an extra step over just dumping a box of crickets in a big tub and having several size groups at the ready when you are feeding.

When I moved back to Chicagoland 2 years and 4 months ago I had nothing. I had sold all my reptiles before leaving and all of my spiders had been purchased by Tarantulas.com/Northwest Zoological Supply when I was hired in 2007. I shut down my Nashville "Spider Shoppe and Living Terrarium" and the only animals of my own were my late dog Taylor and my parrot Jesse. So as I began to resume operations here in Huntley, Illinois as "Michael Jacobi's SPIDERSHOPPE" I just started buying crickets. They were convenient and inexpensive. A vendor at our local twice-a-month reptile show sells boxes of 1000 for $15 and they contain about 2000. But my allergy hadn't diminished and it wasn't long before I started thinking about breeding roaches again.

Previously, such as when I had my SpiderShoppe in Nashville, I bred Blaberus species and Blatta lateralis. I got away from using any crickets and was a happy man. But I made the mistake when I tried to start using roaches again two years ago to buy Blaptica dubia. These are common and cheap and are known for their great reproduction. But they suck too! I always use scientific names so I ignored their common name. It is Guyana burrowing roach and the burrowing part is why they are horrible for tarantulas. Unless they are pounced on immediately or you have the time or desire to offer by forceps (I don't and HATE when people post videos using forceps to feed tarantulas) they will burrow into the moss or substrate and will become the spider's "pet". In the end I was just using the adult male dubia for my adult spiders and trying my best to sell all the thousands of others I had. It was a waste of time to clean them and a waste of money to feed them. I definitely don't like dubia. I'm sure they're great if you have bearded dragons or monitor lizards, but - in my opinion - they suck for feeding tarantulas.

I also started breeding B. lateralis again thanks to a gift from my friend Kristy via my bud Apple. These little guys are called red runners and the babies are great for feeding spiderlings. Unlike dubia this is a great species for tarantulas. The main problem with them is that the adults are the size of adult crickets so they aren't great for big tarantulas. The other problem with them is that they are very closely related to pest roach species and you don't want them loose in your house.

So here's how I got back to crickets and no longer have any roaches in my house... Before I went to Sri Lanka for four weeks in November/December 2014 I decided that I wasn't going to pay somebody to take care of the dubia that I was barely using. As I wrote, I'd use some of the adult males to feed adult tarantulas, but mainly I was trying to sell them and it wasn't worth the effort. I paid my friend Randy in spiders to take care of my tarantula collection while I was gone and wasn't going to have him also take care of the roaches. So at the October 2014 Tinley Park NARBC I sold off all the dubia in bulk. One species gone. I had intended to keep breeding the lateralis, but then I had some escape. I don't have a "Shoppe" anymore. I work out of my very nice house. Seeing lateralis babies on my basement bathroom floor pissed me off. It was winter and I was tempted to just put the entire tub outside to freeze. But I was able to find friends who wanted some and I passed on red runner genocide.

So now I am back to crickets. You wouldn't think a guy who wrote the above "Crickets Suck" would ever use one again. Irony. Life is strange. So, in closing, I'll tell you how I care for my crickets. I buy several sizes in bulk at a price that is very attractive. They are size sorted. I have thousands of tarantulas to feed and it makes my life easier. I pop an antihistamine. I try to remember not to touch my face. I wash my hands often. I try to clean their tubs just before taking a shower. I use big storage tubs, one for each size. Near the top of the inside I put a ring of 2" clear packing tape to prevent them from climbing out. I cut away most of the center of the lid leaving a protective ring (see photos).

I clean the cricket tubs daily to keep down on the frass and my allergic reaction and to keep them clean and healthy. I use a mini whisk broom and mini dust pan set you can get at Target or WalMart. I feed Fluker's Cricket Diet and use homemade "cricket quencher" for water. The latter is made with polyacrylamide crystals I buy in bulk from watersorb.com. Pour a 2 oz. condiment cup's worth into an empty gallon jug and fill 90% of the way with tap water. Let sit for a few hours or overnight and Voila! I offer them nothing else.

The largest size I buy is "5/8". I don't want winged chirping crickets and I don't want crickets with ovipositors laying eggs in my tarantula enclosures so I don't buy adults. I feed as many as I can and then within a week they do reach adulthood. At that point I stop using them as food. I put a shallow (2" high) tray of very moist coco coir in for 48 hours. Then I pull the tray, which is now full of eggs, and incubate it at 88-90ºF for 9 days to get pinheads to feed my baby huntsman and wandering spiders. For pinheads I may offer some greens or orange slices because they need some moisture. They'll seek cover under the leaves of greens and have higher humidity. If you keep them bone dry like you should for adults they will die.  Then, after the 48 hours or so of egg laying, I just go out to the field next to my house and dump the adult crickets. If you have the time you can go through and separate male and female into two tubs and still use the males as food, but I don't have that kind of time or desire. I am happy to just dump them all as I don't want to hear the chirping males either. In colder weather, well, they freeze to death.

I get more pinheads than I need so they get raised up for a week or two and become great food for my spiderlings that only costs extra labor and food/quencher. With three or four sizes of crickets I maintain my collection without the labor of roach breeding. Somehow I've come full circle and nobody is more surprised than me. Crickets still suck. They suck monkey ass. But, they are convenient and with a huge collection anything that expedites care and maintenance is welcome. Crickets are certainly easiest for small collections as roaches quickly breed and populations get out of control. I still recommend you use roaches for medium to large collections, but I don't recommend Blaptica dubia. A colony each of "discoids" and "lats" is best. But, for now, at least until I move my collection back into commercial space, I have returned to using crickets. Who would have thunk it?!?