Crickets breeding in humid hide

[geckomom]

During my last cleaning, I noticed teeny bugs crawling/hopping around my gecko enclosure, especially when I went to change the sphagnum moss in the humid hide.

Caught one of the bugs, looked at it under a magnifying glass (was worried it was some kind of nasty parasite), and found out it was a newly hatched cricket! Obviously, the crickets I feed my geckos are laying their eggs in the humid hide, and the eggs are hatching.

My question: Is this a bad thing, or a neutral/good thing? I know I'm not going to get lots of "free" food this way, as I'm sure not many of the baby crickets will grow to medium/large size in the enclosure. What I'm worried about is if the little crickets will irritate/stress out my geckos, or maybe bite them when they're sleeping (especially the 2 gex that use the humid hide quite a lot).

If anyone feels that this situation is not good, how do I get rid of the baby crickets/eggs? I use cage carpet as a substrate, which I routinely change, so I could get rid of the moss (which I've already done twice), the carpet, clean the enclosure out well....anything else I'd need to do?

And....how would I prevent this situation from happening again in the future? Use something other than moss in the humid hide? Suggestions on what else to use? Both the geckos and I really like the moss, but will change if needed.

Thanks in advance for any ideas/suggestions/advice.

[little_dragon_]

The only way you can prevent this is using damp paper towel in the humid hide until your female is gravid then replace it with moist vermiculite of cocobark. You can also collect uneaten crickets from the tank after feeding your gecko or buy pre adult crickets. Chances are a plump adult female cricket will always lay eggs when put in a tank with optimal conditions

[Youkai]

I've had this happen before. It's nothing more than a bit of a pain really.
Get a small jar, and put a tiny bit of honey in it. Just a few drops. Then put some kind of stick (popsicle stick?) leaning on the jar like a ramp. Crickets go up the ramp to get into the jar....and can't get out. You'll get most of them this way.

Good luck!

[geckomom]

Thanks so much for the suggestions!

At this point, I think I'll be trying both suggestions, just to get rid of as many of the pesty little critters as possible.