In college, I had a pet lizard that ate crickets. However, the dorm room was quite small, and keeping crickets on hand proved problematic, as their chirping at night was annoying, and interfered with my sleep.
Is there something I could do to keep them quiet during the night?
We buy crickets regularly for two frogs, and we have purchased crickets from two local pet stores. Every batch of crickets we have purchased from one of the pet stores is noisy, chirping like crazy. Every batch of crickets we have purchased from the other pet store is essentially silent. As a result, we now only purchase crickets from the store with non-chirping crickets.
I would suggest trying different stores until you find quieter crickets.
I originally thought that it was the different species of crickets at the different stores that caused the difference in chirping. However, I asked the guy at my favorite pet store. He had no idea what species of crickets he had, but he said that the difference was in the size of the crickets. He said that crickets start chirping when they get to about 1 inch in size. At other pet stores, their "large" crickets are 1 inch long, and lots of them will chirp. He specifically stocks 3/4 inch crickets as his largest size, and as a result, they hardly ever get a chirping one.
So if you need quiet crickets, get smaller ones. If your pet store doesn't have a good selection of smaller crickets, it is time to find another supplier.
Field cricket will not begin chirping until mid to late summer, when the breeding cycle begins. For much of the cooler part of the year they can remain quite (quiet) dormant.
Another thing is to leave a fan on blowing over your cricket tank, the movement of the air will mimic the possibility of nearby predators, and will often keep them quiet.
Also Chad's comment of putting them in with the lizard is not such a bad idea, as the the presence of a predator is a sure way to get them to stay quiet.
The colder they are the less they chirp. I put my aquarium with 50+ crickets by the window at night and they are ten times more quiet.
It's simple to reduce the singing of the crickets. You can either buy smaller or non-adult crickets, or turn a light fixture on them as if it were daylight.
By the way, the males are the only ones who sing to get the females attention.
I have been to my local pet store, and the side with the smaller crickets rarely ever seem to chirp. I suggest getting the smaller crickets.
