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Hay KMS Timothy + Crickets

KatiesPiggies

KatiesPiggies

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
42
I am really upset with KMS at the moment. I have 2 shipments of 15 pounds of Timothy hay and both are infested with crickets. It's absolutely disgusting. I have had to completely empty my room, shake all of my clothes and bedding, and spray massive Raid bug killer (not around the pigs) to make sure there weren't any more crickets after I discarded one box. I've never had any bugs or anything come in a KMS shipment and I understand they can't control it but it just disgusts me and makes me think twice about ordering from them again.

Anyway, I have the second shipment sitting outside on my patio infested with crickets and I really don't want to open it. My pigs are desperately in need of hay though and I feel bad procrastinating.

I'm wondering what I should do. I can't tolerate bugs at all as I am terrified. I can't be near them. Is there any way at all I can get the crickets lured out of the box? I want to be able to keep hay inside as winter is approaching and it would be miserable to have to go get hay every day outside. But I don't want crickets migrating into my room. How gross.

Any advice?

I was going to just go buy pet store hay so I didn't have to deal with crickets but then the problem still exists that bugs may be lured in.
 
Contact KMS directly. I'm sure they'll send you fresh hay. Can you just pick through the hay in the meantime until you get your new shipment?
 
Hay has bugs in it. That's all there is to it. KMS is no more likely to ship hay with crickets than any other supplier, and you've got no guarantee that the next box you get from APD or Sweet Meadow Farms or Oxbow or anybody else won't have just as many crickets or other bugs than the one you just got from KMS.

Crickets don't bite, so you can go open the box, get some tongs or something, and get out enough hay to feed the pigs. You can do the same thing with the tongs and transfer the hay, little by little, into another box and then bring the cricketless hay inside.
 
I would call KMS and make a complain.
 
Thanks guys!
I actually contacted KMS immediately after finding this nasty infestation and they would not send me another box of hay, wouldn't refund me, and honestly didn't seem to care very much at all. Which increases my disappointment with this terrible experience.

@ThePigAlchemist I will try that tonight!
@bpatters I thought about that too but I don't want to have to go out with tongs every day in a foot of snow this winter to get hay. Any ideas on keeping hay inside but keeping the crickets outside? I have a white 5 gallon bucket with a lid. I was thinking about filling that up with cricketless hay but will the crickets smell it and come in? That's my biggest concern :/
 
Do you have a garage? That's where I store mine. Come winter, they'll die once it gets cold enough. How many crickets are in there?
 
Well, I'm sorry about the crickets, but I'm not surprised that KMS wouldn't replace the box. I wouldn't have either, in their place. There's no way anybody who ships hay can control crickets in the product, not for a price that anyone would pay. Guaranteeing that hay had no bugs in it would probably quadruple the price, if not more than that.

Harvesting and distributing hay is almost totally mechanized. Nobody touches it anywhere along the line, so there's no real way to know what's in the hay. If it's in the field at the time of harvest, it gets harvested, hay and bugs.

Just get another box and stand on the patio and move the hay from one box to another. Or take it out in your back yard and dump the box and then pick up the bugless hay and put it in a box, then put it in your house or garage.

Crickets will eat almost anything, but they're not going specifically after the hay. So they're not going to invade your house looking for hay. But crickets will come inside when there are huge numbers of them around. I remember living in central Texas years ago when there was a bumper crop of crickets, and they were EVERYWHERE.
 
Get a pet frog. Free food! :)
 
I have crickets in my basement. No there is not any hay down there. They aren't going to hurt you. They're annoying but won't bite you. Hay is hay. It is grown in a field, and as @bpatters said, bugs are not a reason for refunds. If you are that concerned about it, then I guess you'll have to go buy some petstore stuff. Otherwise, pick through the hay, put the bugless hay into another container. Do this outside so that the crickets go out with the hay, and you leave them out.
 
how infested are they? I know I would be mad if I opened a box of hay and suddenly had hundreds of crickets in my room. If there's not a whole lot, then just leaved your hay open on your porch over night and have someone check it after. Hopefully they'll move on to bigger and better things.

Honestly, though, just be happy it was crickets and not spiders.
 
@pinky I live in an apartment with no garage :(
@bpatters So you don't think the crickets will smell the hay and be lured in? :/ That's my main concern.
@GeekPrincess It's not just one or two crickets. It's hundreds. It's disgusting because my patio is off of my bedroom and at night I can hear them chirping next to my window. Ugh. I'm glad it's not spiders! Haha
 
I completely feel for you. Unfortunately for me, mine came with spiders. They look like brown wolf spiders. Luckily not as many as you have crickets, but still lots. I didn't realize they were there right away and inadvertently allowed some (lots) to gain freedom in my house. I still have bites on my foot from over a month ago that are not completely healed. Thank goodness no bites on the piggies.

It's definitely a bummer, but you can indeed get bugs from anywhere. I even had one shipment of hay that I opened up to have a mouse pop out and scamper off. Lesson learned - now I open it outside.

I really wouldn't let this prevent you from ordering there again. There are the few unfortunate happenings here and there, but far more often it's great hay by honest and nice people that love animals as much as we do.
 
cavy_jdas said:
I completely feel for you. Unfortunately for me, mine came with spiders. They look like brown wolf spiders. Luckily not as many as you have crickets, but still lots. I didn't realize they were there right away and inadvertently allowed some (lots) to gain freedom in my house. I still have bites on my foot from over a month ago that are not completely healed. Thank goodness no bites on the piggies.

It's definitely a bummer, but you can indeed get bugs from anywhere. I even had one shipment of hay that I opened up to have a mouse pop out and scamper off. Lesson learned - now I open it outside.

I really wouldn't let this prevent you from ordering there again. There are the few unfortunate happenings here and there, but far more often it's great hay by honest and nice people that love animals as much as we do.
Click to expand...

omg.... I'm freaking out. I repackage my hay from the box to yard waste bags and store them in my garage. I cover them with a bed sheet to keep things from crawling in. I hadn't thought about things crawling out..
 
Kelsie said:
@KatiesPiggies , I really feel for you. I know that many crickets would freak me out too. I know @bpatters is right in that no company can guarantee that their hay is insect free, but still I'm a little surprised that KM isn't offering anything to you. They have excellent customer service. Sometimes a company will work with you just to keep the goodwill.

I hope you can eliminate those crickets soon. Just like spiders, they belong outside.
Click to expand...

I've never seen anything in KMS hays or any other I have tried but yes, ANY supplier can have insects in their hays. I mean no one is sorting the hay picking things out. That would be nice but would drive the cost of hay through the roof. They just bale it. KMS is great and I can understand why they aren't taking it back. Nothing wrong with the hay itself so why take it back? Now if the hay came of low quality like someone a few months ago had an issue with then the supplier should exchange it and they did.
 
I've never found any living things in the hay I've bought. I always open the boxes outside, though. Not because of what might crawl out; just because I don't want hay dust in the house.
 
@Kelsie I totally agree! They need to keep their booties outside :)
@cavy_jdas Oh no! That is so freaky. I'm sorry about your poor experience this time around as well!
@Artista Yeah I understand they can't pick through every bale of hay. Just stinks to have these occurrences

Last night I put latex gloves on, made a raid barrier between me and the box lol, and used tongs (and my boyfriend) to pry open the box. Nothing popped out right away thank God. But as my boyfriend was digging through, he shook each bundle and we put it in the 5 gallon bucket. We successfully completed that task cricket free. So I go to close the box and of course crickets start coming at me who is the scared one. How annoying!
 
I think Ill stick to non-bulk hay for now... I could handle crickets and mice (my cats would love to have a house of crickets to chase) but a box full of spiders would literally send me in to a panic attack.
 
May as well ask another question while I'm at it! There's a tractor and supply store close by and I have been told they sell hay. That way I don't have to pay for shipping. When I buy from KMS the shipping is more than the stinking product. Have any of you bought hay from a feed store or supply store? Is it quality?
 
The quality depends entirely on the growing season and where they get their hay. It may be local, it may not be. You'll just have to go look and see.

I live in south Texas, and while Tractor Supply sells hay, I wouldn't buy it for my guinea pigs. Coastal hay is very poor quality, and I'd far rather pay the shipping and get good hay than give them that crappy stuff. If you live where grass hay is grown, it's probably fine.
 
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