Feeder Crickets

Question
Hi, I use crickets to feed my Bearded Dragon and lately I keep seeing these little gnats in the bucket with the crickets. I threw away their old bucket when i'd used all those crickets and got a new one, and a fresh batch of crickets. The NEXT day there was another of the same type of gnat in there. I usually only see one at a time in the cricket bucket, but they are starting to fly about the house in numbers. They aren't coming with my crickets, but is there any way I can keep them out of the cricket bucket?? I've tried keeping it clean, but as I said; they were in the bucket RIGHT after i'd gotten a new clean one. More important than anything; do I need to worry about these gnats? Will they be bothersome to me or the crickets(aside from flying around and being annoying)?

Thank you,
Kandis

Answer
Hi Kandis,
Hopefully you are also feeding your beardie a good salad mix of dark, leafy greens such as collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, etc.  The salad is the main part of their diet as adults.  The salad is about 90% of their diet with insects only about 10% which means offering insects about once a week.  This will help with your gnat problem also!
It may also help to use a screen/mesh type of cage for the crickets or a 10 gallon tank with a screen lid.
It sounds like the little bugs are possibly fruit flies which may be coming with the crickets depending on what food is in with them.
To trap the fruit flies(if they are fruit flies) you can take an empty plastic soda bottle and cut the top off and invert it over the rest of the bottle.  Place some cider vinegar or apple juice in the bottom of the bottle.  The flies will go into the inverted "neck" and get trapped. Here is a picture of the fly trap.
http://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/diy-fruit-fly-trap/
I would place this near your cricket cage.
They shouldn't be problem other than how they are always there!!
If they are not gnats, the "trap" above should still work but you may have to experiment with a juice to attract them to it.