Cracking the Glass Ceiling in the Shark Tank

I've never watched it, but apparently there is a show called Shark Tank; the premise of which is to give entrepreneur-contestants one chance to pitch their business idea to a panel of Australian entrepreneurial success stories who are genuinely looking to invest their own money in Shark Tank's minnows. I am not big on TV but I guess it must be entertaining? Recently, one contestant pitched the idea of edible crickets. This is hardly a novel concept! Herpers have known of the nutritional value of crickets for generations. 

To be frank, we herpers don't give a solid stool about how good they taste ; we just want to know how to catch the bloody things en mass so we can manage the voracious appetites of our little squamate buddies.

You see, the problem with all reptile keepers is that they are incapable of stopping at just one animal. If you have one Bearded Dragon it will need a mate. If you have one Egernia skink, you need a half dozen as they are gregarious and love hanging out in small groups. It is far more entertaining to watch a bevy of V. brevicauda than it is to stare at one solitary individual in the hope that it will do something interesting.

When you are a 'herper' feeding time at the zoo can be an expensive exercise and we all know times are tough. Ironically, reptiles were promoted as the ultimate FIFO pet because they gave you all the love you needed and they required a lot less love in return than a dog or a cat. Now so many FIFisters are without work and the poor buggers are struggling just to feed their own families, let alone their scaly mates.

If you find yourself in this situation then please don't despair. You don't need to pay $7.50 for a container of 50 half dead Indian House Crickets. Just fashion yourself a bloody big net, hang it out of the side of your car and drive across the nearest paddock. That is what I do.

In fact, I would consider patenting my own design of drag net, which comprises a pool scoop handle, some polypipe and a double bed sheet clipped at the end with glove clips (the FIFisters know what these are). 

Maybe I should raise some CapEx via crowd funding and produce a limited production run of what a friend of mine has affectionately dubbed the Bag of Mitch. I'll just have to make sure the idea does not get leaked out on YouTube by some unscrupulous bastard with an iPhone.