Cricket breeding

[KiratheGecko]

Ok. I know a lot of you only use mealworms,waxworms,etc. But some of us use crickets still.If you use crickets,then you know that they can get pricy (mine are 11c a cricket!) and then the crickets thank you for buying them by dying! And yoou can't ust get crickets from bait stores or outside;who knows what kinds of poison are on them!

Well,I thought about all this and decided to breed my own crickets. I just started about 3 days or so ago,and have been away ever sense.(sorry if i misspellled that,my laptop's keyboard stinks.>_<)

I just started so I won't know everything about it,and if i cant answer a question you have,I'll google it.

Right now at home,i have 3 female crickets and 1 male cricket together in a cage.You're probly wondering now how I can tell the difference.Look on you're cricket's butt. If it has a third black stick there,it's a girl. If it only has 2 brown sticks,it's a boy. The 3rd black strick is called the oviposter,and is what the cricket uses to lay her eggs.

So reply with any questions you have.

Good luck!

 

[Olimpia]

Well, I haven't managed to breed my crickets to an extent that makes any difference because I also feed a lot of crickets to the reptiles we have, so we never have a colony set apart just for breeding.

I recomend this site: https://www.reptilefood.com/reptilefood/default.asp I get my crickets from there and they are not very expensive. If you get say 2000, with shipping and everything each one comes out to .001 cent! So if you want a larger colony you could order a group of the bigger sized ones and set them aside so you have more breeders.

I think though that the general idea to breeding them is to provide some soil. I've heard just to put something like a flatter tupperware thing filled with regular, safe soil in there with them and that they'll lay their eggs in there. I've seen them do it, you'll see the females stick their oviposter thing in the dirt repeatedly. And if I remember correctly, remove the tupperware and keep it in a separate place so the eggs can hatch safely without the adults eating them. And I think that's about it - I've had mine breed by accident, so if you actually try it should be a breeze

 

[osbain]

what are u useing as a substrate for the eggs to be lay into, and why so few to start breeding with... everywhere i have read has said to use at least 25 to start because females only lay about 25 eggs each. Also, how do u plan to incubate the eggs?

 

[STUTFL]

Females don't sing, either.
I'd probably use more crickets. They're bugs, not geckos, after all.

 

[KiratheGecko]

For the substrate question,my bro has fish and puts some play sand in his tanks,so I use some of that. He got the sand from home depo.

I used google for the incubation question (i don't have the sheets of paper that have my instructions on them with me right now >_<.),and it said that you should keep the baby crickets at about 25 degrees c,and the adults at about 30 degrees c. Remember to seperate the Adults from the babys,unless you want hurt or even killed baby crickets!

Oh,and I heard the females lay about 100 eggs per year i think!

 

[STUTFL]

Per year? How long do crickets live, anyhow?

 

[ark]

Here are some photos of my small scale cricket breeding. The 3 boxes are:
1. the boxs for adults with the egglaying boxes in it
2. "the kindergarden" where they grow up, with i also feed from. Picking out males as you need 1 male to 3-4 females in the breeding box
3. The boks i hatch the eggs in

I use heaters under my bokses, and the crixs use 3-5 weeks to reach the adult stage, and then live for about another 3-5. Depends on the temp in the box.
I would start a colonie with about 30 females and 10 males.

 

[laughing dog]

three to four sounds like to many males, or does it take that many? i found my males if to many are left together with females, spend more time chasing each other and makeing my mortality rate soar, so i seperate the sexes, except for the right ratio of males that dont spend all their time fighting(its really neat to watch though, until they start eating each other), and keep almost all of the males seperate for feeding first(no mortality rates really. or cannibalization). i dont hear my breeding males making the come and get it call, or the successful wooing call once one has accepted, very much after i first do that(am i burning the poor fellow out?). though lots of females at first were seen laying eggs in the sand. i think i might have had it to dry, then wet. ???

 

[laughing dog]

they do seem to all lay at one right after a shower.

 

[Scoots85]

Sort of a generic "Cricket Housing" question:
What temp do they need to be in? Slightly above room temp?
I've been keeping my cricket keeper in the basement so it doesn't stink up other rooms in the house, but I think the cooler temp is affecting their life expectancy as about a third of them died less than a week after purchasing.

Also, for cricket feeder, I was thinking of crushed dried cat-food in one little dish and water gels in another little dish. Any thoughts?

 

[ark]

Sort of a generic "Cricket Housing" question:
What temp do they need to be in? Slightly above room temp?
I've been keeping my cricket keeper in the basement so it doesn't stink up other rooms in the house, but I think the cooler temp is affecting their life expectancy as about a third of them died less than a week after purchasing.

Also, for cricket feeder, I was thinking of crushed dried cat-food in one little dish and water gels in another little dish. Any thoughts?

They do best in 25-30 celcius in my experience. To low temp and they just die, like you say. Another thing is they don`t eat well when the temp is to low, with is bad if you want to gut load them.
Crushed cat og dog food works well, so does high protein fishflakes. I use carrtos or potatoes for moister instead of watergel.

 

[Scoots85]

Yar, I'm going to try potatoes for now. I've been using the store-bought cricket feeder (the green cubes) and I think maybe that stuff just isn't as good as natural veggies. Also picked up a larger cricket keeper.

 

[Scoots85]

Actually, should potato slices be enough or should I also add some water (water gels, orange peels, etc.)

 

[ark]

Actually, should potato slices be enough or should I also add some water (water gels, orange peels, etc.)

I only use potatoe or carrot slices, just change them 3-4 times a week and the crix should do fine. The only extra veg I use is salad leftovers i have that. But not to much at the time, as it get`s kinda nasty in the hot boks if they don`t eat it all in a short time.

 

[Scoots85]

Would you folks say 18'C is a bit too cold for them? They are being stored in the basement right now, and the temp will probably drop a few more degrees over night. Worried about this. But at the same time I don't really want to keep them in my room due to the noise and odour.

 

[ark]

Would you folks say 18'C is a bit too cold for them? They are being stored in the basement right now, and the temp will probably drop a few more degrees over night. Worried about this. But at the same time I don't really want to keep them in my room due to the noise and odour.

They won`t eat much, and my guess is that the weak once will die during the night if the temp drops even more. Don`t you have some kind of heatsource in the basement you can plance them near by or on top of? like a hotwater tank or something?

 

[KiratheGecko]

So sorry that I've been gone,just got back home.
Anywho,I've got a lot of qs to answer.
Sorry about the "per year" thing,crickets live for about 3 months starting from hatching i think.I've got the page I printed out,it's like a bait store or something.the link is http://www.wormman.com/breeding_crickets.cfm .

Wow ark,nice job!!! I only have 2 boxes to put my crickets in,and you did a much better job! (claps for ark)

I just use the fluckers diet of cricket feed and water gel for my crickets.You could use a wet sponge,but you would have to re wet it over and over again,and that seemed too complicated.Just make sure you don't use an open water dish,because they could fall in and drown.
For the food,this page says you could use chicken mash.You're supossed to heat it in the oven to kill bacteria before you give it to the crickets.Again,too complicated.You could use potato pieces or baby carrots for both food and water,but you would waste your own food when it dries up and you need to replace it.

Good luck with the crickies!

 

[KiratheGecko]

Oh wow.I didn't see the second page!
I forgot to mention,too hot will kill them. When we drove home from Pets mart the other day,we noticed a lot of them had died over the trip home.The next time we went,A guy there said that the heat in the car had killed them.

Careful with those crickets!