Is it really so easy to breed/cultivate crickets?

[tb144050]

I have seen 4 different youtube videos and read about 4 "how-to's" on the internet. Is it really so easy? I have about 10 large crickets (6 female) left so I have to go to the petstore tomorrow anyway, so I put these last 10 large into the setup described below. I will leave them there for a few days just to see what happens. Let me know if you have suggestions/corrections.

1. 10gallon tank
2. rubbermaid container with moist "top soil" (actually decomposed leaves from my yard)
3. moist wad of tissue paper on a rubbermaid lid (for water)
4. crushed-to-dust dogfood on a rubbermaid lid (for food)
5. 60w heatlamp over "top soil"
6. Random vegetables of my choice for extra nutrition (before I take the adults for feeding)


I'll also be adding about 40 large crickets to this tank tomorrow after I get home. In about 10 days, I will take the topsoil and move it to an empty tank for the majority of the hatching and let them grow.

I researched "breeding mealworms" and it seems alot more time consuming.

 

[tb144050]

Added 75 Large crickets, mixed sexes. I'll wait about 8 days and move the dish to the empty tank....then wait to see new crickets hopefully.

 

[Superior Reptiles]

Mealworms are easy to take care of but they just take time. Nice setup though

 

[tb144050]

It's just a basic setup so I can try it out. If results are promising, I will expand my cricket-breeding so I can have plenty to feed my expanding collection...maybe even have some to sell locally.

 

[jxl22]

I say this in every thread about cricket breading. Spend the extra money and breed dubia roaches. They smell less, don't make absurd noises 24/7, and have a much better monetary and nutritional value.

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[Phoenix1115]

I say this in every thread about cricket breading. Spend the extra money and breed dubia roaches. They smell less, don't make absurd noises 24/7, and have a much better monetary and nutritional value.

Can you upload a picture of your dubia set up? I'm looking to start a colony soon so I'm trying to see as many different ways of doing it as possible

 

[tb144050]

Can you upload a picture of your dubia set up? I'm looking to start a colony soon so I'm trying to see as many different ways of doing it as possible

I would love to see it too. I will check into this tonight after work. I remember reading a comment about dubias being illegal in some states??

 

[jxl22]

Dubias are illegal in Florida and Canada as far as I know.

My setup isn't great. Its my first go at it and I'm still learning. But I'll upload a couple pics tomorrow or late tonight.

Also I really recommend west coast roaches .com for starter kits.

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[Tongue Flicker]

I'm not really successful with cricket breedig that much. Most pinheads i have don't grow big enough to reach maturity. Sometimes i get pinheads when i don't plan on breeding them. Just weird lol

 

[jxl22]

My dubia breeding setup

Heres a little run down of what i've done and what i would do differently.

I ordered a medium dubia roach colony setup pack from westcoastroaches.com Came with a bunch of stuff that i really like. the 360 feeder is awesome and i never even thought of gnat traps or cleaner crews. which came with the pack. i also really like there roach chow that came with it. A+ stuff.

i thoroughly cleaned out whatever size that tub is. used diluted bleach, and wipeout. Cleaned it two more times with jsut water to make sure everything was washed out.

Here is where i messed up, BUY THE HEAT TAPE! Just do it! the heatmats are subpar compared to the heat tape. im trying to get some heattape for mine, but this is slow season for me and i cant find any localy.

heres three pictures of my setup. dubs - Imgur

I use a CHE on top of the colony, and a large heatmat on the side. i tried putting it on the bottom but it kept coming off.
I had a little bit of a die off when i first put them in there, but thats expected IMO.
I have little babies in there right now! i dont open up tub very often. they dont like being disturbed. the last picture is of my feeders. i keep them in a cheap plastic enclosure with a heatpad on the bottom.

I havnt cleaned the big tub yet. but i dont think itll be a fun experience TBH.

any question and ill try to awnser!

 

[tb144050]

So far, i have seen that the majority of crickets visiting the soil are male.

Tonight i will move the soil to an empty tank and wait to see if there are any pinheads in a few days.

 

[tb144050]

I decided to wait another day until tonight to move the soil to another tank. I cleaned out about 20 dead crickets (out of about 115 total that I have placed in there)....no sign of catastrophic loss...

However, even after adding a larger piece of egg-crate (actually a McDonalds 4-cup-holder), I still see that most crickets huddle together in a tight group. I am a little concerned about this because I see their damaged tails/wings....so I don't know why but I am pretty sure they are chewing on each other.

I added some raw carrots and cabbage today. I'll just keep waiting and see if "production" is greater than the rate of loss. I am already seeing a very few tiny tiny 3/16" crickets in the tank...

 

[jxl22]

Crickets are known to be cannibalistic. So you have emought high protein food in there?

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[tb144050]

I've had crushed-dogfood and Fluker's High-cal cricket feed in there since "Day1". I just put in carrots and cabbage this morning. Also, I put in the larger "cricket-hide" because I have read that they will attack each other if they are too crowded.

I've only found about 20 dead ones after 5 days with 115+ crickets in there. I am guessing that is not too bad. I usually have more than this die in their little cricket-keeper when I was buying 75 once/week. At the very least, this setup will keep more alive longer than in a "medium cricket keeper" from Pets___. Any reproduction is just money saved.

 

[tb144050]

BIG update: Looks like I might be doing it right. The first soil/batch got moved to an empty tank about 30hours ago, so I have about 5 more days (??) before I expect that any of those may hatch. Problem is, I don't think the females were laying.

However, the GOOD NEWS:

When I set up the empty tank, I did not have another single-bulb fixture. Instead I took the single-bulb off the crickets and put my dual-bulb centered over both tanks. I left the 100w bulbs in the fixture to bump up temps to 88F (nstead of 80F).

NOW: Within 1 day of increasing the temp, I am seeing a few DOZEN eggs just laying on the surface of the 2nd soil/batch...not counting any that got buried. I also see that they are chowing down on the veggies AND they are not huddling in a mass under the light....they actually spread out and hide under the "hide".

I might get a few on the first round, but the second round is gonna be GREAT. I need to invest in a timed-mister because the added heat is drying the soils.

 

[alex8301436]

Im a little late with posting, but in my cricket tank or colony or whatever you want to call it, i bought 3000 crickets and put very wet peat moss on the bottom with the water crystals and this cricket food that smells like oranges, and i dont have a problem with smell from an air purifier and sound isnt a problem either because its in my basement, for my container i use a 55 gallon storage bin that works fine. And i have a bazillion crickets lol

 

[tb144050]

You just let them stay in one tub? 3000 sounds like alot until i think about 20 hatchlings and 4 adults...lol

 

[tb144050]

i put very wet peat moss on the bottom

Well, I think I will go with this idea^^, and I will explain why:

Container 1: "composted soil" from the yard (Started Jan 5??)...Incubated with no lid under a heat lamp...still no pinheads.

Container 2: "composted soil" again (Started around Jan 9??)...Incubated with a heatpad with no lid...still no pinheads.

Container 3: "composted soil" again (Started around Jan 18??)...Incubated with a heatlamp WITH a lid to retain moisture, opened daily....no pinheads yet (due any day now??)

Container 4: calcium sand (for bearded dragons)..(Started around Jan 22)...Incubated with a heatlamp WITH a lid, opened daily....no pinheads yet (but not due yet.)

All containers are still incubated as noted, but now they ALL have lids to retain moisture, opened daily for air.

------------------------------------------------------

However, I just set up a 38Gallon rubbermaid tub with 1.5" of "spaghnum peat moss" ($5 @ walm_rt) lining the ENTIRE tub. It simply feels like it is SOO much better at retaining moisture from the 3x/day spraying, and the females I added are laying alot more than they did in the "yard soil" and calcium sand COMBINED.

So I will keep the old containers incubated, and let them lay away in the new peat moss, and sure one of these methods will get me some pinheads??!! I also just ordered 1,000 1/2" crickets from eB_y, so they will get added to the tub in a few days.

I honestly think that my problem is keeping a consistent appropriate "moisture-level" in the substrate, especially "yard soil". Yard soil dries out too easily, so I probably added too much moisture with each spray, and then it compacts into MUD.

I will just keep trying until I figure out the BEST level of "moisture" in the substrate. So far, atleast the peat most doesn't turn into mud.

 

[tb144050]

 

[tb144050]

I actually setup the pictured colony (above) on Jan 31, 2014.

I just moved all the crickets to another identical colony setup, leaving just the "egged" peatmoss in the original bin. Sprayed the "egged" bin with water one last time, took the heatlamp off to prevent drying out (even though it will lengthen incubation time), and put a solid lid on it.

I'll check the "egged" bin in a couple of weeks...