Cricket Breeding Setup

[Sparky85]

So I thought id have a crack at breeding a nice colony of crickets for my GTFs. And yes i know roaches are much easier to breed, but i like a challenge.
Basically my set up consists of a couple clip lock storage boxes into which i wired a lamp for heat (I'm an electrician by the way). I cut a hole in the lids and glued on some fibreglass fly screen for ventilation. Then I have another piece of fly screen which over laps the box and is held down by the lid. This I have found helps to prevent escapes. Ive collected up a whole heap of toilet rolls and egg cartons for hides for the crix. I filled up a take away container with potting mix (organic, with no pesticides) which i keep moist and the crix use to lay their eggs in. Finally i took two large plastic lids for dry and fresh food, and a smaller lid onto which i place a soaked cotton bud for water. I went and got around 100 crickets and introduced them to their new home.
I have been feeding them apples and carrots so far, as well as gut load and crushed up dry dog or cat food (they seem to love the cat food). Any suggestions as to other veggies/fruit that are good for crix? or ones to steer clear of? Im trying to feed them with fresh food i can peel so that there are no pesticides. If i wash, say some buk choy for example, will this remove enough of the pesticides so as not to harm the crix? Or my animals for that matter? Ive been spot cleaning and refreshing food and water every day.
After a couple days i removed the egg laying substrate and put it into a second container (set up with a light etc) to incubate, and replaced the substrate. I use a spray bottle to keep the eggs and substrate moist. Ive seen people keep the substrate covered with glad wrap during the incubation stage. I havent chosen to cover mine. Is it ok not to cover them? I have no idea how many crix one batch will yield, nor how fast they grow, so i think the "production" stage may require some trial and error before i can get a good reproduction to feed/sell ratio. Has anyone else had any experience with this or techniques which they would like to share? Anyway, this is my first attempt at it. Ive added a couple of pics, so feel free to leave me your thoughts/advice.

 

[saximus]

Thanks for the detailed description. I've never seen a really good explanation for how to do this successfully

 

[Jen]

I squash the toilet rolls, they seem to like them better, also, try adding some fish flakes, mine loved them. Water crystals are great for water instead of a sponge or cotton, and can be recycled into the garden.

 

[Jackrabbit]

Interesting. Did you just buy a couple of boxes of crickets from the shop for your start up?

How do you know they have laid eggs? Do you know how often they lay eggs and how long do they take to hatch?

 

[Sparky85]

Cool ill have to give the fish flakes a go. I did buy a few boxes from the shop to start and i know they have laid eggs because i have watched the females laying in the substrate and i have also seen the eggs when i removed the substrate. the eggs look like tiny grains of rice, maybe half the size. and the difference between the males and females is that the females have a third prong in the middle of their rear. They also are a little bigger generally than the males and they have fully developed wings.

 

[happyherps]

only thing i would worry bout is baby crix escaping they are tiny thats why they call babies pinhead crickets so seal everything around that light bulb cos they will get out of gaps that we cant even see light through also try putting a stripe of clear packing tape round the inside of your box all crickets no matter what size can climb the side walls and roof of plastic containersand chew through the holes u put in the lid and make them bigger there feet cant grip to the packing tape and they fall off you generally put it about 2/3 way up the tub but other than that you cant really go wrong as for foods try and stay away from acidic foods onion orange tomato etc.. thats all i can think of for now oh turn light off at night and when light is on in the day make sure they have water they drink heaps ok thats all cool set up by the way..... happyherps...

 

[Specks]

only thing i would worry bout is baby crix escaping they are tiny thats why they call babies pinhead crickets so seal everything around that light bulb cos they will get out of gaps that we cant even see light through also try putting a stripe of clear packing tape round the inside of your box all crickets no matter what size can climb the side walls and roof of plastic containersand chew through the holes u put in the lid and make them bigger there feet cant grip to the packing tape and they fall off you generally put it about 2/3 way up the tub

crickets cant climb up tubs and it looks like he has put vaso there anyway

 

[SamNabz]

Very nice description and setup, thanks for sharing.

crickets cant climb up tubs and it looks like he has put vaso there anyway

Not true, I've got a 52L tub that I keep mine in and they were constantly up near the lid when ever I opened it until I bought some fluon...

 

[happyherps]

yeah they can i lost a few till i realised they were simply walking up the tub to the flyscreen and chewing thier way out so i googled how to breed crickets and this is how everyone keeps them cos the packing tape is too slipry for them to climb on i also changed to that alimunum fly mesh but later found that was not entirely neccecary just me being parinoid lol but yeah they will get out everywhere and breed in your carpet and its sooo hard to get them out trust me lol ;-) any way yeah it better not to take the risk in the first place

 

[Sparky85]

Yeah i got the packing tape happening already as well as a bit of packing tape. I havent so much found the crix (adults) climbing the walls but they can jump from the toilet rolls to the roof. As another precaution i also put some vaso around the edge above the tape. Im not so cocerned with the adults so i probably wont keep doing it with them. However ill see how things go with the pin heads and if need be ill get some fluon. I have also noticed that the may have chewed a tiny hole in the fiberglass mesh. Not big enough to escape. I have for now put a second piece of flyscreen at the top of the tub to help prevent escapes. The holes have not gotten any larger in 2 days so im not to stressed. If it becomes an issue i will probably get some aluminium mesh instead.

 

[tazzy]

I've been breeding myself since the start of the year and its not going to badly. I've found they grow fairly slowly but I dont have any heating, so im interested if this will make a difference. The only tip I can give you is i've heard the adults will eat the eggs so I cover my substrate with aluminum fly screen, (btw no cover once I remove them to hatch). The females can still get their depositor through to lay and the eggs dont get eaten.

For food I use fish flakes and carrot or apple. I dont bother with water, just make sure they always have the carrot/apple.

Wait untill they hatch (around 11days or longer).....1000's of pin heads on the way!!

 

[Sparky85]

Taz I remove the the eggs every couple of days to prevent them from being eaten/destroyed by the crix who forage around in the soil. I have heard that the mesh over the top is a good idea to. Ill see how this works out and go from there. Thanks

 

[Chicken]

I breed crickets sucessfully for my reptiles. So many people attempt to breed crickets and fail but if you know the right way to do its dead simple. Its not as easy as woodies, but is done easily. Ok 5 rules of thumb
-Water
-Food
-heat
-Space (as in a big enough space for them to all move around freely)
-Patience
We will start with water. This is a may jour part in breeding crickets. You must keep your crickets hydrated at all times other wise they die very quickly. People often don't give the pinheads enough water and they die off.. and also you must keep the incubating soil moist!! As soon as it dries out you get eggs dieng...
Ok food - This is also important. A lot of people get frustrated because their pinheads don't grow fast enough. This comes hand in hand with patience. So many people give up because the pinheads take too long to grow. I feed them orange. Orange works really well!
Heat - Ok this is super important. Many people give up because they're crickets aren't hatching. You need heat! I incubate the eggs at 35c and they pop out usually 1 - 2 weeks. This also comes hand in hand with patience, you need to wait for the pinheads to hatch for at least 5 weeks before chucking them out. Do not let your crickets get too hot or too cold, they will die.
With the right knowledge and patience crickets are very easy to breed.

 

[K3nny]

you might also find that they will lay their eggs in the cotton buds too, try ruffling thru abit and usually you can find a few stuck in between the fibres

 

[Sparky85]

Thanks reptilerookie. Im pretty sure that i have all bases covered that you mentioned. I am going to make up another tub this weekend so that i have plenty room for my crix. And kenny, i have been finding that they lay their eggs in the wool to.