how do you breed crickets?

[sketchy4]

i got an idea from one of Bartmans topics in the chamaeleonidae (sp?) section and i was wondering if anyone knows how to breed crickets. i am probably getting a new and bigger tank for my tokay and was wondering if i could use his old tank to breed the crix in. anyone know how to do this?

[sketchy4]

no one knows how?

[spidergecko]

What you need to do is get a few containers large enough to hold lots of crickets. Moisten some soil and place it in a dish and put this dish into the container containing about 6 to a dozen crickets. One female cricket can lay upwards of 500 eggs so the number of baby crickets you need will determine how many you add.
After about a week, remove the dish of soil (remember to keep it moist and warm) and place it into another container. In about 2 weeks, you will start to see the baby crickets. Keep cycling dishes of soil into new containers so that you have a series of cricket containers at various stages so that the proper size crickets are always available for you to harvest.

As you can see, even if you only kept one breeding female (and male) cricket you will have 500 crickets at each stage. This is a lot of crickets. For someone who doesn't have a very large insectivous animal collection, it is usually more cost effective to buy the crickets as you need them. Crickets need food, warmth, and shelter and this can make the cost of your crickets more than the <3 cent crickets you can buy in 1000 cricket lots from the pet store.

[Tara Garratt]

I keep my own crickets. The method I use is to put a petri dish of very moist peat moss in the tank of mature crickets
(they chirp). I leave the dish there for a couple of hours or until they start to scatter the peat moss.

I then remove the dish.

I mist the top of the peat moss, put the lid on the dish and then use masking tape along the seam to seal the dish.

For the next 12-14 days I keep the dish on a warm surface (not hot). At which time the eggs start to hatch. Do not remve the tape until you have hatched as many as you want, but do not leave it for more than 24 hours.

I then open the petri dish over top of a large prepaired jar that will house the babies for the next 2-3 weeks. The jar is prepared by having very fine mouse food on the bottom and then grated carrot or a leaf of romaine lettuce for moisture. The jar size is one of those huge pickle jars (Costco size). The type of lettuce can be important because the chemicals that are on head lettuce do not wash off and will kill your hatchlings.

I use a piece of nylon to cover the jar so I have no escapees. The nylon allows for air flow. Too much humidity will cause mould and kill crickets.

I set the jar in front of a directed light (60 watt) that is on 24/7.

Fresh lettuce or grated carrot is added daily for moisture.

When the crickets are about 2 weeks old they move to a critter keeper. They still stay in front of the light, but the larger space is needed. Now for moisture they get oranges or grapefruit (cut in half and set in) and more grated carrot. I continue to feed the mouse food on the bottom of the keeper, but it no longer needs to be ground fine.

At 3 weeks or so I move the crickets to a 10 gallon tank with mouse food on the bottom. I use cardboard egg cartons so they can climb and have more space. They get grated carrot, oranges and access to water (a dish of rocks with water in it--not too deep or they will drown. They must be able to touch the rocks at all times). They get no lettuce at this stage as I am gut loading them for feeding and for again using for breeding (all my creatures eat either pinheads, or adults. I don't have anyone who eats the juveniles).

When the males start to chirp, I start the whole process over again.

It sounds complicated, but it is really easy as long as you remember to give something for moisture daily to the hatchlings. They dry out quick because the jar is so warm.

Good luck!

[sketchy4]

thanks for the info!

[meow_mix450]

easy to for them to hatch, hard to take care of when there born, having troubles, of keeping them alive, i was feeding my leo some criekts, i threw in 3 female criekts, the leo didnt eat it, so i guess they layed there egg in bed a beast, and in a week they hatched and i was like whoa......and i just left them there for 3 weeks now and there still alive in there, with just water, and no food.....probly feeding off the moss, but there growing.....:p i was suprised, what i figured is that, crikets need room to grow, if you got 500 babys in one small container they wont grow. So bigger space, food, water and use bed a beast for them to lay eggs

Meow