Easy Cricket Breeding Guide

Everyone says that crickets smell, are hard to breed, and are loud. I can agree with the last statement, but not the first two. I've tried several guides on how to breed crickets. They're all complex and require a lot of work. Half the time, they just plain don't work. Tired of my lack of luck, I threw together something. I caught wild crickets and put them in a critter keeper with food and a jar of soil to lay eggs in. What do you know, the things bred and I got tons of hatchlings. So, here's an altered version of what I did. I'm doing this set up right now, and I already have crickets laying less than two weeks in.

Items:
10 gal tank
Mesh lid
Cardboard egg crates
Paper Towels
Cricket food (I use nature zone's gel cricket bites and flukers cricket quencher with calcium)
A lid (the lids that come with quicktrip cups are perfect)
A small container filled with dirt (non fertilized)
5 gal size UTH
Crickets

Clean out the 10 gal, put the paper towels in the bottom (two layers is good enough; it helps keep the crickets off the glass), and put the UTH under it. The UTH should not touch the glass. Ideally, there should be an area where the tank bottom is exposed to open air, so air flows under the tank. This prevents it from getting too hot and baking the crickets. Ideally, the paper towels should be warm to the touch. I put my UTH on the side where the egg crates are. Tear the egg crate into chunks and put it on one side, this makes plenty of hiding spots for the crickets. Put the small container with dirt beside the egg crates. Depending on the size of the container, you may need to put something in for the crickets to climb to get out. Eventually, the mature females will start laying their eggs in here. The soil needs to stay moist though.

Put the food dish with food in the center of the tank, and add your crickets. Ideally, the temperature will need stay in the 70s for the crickets to remain healthy and breed. Eventually, you'll see tiny little crickets everywhere. Don't worry about taking the egg container out. If you keep everyone well fed, the cannibalism should stay at a minimum.

Here's an example of my cricket set up:
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/666/1003788y.jpg

Over winter, I lost my fairly successful colony of store bought crickets and wild black crickets. I was growing my F1s, too. My room got too cold and they went belly up. I've restarted the colony and hope to add some store bought crickets to get everything going. The reason for this hybridization is that the store boughts tend to be quieter, but lack the size and hardiness of the wild crickets. I also recently put a under tank heater under my tank to raise the temperature of one side. A temperature at about 86F will cause the eggs to hatch faster, 13 days vs 26 at room temperature.

I found a decent way to get the crickets to hatch. I've been having issues with keeping the soil moist. The eggs would dry out, adding water would drown them, etc. So, I did something different.

I took a standard small margarine container, 7.5 ounce size that comes in doubles, went and roughed up the outside and inside with some sandpaper, and added some semi sandy soil from outside. Then, I got some old fish air tubing and put that down to the bottom. Anytime the soil looks like it's getting a bit dry, I feel out a 12CC syringe, plug it into the tube and inject the water. The bottom stays wet and the moisture is drawn up to the top. So far, I'm getting some baby crickets.

Additionally, if you're feeling nice, you can give your crickets treats. I've found that they absolutely love oranges. I'll also give them the dried out baby food that my gecko leaves which gives them a treat, but it's also filled with calcium and vitamins from the supplements. This unfortunately does cause fruit flies, but I don't notice any in my room since I have a tight mesh lid on the tank.

Best suggestion I can give is this: experiment, because happy healthy feeders mean happy, healthy reptiles.

what we really need is genetically modified male crickets unable to makes sound. HAHAHAHA GMOs!!!!!!!!!! :taz:

The male store bought crickets are quieter than the wild crickets. However, they're so bloody fragile. I've been hoping the two species will crossbreed and the results are fertile. One method I've found to curb the chirping is catching the males and trimming his wings.

dude? really, trimming the wings?:(
I mean, alright. Some people don't empathize with bugs, so w/e. I try to.

But from a practical point of view, damaging your crickets (no matter how insignificant seeming) is a great way to spread disease into your colony. They might also be less effective at breeding, since those sounds are meant to facilitate breeding.
It's possible your experience has been different though

They're crickets..They'll eat one another alive given the chance. I can't say I've noticed any difference in the breeding, if anything, it forces an sort of evolution. The louder males can't attract the females, but the softer ones do. I also haven't noticed the males who get trimmed dying. They don't bleed any liquid, so I assume it doesn't harm them.

it could only cause evolution if you affected the breeding fitness of one genotype over another, causing a preferential trait to be more prolific. Trimming their wings doesn't affect their genes. I know they're crickets... they're like the worst and most annoying feeders for any herp. They have been the bane of my existence at times... But the Cricket in James and the Giant Peach used his wings like a violin... Dude you're stealing those crickets violins :(... How will they serenade their womens?:cool:

..You misunderstood what I said..Loud crickets can't attract the females, therefore, the don't breed and spread their genes. The softer males can still attract the females, therefore, they breed and spread their genes. Selective breeding, of a sort.

I also found that movie annoying.

it's possible, as long as those behavior traits can be reinforced with subsequent generations. You might be able to do it, breed the silent cricket....:D
Unless they all mobilize to through off the shackles of your cricket tyranny :O

They'd starve to death before they'd be able to get out of the tank.

Machiavelli

..And he has to do with crickets how? Quite honestly, you're blowing this out of proportion. If you don't like the idea of trimming cricket wings, no one's forcing you to do it.

Just saw this and thought I'd give a thanks for posting it up. I plan on expanding my gecko collection (from the mere 1 leo I have right now) in the next few years, and a steady supply of crickets and other feeders will be important. This method seems easy enough.

How many crickets did you start off with in the 10 gallon?

I don't really know. I'd catch wild crickets and toss them in. Eventually, I added about 3 dozen feeder crickets. I have a bunch of babies running around, but my adults are starting to die off from age. I'm considering setting up a second 10 gal and getting about 500 from top hat crickets, once I have some money.

Let me know how it works out for you. I got some feeder crickets today and I'm setting them up in a 10g. :D

Do female crickets lay eggs more than once, or do they die off once they've laid one set? Thanks again for the guide. I'll probably post a thread if I have any success.

They just keep laying.

Good thread! I may have to start a small colony. I'm sick of running to the store just for two dozen crickets a week. I also trimmed feeder males' wings. In the past all my herps were in my bedroom and the chirping would drive me MAD! It didn't seem to hurt them and it was better than culling them completely. If they lived long enough to molt their wings were re-generated.

My colony unfortunately died again. It tends to happen when the ambient air temperature hits the 90s during the day time. Mom wouldn't turn on the AC :rolleyes:. I'll get my colony up and running (again!) once we move to the new house that will be much more temperature controlled.

Thanks for this :D

My bf is getting kinda tired running to the store to get his piggy of a Bearded Dragon crickets... And he just happens to have Uther's 10gal with no use, and an easy access top ( http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/...inged-door.htm ) from when he was in the 10gal.

Wrote it down so I can help him set it up next time too. It dosen't hurt to try and should be easier to catch the buggers this way too, instead of tryin to get your hand into the kricket keeper...

As an update to the initial thread post.

Once the egg cup is full, pull it out and replace it. Make sure to have a fish air pump tube pushed down to the bottom of the container. This makes it easy to keep the soil damp without flooding the eggs. Put the container in say a 2 and a half to five gal tank, leave the bottom bare. Cover the top with ceran wrap, tape it down, and poke holes in the top for circulation. This helps trap moisture and heat. After 14-28 days, depending on temps, you should start seeing crickets around you cup. Like so:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...e/IMG_3904.jpg

At this point, tear off a small piece of paper towel, put it on the tank bottom away from the egg cup. Wet it down so it's saturated, add a kibble or two of cat food.

With any luck, you'll wake up one day to find this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...e/100_3967.jpg

As a side note, the larger crickets in these pictures are about three weeks old. I'm still having crickets hatch today.