How to set up a breeding colony of crickets?

[jfreels]

I have a friend that would use them for fishing. He said they work great for pan fish.

My reptile room is 80-82, that temp worked very well. I know if they get too cold, they won't reproduce and they probably shouldn't be over 90. Also, make sure the tubs are not clear. They like the dark. You could probably make the generalized statement that if you hear them chirping, then it's warm enough for them to breed.

Good luck, I found that it wasn't worth it. Though I was doing it on a rather small scale and I didn't have the patience to get the colony going so I'd always have feeders. Reading things online, it made it sound like 4-6 weeks is all you needed to get enough feeders. 4-6 weeks is about how long it takes to get pinheads. Another 4-6 weeks and maybe you'll have mediums.

I'm being patient with the roaches though.

[suzuki4life]

info is mostly right...

egg box, use something you can lock a lid on. I used chinese food containers (plastic dish with plastic lid)

eco earth works but so does wet sand. Eco earth has a tendency to mold sometimes. So keep an eye on it.

temps to speed up growth should be in the low to mid 90's. So eggs and young crickets will be good in the 90's. After that you want them in the 75-85 to slow their growth. They have roughly a 6-8 week life cycle. So keep that in mind. Once the egg hatches, humidity is your enemy. You want 55% humidity tops.

From deposit to hatch if kept at 92, incubation should be roughly 10 days.

300 females crickets will bombard the egg nest. This will result in an over abundance of pin heads and they will eat the unhatched eggs which will lower your output. For that amount you will either need multiple nests or less females. I ran 50-100 females in a tub. Small chinese food container with eco earth in it. I cycled my egg box in the cricket cage for 7-10 days. Pull the egg box and put the lid on it. At 7 days+, each day look at your egg box. Look for little fleas in it moving around. If you see pin heads, put them in a new tub and then remove the egg box lid. Add food and egg cartons. The pin heads will leave the nest in search of food. At day 13, it should be safe to remove the nest box and start over.

[AkHerps]

I gave up my second time around also. The first time I got a couple thousand, the second time, barely any. Roaches are too easy to breed and its a great way to save money!