breeding crickets

[reptiledan4]

I looked it up and did some research on breeding crickets. I got a tub and bought 150 crickets, put two little containers in it and keep the dirt moist for about 2 weeks, moved the containers to another tank with a heat lamp for about another 2 weeks or so, and nothing. Have done this twice. What am I doing wrong, if anything.

 

[AlienCreeper]

What are the temps in the breeding container?

 

[reptiledan4]

Around 70 75

 

[garyl]

I just started trying to raise crickets also ,what I read is 70-85 degrees and 3 weeks for eggs to hatch,I see eggs in containers just waiting now

 

[reptiledan4]

what kind of dirt did you use. I used just potting soil

 

[garyl]

Dirt out of my back yard ,I crushed dirt til it was fine power kind of ,I see eggs and just hope I have luck with them, I purchased 1000 because I'm feeding 2 chameleons and if eggs don't hatch I have more to experience with

 

[reptiledan4]

Well, I'll keep trying, thx for the help.

 

[oneillchameleons]

I tried (and failed) many times at consistently breeding crickets until I found a method that works very well for me. I'll buy 500-1000 large crickets for feeding and put them all in one tub. I leave them to gutload and hydrate for about a week, also giving them time to breed some. Then I separate about 100-150 females. (This is the hardest part, and takes some time to pick them out) and put them in a five gallon bucket with about two inches of moist peat mix (for the garden) on the whole bottom and some styrofoam egg cartons (styro so they don't soak up moisture) and bit of dry food in a dish. I'll also put about 10 males in, so they continue to breed with willing females, but not enough that they'll dig and eat a lot of eggs. After about two weeks, I remove the crickets and put them back in the main bin. Then pour the dirt into a Tupperware container, remoisten, and incubate at 80 degrees. Within two weeks there are always tens of thousand of pinheads crawling around. When they are finished hatching out I move the entire Tupperware from the incubator to a large Rubbermaid bin with a heat pad underneath. Put a strip of screen leading out of the Tupperware into the egg cartons, and when they've all migrated, remove Tupperware and reuse. This was about the tenth method I tried, and the only one that worked every time for me. Good luck!