Cricket farm

[Johnny909]

Hey guys,

I just started an amateur cricket farm, dunno if its gonna work out. Basicly, I went to wall marts, got one of them large 3 drawer rubbermaid storing bin.

I got 3 compartments to use, I just got one used right now, here what I got in it.

carrots, fluker gelly water, 12 crickets (sexed 1:1 ratio) some egg cartons, and half an egg carton with earth in it that i will mist.

Im dont want to spend too much time with this, but around here crickets are expensive and my 4 month panther eats 15 a day and they also die off. Im thinking this will save me around 40 bucks a month.

Any quick tips?

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

The crickets are going to need more ventilation than those enclosed drawers will offer if you want them to survive. And you'll need more than 24 crickets to get started from what I've heard if you want a sustainable population, but I haven't tried it myself. That's all I got...

I order in bulk online and it's way cheaper than pet stores, they last a long time, and it's really easy to have them delivered to your door and just keep them alive.

 

[Johnny909]

For the ventilation I will make some holes and keep the drawer a lil open. I fear online shipping since its dead winter out here....

John

 

[Julio]

crickets are a lot more work then you think, i used to breed a small amount just to feed frogs and that was a pain, they really need to be cleaned daily and kept dry and warm

 

[Johnny909]

well, ww shall see, im not going overboard with this, if it works it works, I dont care about buying crickets, but youtube makes it look so easy that im like why not, ya know, worth a try, I hate having to go downtown and finding a parking spot then walking in winter. Lazy me!

John

 

[dclough77]

well, ww shall see, im not going overboard with this, if it works it works, I dont care about buying crickets, but youtube makes it look so easy that im like why not, ya know, worth a try, I hate having to go downtown and finding a parking spot then walking in winter. Lazy me!

John

roach colonies are easy, and affordable to start out. check on the sales list on these forums can get some or tikitiki in sponsers sells them. hopefully crickets work out for ya, but roaches are a good alternative and better for your cham

 

[Elizadolots]

Johnny, maybe try getting a substantial quantity online and see how keeping them alive goes first? Many places will let you combine sizes to get their quantity discount, so you could get a small amount of big crickets and hopefully raise the small ones.

 

[yoshi9]

Blaptica dubia

To be honest roaches are amazing! lol they seem very disgusting at first, but once you take a look they look almost like rolly pollie bugs they breed very easily, dont smell, cant climb, fly, and are slow. They are also fairly easy to take care of IMO. I actually want to start a colonie of them and sell to some of my friends and other people if it gets going well. Good luck though with the crickets!!

 

[Johnny909]

I think hes too small for roaches, but what kind of roaches are we speaking of? Is there a risk of the infesting my house if one somehow geys away?

Also, mealworms and superworms seem fairly easy, but we shall see with the crickets, its worth a try

 

[JackP308]

You have chances of crickets infesting your house as well. They seem to like to escape the unescapable. Not to mention Smell Horrific when on a vegetive gutload like fresh greens. Nothing like having cricket poo under your nails

 

[Johnny909]

Hey!!!!! I did realise a stronger smell since i started gutloading them my homemade green vegie mix! They smell according to what you feed em???

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

The smell is the greens going bad. Good gutload is stinkier faster.

 

[JackP308]

They can eat it all and their poos still smells like rotting compost. I try to feed accordingly. Less cricket mess..Waiting for the next show so i can stock up on feeders paying .11 a piece right now hurts the pockets. Which sometimes feels easier then cleaning bins and maintaining 100's to 1000's.

 

[yoshi9]

I think hes too small for roaches, but what kind of roaches are we speaking of? Is there a risk of the infesting my house if one somehow geys away?

Also, mealworms and superworms seem fairly easy, but we shall see with the crickets, its worth a try

My cham is a 3-4 months old veiled male and I got him small for the first time and he eats them fine. Dubias look like rollie pollies when there babies so really they aren't that bad they are pretty simpile to take care of and breed as well. Infesting your house is a slim chance but I guess it could happen, they are slow,don't fly, and don't smell or jump.

 

[ziggy222]

I bought 500 crickets 30 days ago and have only found 2 of them dead besides the 7 he eats every 4th day.I keep them in a 50 quart tall storage bin with holes drilled all over the top for air.Its too tall for them to jump out and they can't climb the sides.I feed them bananas,celery,and carrots on a small peice of paper which I change every few days to avoid smell.then i just leave crumbled newspaper and empty paper towel rolls for them to hide in.when i clean it every 3 wks I just put crickets in a big trash bag newspaper,paper towel rolls,and all.I dump the waste in the trash and then put everything back in.I rarely mist them cause i've seen crickets get stuck in just a drop of water and die.I hate the loud noise when it gets dark though.

 

[Lizardlover]

Dubia cant infest a house (especially in canada) because for one they dont breed nearly as fast as American roaches, and they require some sort of humidity and heat.

 

[laurie]

Hey!!!!! I did realise a stronger smell since i started gutloading them my homemade green vegie mix! They smell according to what you feed em???

I hear you on shipping crickets, that is why I raise dubia and superworms. The problem for you is they don't sell dubia in Canada - guess they are not legal.

 

[JackP308]

funny i watched some show called infestation last night and some on it was a canadian complex basically over ran by 100's of 1000's of roaches. Some tenant didnt want to have them sprayed in his apt. so he housed the mother load as they called it . The rest of the tenants which was a lot of them couldnt rid the roaches since the one man let them live freely. Also had some mice plague in Australia, and some crazy racoons that took over a families house


May not be dubias but that was the first thought that came to mind.

 

[junglejoe]

i breed my own crickets a well.. i have it down pretty good... i use a big clear tub.. cut a big square out of top.. glue on metal screen.. not that plastic crap.. they chew through it.. i start with 1,000 adult crickets... just dupm them in.. i use a few little catch trays for under plants in pots.. fill with 1 inch of soft moist soil or clean dirtt.. feed and water your crickets reguarly...watch the soil trays for eggs.. in a week or so you will find hundreds of little oval clear eggs in them.. move the trays to a seperate tub for incubating.. room temp will work.. takes a few weeks.. use of heat pad shortens time.. correctly done you should have a few thousand every month.. i had 6,000+ in one month.. ggod luck

 

[jcal]

funny i watched some show called infestation last night and some on it was a canadian complex basically over ran by 100's of 1000's of roaches. Some tenant didnt want to have them sprayed in his apt. so he housed the mother load as they called it . The rest of the tenants which was a lot of them couldnt rid the roaches since the one man let them live freely. Also had some mice plague in Australia, and some crazy racoons that took over a families house


May not be dubias but that was the first thought that came to mind.

i watched the same show. i fell asleep before i saw what happened to the racoon's. what happened??