hiding crickets

[Fate X]

there are all these 1 week old crickets hiding in the peat from which they hatched from and they do not go to the egg crates, theres some food for them but i am having trouble collecting them for feeders I placed lights above them and turned off the undertank heat and they still are tunneling through the peat avoiding the eggcrates does anyone know of a easy way to collect very small crickets that are in peatmoss?

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

Here are a few photos of what I'm doing for hatching pinheads. I cut-up the egg crate into individual pockets to make it easy to gather-up a batch to feed-off. I find that they will just migrate to the upside-down egg cups when they are ready.

I use 30 female adult crickets (for 24 hours) to lay a batch in the container. That seems to produce about 1000-3000 (est.) in about 20-30 days. I've been sprinkling a very light layer of gutload after I see hundreds moving around. I use a little bit of water crystals and/or a wet cotton pad for water. I've hatched 10's of thousands this way with little effort. I'm sure that there are better ways.. After they get too big for newborn chameleons, I trade them with the local reptile store. I'm still waiting for this little batch of panthers to hatch! I'm playing surrogate keeper to the eggs for the store.

Two week time-staggered batches:

One of a dozen egg cups per batch:

 

[Fate X]

whats on the bottom of the plastic containers?

i just increased the heat on top of the cricket breeding container and they are surfacing ,i got a cup with a lid and put a damp paper towel in it by putting the eggcrates facedown some have already went into the crates i already got 3 pinheads in the cup i put a tiny amount of gutload on the bottom.

this cup method for pinheads works very good and saves time .

 

[Dave Weldon]

whats on the bottom of the plastic containers?...

Howdy,

I believe you are referring to the peat moss. It's damp and lightly packed.

I just started another batch of 30 female crickets laying eggs an hour ago...

 

[Fate X]

yeah i'm using peat ,how do you heat the containers ? my pinheads are in the peat and its difficult to get them to surface.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

I don't add any heat although it might help to speed things up. The room temp varies from low 70's to mid 70's. I just use the individual upside-down egg crates to get them to come up.

 

[Will Hayward]

Soak the individual egg crate 'cups' in water for a few minutes. Shake them off and place them cup down on top of the moss. Give them about 10 minutes. Unless the moss is already really damp (which would mean its too damp) they will all congregate on the cups.

 

[Fate X]

i'm gonna try wetting the crates because they still will not surface , their in there because they climb up then go back in and disapear and they are to small to get a hold , what i been doing is watching the container for one to climb on the glass then trap it in a cup it takes all day to get maybe 8-9 from this container.

 

[Scrappy]

I just decided to start raising my own crickets. Does anyone know how long it takes for them to hatch and surface? I read the other threads about using the egg crating to catch them in and haveto say that's a great idea (thanks Dave!), but how long does it take?

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

Mine took about 21 days to begin hatching. Hatching continued for about a week or so. Experimenting with a recent batch, I think I figured out that it is important to keep the soil moist. So far my last hatching batch looks like a pretty low count. I usually keep the soil moist by heavily misting the soil as it begins to dry out.

Here's a good article:
http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/jan2003/crickets/crickets.html

 

[Fate X]

i had the highest hatch rate over the summer during the heatwave. hatch rates now seem lower ,it might be because a moth got in the cage and there was all these baby moths in the peat that hatched first then the crickets hatched i was thinking the baby moths were eating the cricket eggs.
i kept breeding in different containers so i should have enough feeders without buying any .

 

[Fate X]

Soak the individual egg crate 'cups' in water for a few minutes. Shake them off and place them cup down on top of the moss. Give them about 10 minutes. Unless the moss is already really damp (which would mean its too damp) they will all congregate on the cups.

the moss is dry i put the damp eggcrates in last night and there was 3-5 on the crates today i removed some lettuce ,carrots from the cage . this cricket in the peatmoss is a problem and their are many many crickets in there i got a empty pill bottle to catch them when they are on the glass but it takes forever to get 10-15. i turned off the undertank heaters 3 days ago.

 

[Will Hayward]

No, you have to check the crates about 10-15 minutes later, not the next morning.

 

[MWheelock]

I like the idea of the cups, which i may try. . . .

What I presently do is keep some sweet potato in the crate for a water source and nutrient source. Every day, a large number of pinheads are hanging on the slice. I just knock the slice into a cup and usually a dozen or two will fall out.

My guess is that they would probably climb out of the substrate onto the "food" source. (I change out the sweet potato every 3rd or 4th day.)

Just an idea.

Matthew