I’m breeding crickets

[Kodyf]

I’m tired of over spending for these little guys between my chameleon and beardies. I just pulled their old lay bin out it has thousands of eggs. I’ve got them incubating at 88 degrees and just set up a new laying bin. They have access to unlimited food and water in this bin. Shortly I’ll have thousands of pinheads. And crickets of all different sizes for my reptiles.
This is very tricky it looks easier than it is.
I had to try out multiple bulbs and different substrate to get the temperature steady at 88 degrees, I ultimately found out that while ambient temperature is 72 degrees in the room a 100w nightlight red bulb maintains tan reptisand at 88 degrees with 80 percent humidity. If anyone knows anything about breeding crickets this is the perfect set up other than I don’t have screen yet to keep my adult crickets from stealing egg snacks.

 

[nightanole]

Your doing it all wrong...

Get a tarantula setup with coco fiber.
Keep it moist
Put in hand full of crickets
tarantula.exe not found
crickets fall in love
sea of pinheads a few weeks later
rescue annoyed tarantula

Also excuse to post snowball pics

 

[Kodyf]

Your doing it all wrong...

Get a tarantula setup with coco fiber.
Keep it moist
Put in hand full of crickets
tarantula.exe not found
crickets fall in love
sea of pinheads a few weeks later
rescue annoyed tarantula

Also excuse to post snowball pics

View attachment 349015

Your probably right on this but I don’t want a sea of pinheads that would be overpopulation I want to make a system just to have a variety of sizes of crickets for my lizards and I want to separate them by size so I’ll need specific laying bins.

 

[BryanP]

I can't keep crickets alive for more than 4 days in a (what I assume to be a perfect setup) but if they get out of the cage they seem to love their entire life cycle in my house.

You're talking about breeding them; I just want to keep them alive long enough to feed off!

 

[MissSkittles]

I can't keep crickets alive for more than 4 days in a (what I assume to be a perfect setup) but if they get out of the cage they seem to love their entire life cycle in my house.

You're talking about breeding them; I just want to keep them alive long enough to feed off!

Are you getting banded or domestic crickets?

 

[Kodyf]

I can't keep crickets alive for more than 4 days in a (what I assume to be a perfect setup) but if they get out of the cage they seem to love their entire life cycle in my house.

You're talking about breeding them; I just want to keep them alive long enough to feed off!

My crickets stay alive for the entire lifespan. They die of old age. With proper temperature ventilation and good diet that contains leafy greens and some carrots plus I put a little high calcium flukers dry feed and clear water cubes for hydration. I can post a picture of everything I use it really helps keep them alive and also I agree with what @MissSkittles said are you using banded crickets?
Also how are they getting out of the cage I use a 2ft tall tub they can’t climb on the plastic it’s slippery they never escape

 

[Sticktongue]

My crickets stay alive for the entire lifespan. They die of old age. With proper temperature ventilation and good diet that contains leafy greens and some carrots plus I put a little high calcium flukers dry feed and clear water cubes for hydration. I can post a picture of everything I use it really helps keep them alive and also I agree with what @MissSkittles said are you using banded crickets?
Also how are they getting out of the cage I use a 2ft tall tub they can’t climb on the plastic it’s slippery they never escape

Post it up! I feel a lot of people have issues with keeping them alive so it would be good to have an other thread people can check out. Complete with bin pictures, how many kept in said size of bin, etc. I never had major issues, but think my issues were due to domestic, and not banded. Will be doing banded now that I’m getting back in. First shipment next week.

 

[BryanP]

Are you getting banded or domestic crickets?

Banded crickets.

Also how are they getting out of the cage...

Out of the chameleons cage... I use a shooting gallery but if they get spooked they hop off the wall into the cage and then into my house and then chirp all night for 4 days until I either find them and kill it or they die

 

[kinyonga]

Breeding crickets…
https://buyfeedercrickets.com/blogs/crickets/breeding-live-crickets
https://www.wikihow.com/Raise-Your-Own-Crickets

BTW…it’s only the males that chirp in the cricket species I know.

You might like to try this for fun..
https://www.noaa.gov/education/explainers/can-crickets-tell-temperature-answer-is-in-their-chirp

 

[Sticktongue]

Breeding crickets…
https://buyfeedercrickets.com/blogs/crickets/breeding-live-crickets
https://www.wikihow.com/Raise-Your-Own-Crickets

BTW…it’s only the males that chirp in the cricket species I know.

You might like to try this for fun..
https://www.noaa.gov/education/explainers/can-crickets-tell-temperature-answer-is-in-their-chirp

Great articles, thank you!

 

[Kodyf]

Banded crickets.


Out of the chameleons cage... I use a shooting gallery but if they get spooked they hop off the wall into the cage and then into my house and then chirp all night for 4 days until I either find them and kill it or they die

Maybe double check the temperature. Also if one cricket dies it can deplete your entire colony it has a domino effect, they release ammonia gas that kills the other crickets that walk past the carcass. Also daily sanitation and you must use egg carton or something similar if they walk over their feces they will die as well.

 

[Kodyf]

So this is what I mainly use for the food and water and I use the zoomed probe thermometer to make sure the temp is good it ranges from 82-88 degrees depending on how wet the sand is. The crickets are at the perfect temperature to eat drink and breed constantly. I should have the first pinheads in 9 days now. The crickets grow happily there is no day cycle that doesn’t bother them they like a steady temperature, they eat up the veggies I throw in and lay thousands of eggs. I use a 100w nightlight red heat lamp for the crickets but this is just for breeding purposes crickets should be kept at 72 they die quicker the warmer they are. But if your breeding you want higher temperature so breeding is faster so in this case I recommend the heat bulb and raise your lay bin until you see it top out at 88 degrees if it goes higher lower the lay bin more. Their are already thousands of eggs in the new laying bin

 

[nightanole]

What keeps my crickets alive is airflow airflow airflow. All my bins have at least 2 full sides of heavy guage screen, other than the pin heads. If you dont have enough airflow, they will literally fart themselves to death from not getting the poop gases out.

 

[Kodyf]

What keeps my crickets alive is airflow airflow airflow. All my bins have at least 2 full sides of heavy guage screen, other than the pin heads. If you dont have enough airflow, they will literally fart themselves to death from not getting the poop gases out.

It seems like you’ve got better ventilation than me with what your using. For my adult crickets I drilled holes in the top of the container and drilled holes in the sides of the tub. I’m cutting a corner not using screen but they are surviving and thriving. For the pinheads they will be moved into a smaller container to incubate longer so they double in size faster. Once they are small crickets I have their own bin waiting, and once those small crickets are medium my new pin heads will be small and the medium will turn large small will turn medium and new smalls will grow from the pinheads and I’m going to keep it running that way systematically that way I have a variety.