Male and Female Crickets?

[chamlover]

Ok i am tired of spending a fortune every month buying crickets and figure maybe it is time to start breeding crickets. Yippeeee! I so looked forward to breeding bugs when i got older.lol. Anyway i just picked up 2000 and figured i would take some put them into a seperate container to keep them warm to try to breed them. I have done alot of research on how to do it, but one thing i can't find, is how to tell them apart. With my luck if i was to take a couple hundred they would be 98% male and 2% female. Does anyone know how to tell the difference. Any additional hints you can give a beginner bugger.

Debby

 

[Cainschams]

http://www.wormman.com/breeding_crickets.cfm

this is a pretty good link and it has your question in it too.

 

[CammieNLeno]

A female cricket has a third extrusion on her tail. Its for sticking in the dirt or substrate to lay the eggs. Males only have two, that spike out to the sides. Once you know what it is, it takes about .5 seconds to sex all crickets, ya just see it or you dont.

Great link cain, ill have to read up on that as well!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Well, the good news is- they don't have any trouble recognizing genders. The bad news is, I don't know if it's easy to tell a very young female from a young male. As the females mature they develop an ovipositor, which appears as a black stubby "stick" like projection from the center of their rear. This gradually grows to a fine black tube, through which the gals deposit their eggs into the earth. So, as your crickets mature, be watching for the black stub to appear. Very mature male crickets will often have wing tips that join at the back and create what looks like the same thing sticking from the center of their butt (in addition to the side spikes), but is lighter in color.
Breeding crickets is a cinch, really, and a great way to be certain you've always got pin heads ready for the neonates.