More space, soon to be more colonies!

[Andee]

So I have been limited on the amount of certain colonies I can have and the diversity by the space I was limited to. Well during my fiance's visit in november, I was able to get and put together an extra utility shelf. This will be for my reptiles. I will be devoting the entire garage to the inverts soon. And that means I will be about to splitting my dubia colony and growing it massively. I will be doing 3-4 roach species. My cricket colony. I am so massively excited it's hard to explain lol. I just haven't quite figured out where to put my BSFL colony yet.

 

[Scottsquatch]

Wow, if your gonna be doing crickets, i guess ill be buying them as feeders once in a while. I knew you said you wanted to, but I didn't realize it was gonna be this soon. Good luck with them.

 

[Andee]

Yeah I will be doing crickets. I will be working with badness and making them as winless as possible including males. My colony of them won't be massive, likely around several thousand at most. But I will make them as clean and healthy as a cricket is physically possible to be. No grain will be fed to them even in the dry gutload. I have a lot of goals for them.

 

[steve mcgarret]

i have a question how do you start a cricket colony

 

[CJ's Exotics]

So I have been limited on the amount of certain colonies I can have and the diversity by the space I was limited to. Well during my fiance's visit in november, I was able to get and put together an extra utility shelf. This will be for my reptiles. I will be devoting the entire garage to the inverts soon. And that means I will be about to splitting my dubia colony and growing it massively. I will be doing 3-4 roach species. My cricket colony. I am so massively excited it's hard to explain lol. I just haven't quite figured out where to put my BSFL colony yet.

Let me know how the BSF colony works.

 

[Joseph 1233]

So I have been limited on the amount of certain colonies I can have and the diversity by the space I was limited to. Well during my fiance's visit in november, I was able to get and put together an extra utility shelf. This will be for my reptiles. I will be devoting the entire garage to the inverts soon. And that means I will be about to splitting my dubia colony and growing it massively. I will be doing 3-4 roach species. My cricket colony. I am so massively excited it's hard to explain lol. I just haven't quite figured out where to put my BSFL colony yet.

Hey just wondering what you meant by splitting the colony and making it grow?

 

[Andee]

Hey just wondering what you meant by splitting the colony and making it grow?

When you split a colony it has more space and you can harvest from one colony until it needs a break and then start harvesting from another colony while the one takes a break.

i have a question how do you start a cricket colony

I will respond to this in a few hours will require me to sit down at my computer sweetie ^^

 

[Andee]

i have a question how do you start a cricket colony

Cricket colonies need at least 500 adult crickets to start off well and fast, more if you can. Heat sources are needed, preferably a basking light and ceramic heat emitter with them because they prefer absorbing heat from above sources. They need lots of fruits and veggies compared to dry gutload because they need high water sources when breeding. Provide moist soil where females can deposit their eggs in a two inch-three inch deep tupperware container with a lid so when they need to be removed you can incubate them inside their own rubbermaid bin for the younger crickets. Provide about 2x more the room you would for roaches for crickets of the same number.

 

[CJ's Exotics]

Cricket colonies need at least 500 adult crickets to start off well and fast, more if you can. Heat sources are needed, preferably a basking light and ceramic heat emitter with them because they prefer absorbing heat from above sources. They need lots of fruits and veggies compared to dry gutload because they need high water sources when breeding. Provide moist soil where females can deposit their eggs in a two inch-three inch deep tupperware container with a lid so when they need to be removed you can incubate them inside their own rubbermaid bin for the younger crickets. Provide about 2x more the room you would for roaches for crickets of the same number.

Nice!

 

[chamsarecool]

Cricks will do really well with a heat tape but not if you heap in a bunch of vegetable matter at once because the moisture levels will kill them. With the overhead heat, it will probably mitigate the excess humidity. What I do is use small cups with paper towel and water or for bigger ones I take an 8oz deli cup and cut with scissors out a chunk of size to make it easier for crix to get in and again paper towel for moisture then I feed non-medicated layer and only small amounts of veggies at a time.

 

[Andee]

Cricks will do really well with a heat tape but not if you heap in a bunch of vegetable matter at once because the moisture levels will kill them. With the overhead heat, it will probably mitigate the excess humidity. What I do is use small cups with paper towel and water or for bigger ones I take an 8oz deli cup and cut with scissors out a chunk of size to make it easier for crix to get in and again paper towel for moisture then I feed non-medicated layer and only small amounts of veggies at a time.

I put in lots of veggies because it reduces cannibalism as water sources are necessary for that. And also I am one of those people who finds using papertowels or water crystals to be... useless in many ways, in my opinion. I don't rag on anyone who does. But if I am providing extra moisture and I know they can easily get enough from veggies or fruit, why wouldn't I provide the added gutload with that? I will feed them my own bug chow too, but then again not grain or corn based because of the issues that crickets have with being known carriers for grain fungi even after it is eaten.

 

[laurie]

So I have been limited on the amount of certain colonies I can have and the diversity by the space I was limited to. Well during my fiance's visit in november, I was able to get and put together an extra utility shelf. This will be for my reptiles. I will be devoting the entire garage to the inverts soon. And that means I will be about to splitting my dubia colony and growing it massively. I will be doing 3-4 roach species. My cricket colony. I am so massively excited it's hard to explain lol. I just haven't quite figured out where to put my BSFL colony yet.

Fantastic news!! I can get even more bugs

 

[CJ's Exotics]

I put in lots of veggies because it reduces cannibalism as water sources are necessary for that. And also I am one of those people who finds using papertowels or water crystals to be... useless in many ways, in my opinion. I don't rag on anyone who does. But if I am providing extra moisture and I know they can easily get enough from veggies or fruit, why wouldn't I provide the added gutload with that? I will feed them my own bug chow too, but then again not grain or corn based because of the issues that crickets have with being known carriers for grain fungi even after it is eaten.

Is the fungus the one @jajeanpierre mentioned in one of her threads, aspergillus and aflotoxins?

 

[Andee]

Is the fungus the one @jajeanpierre mentioned in one of her threads, aspergillus and aflotoxins?

Yes

 

[CJ's Exotics]

Yes

That thread totally freaked me out.

 

[Andee]

There's a lot of reasons to be freaked out about poorly raised crickets. They aren't a good feeder if poorly raised and can lead to a lot of illnesses.

 

[CJ's Exotics]

There's a lot of reasons to be freaked out about poorly raised crickets. They aren't a good feeder if poorly raised and can lead to a lot of illnesses.

That's true, but that freaked me out on a whole new level.