My cricket rearing tub!

[Jackson chameleonair]

Crickets breed so fast .
It's crazy

 

[ericasheree]

I'm getting my first shipment of 500 crickets and 100-200 lobster roaches from mulberry farms and am setting up my enclosures today, I will give it a try on one of the containers and see how it works. hopefully doesn't kill them off. I figure 16 bucks for 500 crickets i wont be too sad if i get a couple weeks feeding out of them and had to order more for trial and error. I dont have kids so my money is going into this for now!! It will be nice to know I am feeding my panther with crickets I raise and feed though!!

 

[millsamus]

So much helpful information in this thread! Thank you guys! Also.....

I used my old screen cage 16''x16''x20'' for my first cricket holding cell. All the droppings fell to the base and I hung egg crates from the top of the cage with wire..... crickets lasted longer then a month! they loved it!

 

[Whatcamo]

Thanks I need that cage for horn worms when you're done

 

[millsamus]

Thanks I need that cage for horn worms when you're done

Lol... actually I am looking to disassemble it I don't need it now! So umm... taking offers

 

[Whatcamo]

Uh cost of shipping haha ?

 

[Celtics4Lifee]

Instead if topsoil, can i use potting soil?

 

[Whatcamo]

Yes just as long as it's organic without fertilizer

 

[Shauno]

Yes just as long as it's organic without fertilizer

Great thread, great info here. I thank you for posting this. I'll be setting up a similar culture for my cricket needs!

 

[john223]

Hi I also want to try this kindly guide me

 

[cswan19]

This is a great thread!! Thanks I think I may try this, you think it would work with 250 crickets instead of 500?

 

[Psychobunny]

Dont some cricket farms make their cricks sterile so they cant breed?

I have only had luck with breeding once out of several tries.

I know how to do it and all, but I get nothing when I tried to breed the
brown banded cricks from Ghann's.

I read somewere that they may use radiation to sterilize them

If I find out that this is true, I will never do business with Ghann's again.

 

[SMCNARY]

Well let me go over what I did and had success with!
I started with 2000 crickets, now you don't need this much but I'd recommend around 500 or more your decision get them around 1/2"-3/4" so they are sub adult adult crickets and already pregnant.

What you'll need to do is place them in you storage tub light you normally do but place a small tub of dirt I Used two these sizes

You want to pack them tightly with organic soil / top soil
And get the soil moist not wet and place them in the tub with a ramp into each one so the females can crawl into them they'll automatically be attracted to the moist soil and start laying in them.

Leave them in the adult tub for one week misting them once or twice a day making sure to keep the soil moist if it dries out it'll kill the eggs.

After one week remove them and place them into a large sterilite tub the bigger the better longer and wider is more important than height for temp keeping, and put two holes with screen on the top like this

with a heat lamp on them 24-7 I used a 60w household bulb you want the eggs to stay around 80-90 not below 80 KEEP SOIL MOIST which may take more attention
Also put packaging tape around the top of it!

In 7-15 days you'll see them starting to hatch and hatch and hatch at this point its important to provide some hiding places but not many something like this

Then once they get to about a 1/4" you'll want to start providing them more space by adding egg crate like this

What I did for food for growing them out was I used a mix of
1lb of whey protein
1lb brewers yeast
1/4lb of spirulina
5cups bee pollen granules (with out preservatives)
1/4 rolled oats
2 cups repashy superload
2cups repashy calcium plus
1lb nori (sushi wrap)
I put it all the bigger things such as the nori and bee pollen in the blender to mince it up very fine then I took all the ingredients and put them in a mixer and mixed them together very well!
With the pinheads you'll want to put the food all around the edges of your tub as that's where they seem to go the most
For moister I used paper towels folded up to fit in a glad container lid you want to fold it up a lot so it will retain moister better I'd say 2-3" before you get it wet soak it down very well then give it a light squeeze jus so it's not dripping anymore I then spray down the paper towel 1-2 times a day so it stays moist (can use water crystals once they get about 1/8")
I think that's it? Remember to keep the heat lamp on 24-7 so they'll grow quickly for you it also helps keep they're environment dry!
Hope this helps you all!

Interesting diet!/ I might use some of your ideas

 

[happiness]

Dont some cricket farms make their cricks sterile so they cant breed?

I have only had luck with breeding once out of several tries.

I know how to do it and all, but I get nothing when I tried to breed the
brown banded cricks from Ghann's.

I read somewere that they may use radiation to sterilize them

If I find out that this is true, I will never do business with Ghann's again.

Sorry to bring up an old thread (But it is a useful thread!)

Psychobunny, did you find out if Ghann's makes them unbreedable?? I'm going to try to breed mine once they become adults.
Nevermind, I got my answer

 

[Psychobunny]

Yes, they can breed.
Ghann's is selling only the brown banded cricks, which are my favorite, and have been breeding them with success for some time now.