Question on cricket breeding
- Thread starter tryme
- Start date
kenya
Avid Member
I would just keep a little Tupperware with the laying substrate and move it into a different tank every week to let the babies hatch. Put a new Tupperware in and let them lay in it for that week.
Rinse and repeat
Adult crickets will eat pinheads and this way you have a size separation between adults and babies and it will keep eggs from being eaten.
On a whole different level, ditch the crickets and try roaches instead!
Just my 2 cents.
Rinse and repeat
Adult crickets will eat pinheads and this way you have a size separation between adults and babies and it will keep eggs from being eaten.
On a whole different level, ditch the crickets and try roaches instead!
Just my 2 cents.
Chameleons Northwest
Avid Member
Are you asking about placing a screen over the egg laying medium, just for the short time the females will be laying eggs? That's a great idea. We like to recycle, so I would recommend clean tights (hosiery) and a rubber band.
How many adult crickets will you have?
They will be ready to breed when the males are chirping the the girls have good long ovipositors sticking out their back end.
We have tried different methods for breeding crickets, and this one works best for us (though I realize you weren't asking for all this):
Take a small, medium, or large (depending on how many adults you have and what size bin they are living in) plastic container that is about 2-3 inches in height. Fill it with moist substrate (we use peat moss)- it should be moist enough to easily clump in your hand. And place this container in with you adult crickets. You may have to build a little "bridge" to the egg laying container so your girls will find it.
THE NEXT DAY remove the container, cover it with a very damp paper towel, and place it on a heating pad set on medium. Keep it on the heating pad for 6-7 days. Be sure to keep the paper towel moist by spraying it with a little spray bottle once a day (I do it before I got to bed at night). If the peat moss gets a little "fuzzy" don't worry. For some reason this fuzzy growth does not bother the baby crickets at all. If the peat moss surface begins to look at all dry, then lightly spray the peat moss itself. If the peat moss dries out, your cricket eggs will be no good.
The baby crickets should begin hatching out on day 8. For this reason, on day 7 you want to place the little egg container into a larger container, but still placed on the heating pad. Remember to be sure the paper towel and peat moss do not dry out.
On day 8 the egg container is ready to be placed in your baby cricket bin. I do keep my baby cricket bin on top of a heating pad in order to facilitate the hatching of all the eggs.
Once you see the crickets begin to hatch (day 8) there is something you can do so you can quickly recycle the egg container. But this is not necessarily necessary. But it will make things easier as the crickets grow larger, and also helps more of the baby crickets dig out of their egg laying container. This is what we do: Cut a piece of "plastic canvas" mesh the size of the top of your egg container. Place this canvas on top of your egg container and gently flip it over. (Do this while standing over your baby cricket's empty new bin.) Place the egg container and plastic canvas upside down into the bin. Now remove the egg container. Your peat moss will sit on the mesh, retaining its egg container shape. Now take a strip of paper and wrap it around the sides of the peat moss, encircling it, and tape it in place. Your egg container will be ready to use again, and your baby crickets will be able to hatch out of the top and the bottom of your peat moss. Place a damp lettuce (green leaf or other leafy green veg) over the peat moss to keep it moist while the babies are hatching out. Replace the lettuce leaf as necessary.
If you leave the container in with the adults they will eat the eggs, and eat the newborn babies, either way. Also, it is almost impossible to sort out the various cricket sizes you might need, if all your crickets are living together.
Here is also a good link with instructions:
http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html#Materials
How many adult crickets will you have?
They will be ready to breed when the males are chirping the the girls have good long ovipositors sticking out their back end.
We have tried different methods for breeding crickets, and this one works best for us (though I realize you weren't asking for all this):
Take a small, medium, or large (depending on how many adults you have and what size bin they are living in) plastic container that is about 2-3 inches in height. Fill it with moist substrate (we use peat moss)- it should be moist enough to easily clump in your hand. And place this container in with you adult crickets. You may have to build a little "bridge" to the egg laying container so your girls will find it.
THE NEXT DAY remove the container, cover it with a very damp paper towel, and place it on a heating pad set on medium. Keep it on the heating pad for 6-7 days. Be sure to keep the paper towel moist by spraying it with a little spray bottle once a day (I do it before I got to bed at night). If the peat moss gets a little "fuzzy" don't worry. For some reason this fuzzy growth does not bother the baby crickets at all. If the peat moss surface begins to look at all dry, then lightly spray the peat moss itself. If the peat moss dries out, your cricket eggs will be no good.
The baby crickets should begin hatching out on day 8. For this reason, on day 7 you want to place the little egg container into a larger container, but still placed on the heating pad. Remember to be sure the paper towel and peat moss do not dry out.
On day 8 the egg container is ready to be placed in your baby cricket bin. I do keep my baby cricket bin on top of a heating pad in order to facilitate the hatching of all the eggs.
Once you see the crickets begin to hatch (day 8) there is something you can do so you can quickly recycle the egg container. But this is not necessarily necessary. But it will make things easier as the crickets grow larger, and also helps more of the baby crickets dig out of their egg laying container. This is what we do: Cut a piece of "plastic canvas" mesh the size of the top of your egg container. Place this canvas on top of your egg container and gently flip it over. (Do this while standing over your baby cricket's empty new bin.) Place the egg container and plastic canvas upside down into the bin. Now remove the egg container. Your peat moss will sit on the mesh, retaining its egg container shape. Now take a strip of paper and wrap it around the sides of the peat moss, encircling it, and tape it in place. Your egg container will be ready to use again, and your baby crickets will be able to hatch out of the top and the bottom of your peat moss. Place a damp lettuce (green leaf or other leafy green veg) over the peat moss to keep it moist while the babies are hatching out. Replace the lettuce leaf as necessary.
If you leave the container in with the adults they will eat the eggs, and eat the newborn babies, either way. Also, it is almost impossible to sort out the various cricket sizes you might need, if all your crickets are living together.
Here is also a good link with instructions:
http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html#Materials
Chameleons Northwest
Avid Member
I've heard people do use sand.
If kept at about 80F, the babies reach maturity in about 6 weeks, and die at about 12 weeks.
Chameleons Northwest
Avid Member
I have not actually tried covering the medium, so can't say for sure. Technically, their ovipositor would be able to do it, so long as the tights were just over the surface of the soil, but I don't know if the crickets have to get some sort of gratification first out of digging around on the soil. I am thinking they don't, since our female cricks have done a good job of laying their eggs in crumpled paper towels. So, with the tights stretched over the lip of the container- the soil would need to also come up to the lip of the container, just beneath the tights.
Chameleons Northwest
Avid Member
I don't know, but someone else may chime in here. It's a good question. I really do believe the coconut fiber would be OK, and here we are able to get a vermiculite that is very fine tiny kernels which I should think would also work. Perlite may be too chunky.
I may try some of that finely ground vermiculite to see if it works and holds the moisture better.
Dean Pulcini
Avid Member
I use screening and moist soil, as long as the females can get through it should work.
tryme
New Member
Here's what i'm going to do..tell me if it wont work please.
A good amount of adult crix male and female in a tub. Air holes pierced in it for ventilation etc.
A good amount of adult crix male and female in a tub. Air holes pierced in it for ventilation etc.
- Tub with crix etc placed in airing cupboard.
- Food added via fruit and veg
- water added via damp paper towel in old cricket box (the one you get when u buy small cricks the square thing)
- Another similiar tub with damp sand for egg laying covered with tights (sand filled to the brim so they can get there stem thing in easy)
- leave that in for about a week
- take it out put it ontop of warm tv equipment for about 6-7 days
- place the tub inside another tub and place back on tv equipment so eggs hatch INTO the new tub.
tryme
New Member
oh yeah just thought id say I didn't cover my cricket egg laying site. I used childs play sand. I kept it moist, I took it out after a week kept it on my freeview box (tv box thing) and after 7-8 days LOADS of babys have hatched. I've given them potatoe and some fruit. I will be giving them a mix of cornflakes, oats and digestive biscuits.
