# Starting a cricket colony



## OGIGA (Apr 21, 2008)

I just decided to start a cricket colony. What I did was get a large trash bag and line the inside of a box with it. Then, add oatmeal (just like Rick). Then, I got a tray, divided it in 2, and put dirt on one side and left the other side for placing greens/food in. I added a dozen crickets not from PetCo so I'm hoping they'll be happy and start reproducing.


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## Malnra (Apr 21, 2008)

The ones I get from the bait store are very large and start trying to lay eggs immediately in anything they can get that probe into ... i finally started putting them into a small kritter keeper and letting them lay eggs. then they get fed to my mantis ... if babies appear i will be happy .. if not .. i will just buy them as i need them from ... *gasps* petco ... i have done it many times (nice to get the size i want/need) and more of the crickets stay alive than from local sources .... they are inexpensive and if there is a problem, petco is so big they dont worry about it and take care of you ... to each their own ... ;- )


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## pedro92 (Apr 21, 2008)

You will want to keep some extra air fresheners around. Crickets smell bad. I cant imagine breeding them. I have blaptica dubia roaches and they dont stink, climb, hiss, bite, they are greet feeders.


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## Malnra (Apr 22, 2008)

Chameleonare said:


> You will want to keep some extra air fresheners around. Crickets smell bad. I cant imagine breeding them. I have blaptica dubia roaches and they dont stink, climb, hiss, bite, they are greet feeders.


my wife would flip if I had roaches and they escaped in the house (i would not be happy either) at least crickets are predators and will kill other bugs, even roaches, so they are not as bad if they escape. plus i wont have 100's of them running around the basement if one got away. ;- )


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## pedro92 (Apr 22, 2008)

they can't climb plastic or smooth surfaces and i havent had one escape. Tell her they are hawaiian papaya flower beetles.


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## pedro92 (Apr 22, 2008)

they can't climb plastic or smooth surfaces and i havent had one escape. Tell her they are hawaiian papaya flower beetles.


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## MantidLord (Apr 22, 2008)

Please let me know how the colony goes, I'm thinking about starting my own cricket colony.


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## Malnra (Apr 22, 2008)

Chameleonare said:


> they can't climb plastic or smooth surfaces and i havent had one escape. Tell her they are hawaiian papaya flower beetles.


With my luck, one would escape much as the crickets have while i transition them into mantis containers. I will pass on the risk of letting roaches get free in my house. ;- )


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## OGIGA (Apr 22, 2008)

No roaches, please.  

I'll try to keep you guys updated.

By the way, this was really cheap... $1.39 for crickets and maybe $0.5 for the oatmeal. Everything else was stuff I already had laying around.


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## darkspeed (Apr 22, 2008)

I just recently had an explosion of baby crickets within my scorpion enclosure. Now I have more pinheads than I know what to do with lol.


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## OGIGA (Apr 23, 2008)

That's pretty cool. Glad to know how easy it is.


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## OGIGA (Apr 26, 2008)

Almost 1 week and no signs of new crickets. I have 1 cricket that loves to chirp all day and night. None of them have died and they all seem really happy, especially when I added crumbled up paper for them to walk on. They only smell like oatmeal, which reminds me of cereal. In fact, I'm keeping them in my bed room and they don't bother me at all, not even the sound.



Krissim Klaw at &lt;a href='http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?s=&amp;showtopic=10085&amp;view=findpost&amp;p=59404'&gt;http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?s=&amp;showtopic=10085&amp;view=findpost&amp;p=59404&lt;/a&gt; said:


> Wow that is much faster. I think just left alone I would usually start getting babies 5-8 weeks after getting a fresh batch of crickets. Nice to know if I ever want to get some little crickets fast I can use the light to make them develop at such a quick rate.


Maybe I should do something about it, like add a light bulb. Nah, I'll just keep them somewhere warmer.


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## OGIGA (Jun 1, 2008)

It's been a month and I still don't have new crickets. The old crickets are still alive and walking around. When I check on them, sometimes I find what I think are females laying eggs. They poke their pointing thing sticking out from their butt into the soil and look like they're trying to do something. Yeah, anyway, I don't know, but maybe the weather isn't warm enough for baby crickets yet.


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## Krissim Klaw (Jun 1, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> It's been a month and I still don't have new crickets. The old crickets are still alive and walking around. When I check on them, sometimes I find what I think are females laying eggs. They poke their pointing thing sticking out from their butt into the soil and look like they're trying to do something. Yeah, anyway, I don't know, but maybe the weather isn't warm enough for baby crickets yet.


Don't give up hope on the baby crickets. Seems usually I start seeing the babies appearing sometime between 1-2 months after I start a new tank of crickets. I don't use any special light or anything but the little buggers still have no problem popping out babies. I have a feeling you'll be swarmed before you know it.


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## hibiscusmile (Jun 1, 2008)

I never notice any in mine. But maybe they are eating them,. I fed a cricket, a big un to a mantis today and the mouth was really trying to bite the screen, (cricket mouth) and I had never seen one open that wide before, kind of worried me, cause this devils flower mantis only has one good are, so I squeezed his little head :lol:


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## Krissim Klaw (Jun 2, 2008)

Yep, crickets do have a nice set of mandibles on them. I am always amazed how efficiently mantises can catch them and avoid any injury. Every once in a while I'll see a cricket caught in a mantises claws with its mouth bitting madly and the mantis will lower their mouth straight to theirs and give them a little love kiss as they tear them apart mouth first. @[email protected]


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## OGIGA (Jun 15, 2008)

Great. Not only are there no baby crickets, spiders are coming to eat my crickets too. :angry:


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## collinchang635 (Jun 16, 2008)

Maybe you should get some crickets from a fish shop. I live in Malaysia and I bought 25 crickets for RM 1 (about $0.30) but they are quite smelly. They are quite big too.


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## ABbuggin (Jun 17, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> Great. Not only are there no baby crickets, spiders are coming to eat my crickets too. :angry:


You just reminded me how much I love Regal Jumping spiders! (btw: yours is a male, the females are white with black spots)


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## OGIGA (Aug 24, 2008)

Just an update here...

I tried to start another colony. Same setup, more crickets, warmer weather. I wet the soil daily and fed them vegetables too. They just died off, one by one. I'm disappointed so I'm just going to call it quits on this cricket thing.


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## The_Asa (Aug 24, 2008)

Didn't work out too well for me either. When I saw this post I thought that I'd try it. I can keep the crickets there for a couple of months...then they die off and I have to buy more, which defies the point of breeding them anyway.


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## collinchang635 (Aug 25, 2008)

I think I'm going to try this because I have a shortage of mealworms.


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## muleyyy (Aug 27, 2008)

I think the crickets must eat their own eggs, and pinhead crickets, they are predators afterall, and often nibble each other

i found that wetting the substrate in the cricket container is an invitation for mould to develop and usually the moisture just kills them off

i read on a website somewhere (i dont have the url right now) a neat way to collect the eggs;

this guy on the website puts some mesh over one of those plant pot trays (which is full of substrate) and cellotapes it down, he then keeps the substrate inside the plant pot try moist all the time, and this induces the female crickets to lay thier eggs on it, and cos they push thier ovipositor through the mesh you dont get any frass in the plant pot tray and amongst the eggs, after a few weeks you take it out, take the tape and mesh off and you should have eggs in there

i havnt tried it myself, as its much cheaper just to buy micro crickets than raise them and keep the little ones separate from the big ones, i just buy one lot of micro crickets when my mantids are small, and as the mantis grows so do the crickets so they are always the appropriate size, i've never had a shortage that way, infact i have to throw out crickets as they grow bigger and take up too much space!

if you find them stinky you should try those cricket food cubes, thier great, smell a bit orangy and have that jellified water in them, they seem a bit expensive, but they last for quite a while, i also feed my crickets green leaves along side that, try to avoid things like fruit and potatoe, as they gather mould quickly


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## idolomantis (Aug 27, 2008)

... i don,t use crickets.. we hate them. use roaches. way more easier and they don,t fight back


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## The_Asa (Aug 27, 2008)

Yeah, I've got to figure out how to start a colony of roaches.


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## collinchang635 (Aug 28, 2008)

Here's my cricket colony...  







I'm not sure if I have field crickets or house crickets. I heard that field crickets are blackish and house crix are sort of brownish tan colour. Do I have both? Here are some pics:

House cricket?






Field cricket?






Do I have a mix of crix? :blink:


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## mantidsandgeckos (Aug 28, 2008)

Yay, Collin.You have house crix!!!!!They look like they are going to be adults soon! :lol: :lol:


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## OGIGA (Aug 28, 2008)

Roaches are off limits for me. I don't like them and it'd be a disaster if they start living in my house.


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## collinchang635 (Aug 29, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> Roaches are off limits for me. I don't like them and it'd be a disaster if they start living in my house.


Me too. My mum hates roaches!


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## muleyyy (Aug 29, 2008)

wow those are really light in colour, do you keep them in the dark alot?


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## collinchang635 (Aug 29, 2008)

muleyyyy said:


> wow those are really light in colour, do you keep them in the dark alot?


I got them from a fish shop which kept them in the dark.


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## collinchang635 (Aug 29, 2008)

Update on my crix colony:

Day 2:

One casualty. The other canabalistic crickets ate him even though there was a lot of food for them.There was a lot of leftover food but they still at him... :blink:


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## mantidsandgeckos (Aug 29, 2008)

I Like Mantis said:


> Update on my crix colonyay 2:
> 
> One casualty. The other canabalistic crickets ate him even though there was a lot of food for them.There was a lot of leftover food but they still at him... :blink:


Sometimes i think crix are crazy little buggers :angry: :angry:


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## collinchang635 (Aug 29, 2008)

I put some crumpled newspaper inside the colony. Its getting pretty dirty because of all the poo and stuff. Do I need to change the newspaper every once in a while?


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## idolomantis (Aug 29, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> Roaches are off limits for me. I don't like them and it'd be a disaster if they start living in my house.


did you EVER had 200+ crickets in your house? i did and it was a disaster.


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## The_Asa (Aug 29, 2008)

200+?! I've had the odd few, but...


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## idolomantis (Aug 29, 2008)

The_Asa said:


> 200+?! I've had the odd few, but...


the colony fell on the ground and broke.

we had chirping for 3 weeks or so.


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## jason_mazzy (Aug 29, 2008)

I would suggest moist sand as a good laying substrate. fresh foods and a high quality dog food. Crickets will eat all of it and it allows for protein in there diet without adding to the smell. I would also suggest you add a chicken waterer (its basically an inverted bottle with a water tray and mesh) I would suggest using paper towels under the mesh so the babies do not drow. U can get em at a farm and garden store or online for 5 dollars. u can also buy them from armstrong crickets. Crickets drink alot of water.


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## OGIGA (Aug 29, 2008)

idolomantis said:


> did you EVER had 200+ crickets in your house? i did and it was a disaster.


As long as they die off after a while, that's fine. Roaches are invincible or something.


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## mantidsandgeckos (Aug 29, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> As long as they die off after a while, that's fine. Roaches are invincible or something.


When they die off, won't they stink? :huh:


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## idolomantis (Aug 29, 2008)

friendofgeckos said:


> When they die off, won't they stink? :huh:


horrefying.


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## OGIGA (Aug 30, 2008)

friendofgeckos said:


> When they die off, won't they stink? :huh:


I suppose, but I can't really comment because that has never happened to me. They do smell bad when they die in the habitat that I set up for them.

Oh yeah..... Rick, don't you have crickets that die and ferment and smell bad?


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## collinchang635 (Sep 1, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> Oh yeah..... Rick, don't you have crickets that die and ferment and smell bad?


Mine do. When they die they attract flies too.


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## collinchang635 (Sep 1, 2008)

Update on my crix colony.

Day 5/6:

About 10 casualties. Only 10-12 left. One adult with wings.

Changed newspaper. Many small flies. Fresh vegetables placed in the colony.

Heres a pic. Unfortunately I couldn't get a pic of the adult. Notice there ar less crix.


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## TylerFerretLord (Sep 2, 2008)

I think you guys are being a bit judgmental when it comes to roaches; Not all species are pests. I agree that it would be a bad idea to culture pest roaches, but you can get tropical species easily that will be unable to breed if they escape unless you keep your house very warm.

Roaches have a bad reputation, unfortunately.


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## collinchang635 (Sep 2, 2008)

Update on the crix colony.

Day6/7:

About 10 casualties. There are now two adults. Hopefully they are a pair.


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## OGIGA (Sep 2, 2008)

Yes, I'm definitely insectist against roaches. I suppose you can say judgmental too. I hate them because they are roaches. Haha. Okay, apologies to all you people who don't hate roaches.


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## collinchang635 (Sep 3, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> Yes, I'm definitely insectist against roaches. I suppose you can say judgmental too. I hate them because they are roaches. Haha. Okay, apologies to all you people who don't hate roaches.


I don't espeacially like roaches either.


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## collinchang635 (Sep 3, 2008)

Update on my crix colony.

Day 7/8:

11 casualties. Another cricket molted to adult. Now I have one male and one female. Isolated them in a smaller container. Hopefully they will mate and lay eggs. BTW, does anyone know how wet or dry the soil should be for the female to lay the eggs in? What would happen if its too wet?


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