I just got a fresh batch of crickets (house crickets, Acheta domesticus) from my local pet store to fill in the missing nymph stages, as the majority of mine were recently hatched nymphs or breeding adults.
With any luck my colony will now be self-sustaining as I have nearly 50+ nymphs that hatch each time now and make it to adulthood. It seems with each new batch of hatched nymphs, their numbers greatly increase, so I can see the population getting out hand actually.
I also went ahead and cleaned my self-watering bottles before I added the new crickets and noticed the cotton balls were full of eggs. So I took the opportunity to take some photos of the eggs. I remember I was curious what they looked like when I started trying to breed my crickets, and never found any photos. I only got descriptions they look like rice, which they do, very tiny pieces.
I also manged to save most of the eggs by rinsing off the old cotton balls over a container with a organza mesh screen - the eggs remained on the screen and I buried them slightly in the dirt container.
As you can see some of the eggs have been ruptured, as even the lightest touch can break them open. The last photo is 7 eggs on my fingertip for size reference as they are so tiny.
With any luck my colony will now be self-sustaining as I have nearly 50+ nymphs that hatch each time now and make it to adulthood. It seems with each new batch of hatched nymphs, their numbers greatly increase, so I can see the population getting out hand actually.
I also went ahead and cleaned my self-watering bottles before I added the new crickets and noticed the cotton balls were full of eggs. So I took the opportunity to take some photos of the eggs. I remember I was curious what they looked like when I started trying to breed my crickets, and never found any photos. I only got descriptions they look like rice, which they do, very tiny pieces.
I also manged to save most of the eggs by rinsing off the old cotton balls over a container with a organza mesh screen - the eggs remained on the screen and I buried them slightly in the dirt container.
As you can see some of the eggs have been ruptured, as even the lightest touch can break them open. The last photo is 7 eggs on my fingertip for size reference as they are so tiny.
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