Cricket breeding

Will crickets breed in the sand substrate or is it necassary to have a dish of moist soil in the container too? Will the babies grow if I leave the dish in the container if needed?

skinzfan72 said:

Will crickets breed in the sand substrate or is it necassary to have a dish of moist soil in the container too? Will the babies grow if I leave the dish in the container if needed?

Click to expand...

Yes they will breed in there if it is kept moist, but is best to give them their own breeding plate, you may wish to remove it every now and then cause they will eat the babies.

If your really interested in raising crickets up and getting a good stock going, I would suggest using a removable tray like hibiscusmile mentioned. Just seems like it would be so much easier to remove the tray every so often and place that soil in another tank so the babies will have their own place to hatch and hang out in.

Having said that, I find crickets are extremely easy to raise up regardless what you do. I always have a couple inches of sand in my cricket tank so the females can relieve themselves of the eggs, despite the fact I have no interest in raising up baby crickets. I never mist it and still before I know it little babies are popping out all over the place. While I wouldn't be surprised if the adults munch on some of them, plenty of them always seem to survive with the other adult crickets no problem. I'm currently working on my 3rd generation of hatchlings with no added effort on my part. :huh:

Thanks to you both for the info. I went and bought another tub just for the breeding. There is no substrate and a dish of sand for them to do thier thing in. Hopefully this works because I dished out 2 doz crix the other night for my mothers to be and when the 13 asians get a little bigger and my select batch of religiosas this summer I will definatelly need a good supply.

Krissim Klaw, what do you feed your crickets? Seems like you're having pretty good success.

Yea and how do you clean it with the sand in there? Do you have a lot of dead ones? :blink:

hibiscusmile said:

Yea and how do you clean it with the sand in there? Do you have a lot of dead ones? :blink:

Click to expand...

Normaly if 1 dies it will just get eaten :blink: , i've now got my first generation of crix

OGIGA- I feed Fluker's High-Calcium Cricket Feed. Must admit I love the stuff. The crickets thrive on it, and not just short term but longterm. I also sprinkle in Freeze-Dried Bloodworms, the type they sell as fish treats, every three days. The crickets love them. I used to also put fresh fruits and veggies in there every couple of days but I got to admit for the last 5-6 months I've had so much going on I haven't had the time. Honestly though, I haven't noticed any difference in the crickets. They seem to be thriving regardless.

hibiscusmile- Well I have about 50 adults in a 20 gallon tank so the fact I don't keep alot at once helps to cut down on the mess. Of course now that there are hundreds of babies scurring around again I guess the cage is going to be a bit more crowded.

As far as deaths, I almost never have them die on me. Usually I don't have to worry about it untill the crickets reach the end of their life cycle. When I do run across I dead one, I just scoop it out with a spoon. I feed and do a cage clean every 3 days. By cage clean all I do is use the spoon to scoop out the top layer where all the is in addition to any sheddings. Usually the poop is in pretty convenient piles since they usually like to roost in a few favorite areas. After that I mix the sand around. Doing this along with adding sand occasionally keeps the tank smelling nice and pretty clean.

I also will change/shake/brush off the egg carton I use as a hiding area for them as needed. Oh another good trick I have found is setting my egg carton up on sticks. This keeps it off the sand (especially helpful if you keep the substrate moist). It keeps the carton airated and lets the fall to the ground. The crickets also seem to love perching on top of the sticks, especially the little male singers.

Ben.M- My crickets don't seem to eat their dead, or at least not enough of it to make the dead bodies dissapear.

Hmm, sounds like pretty high maintenance. Since you have so many, maybe you can start a business just by adding yourself to Google's Local Business Center.

Krissim Klaw said:

Ben.M- My crickets don't seem to eat their dead, or at least not enough of it to make the dead bodies dissapear.

Click to expand...

Well then mine are seroius cannabals lol they luv to eat the dead ones :blink:

Krissim Klaw said:

If your really interested in raising crickets up and getting a good stock going, I would suggest using a removable tray like hibiscusmile mentioned. Just seems like it would be so much easier to remove the tray every so often and place that soil in another tank so the babies will have their own place to hatch and hang out in.Having said that, I find crickets are extremely easy to raise up regardless what you do. I always have a couple inches of sand in my cricket tank so the females can relieve themselves of the eggs, despite the fact I have no interest in raising up baby crickets. I never mist it and still before I know it little babies are popping out all over the place. While I wouldn't be surprised if the adults munch on some of them, plenty of them always seem to survive with the other adult crickets no problem. I'm currently working on my 3rd generation of hatchlings with no added effort on my part. :huh:

Click to expand...

I have some happy crickets tonight :lol: I went and cleaned out the cricket container, cause I was about out anyways, and put in the sand and all the other stuff, had to buy more crickets at petco, cause I won't get my order till tuesday, and put the new ones in there and the old ones I had and you should see all the carrying on! Their all over the chow and the sand and the quincher. They are happy and so am I :lol: Thanks for the info!

Ben.M- Curious as to what you feed your crickets?

hibiscusmile- Yay for happy crickets. One of the reasons I care for them the way I do is because I want them to be as healthy and as happy as possible. Despite the fact I have them for mantis food, I still want them to lead the best life possible. I also have a bit of a soft spot for them. Used to go to the petstore and rescue them all the time to keep as pets when I was a little kid.

I feed mine T-rex crix food(gut loading pellets), fish food, cat food and vegetation , why???

Ben.M said:

I feed mine T-rex crix food(gut loading pellets), fish food, cat food and vegetation , why???

Click to expand...

Just curious. Was wondering if maybe something in the diet make's the dead crickets seem really appitizing or something.

Well the crix food i very sweet, that might be it

What are all the little hairy caterpillar things in my feeder cricket tank? They seem to be multiplying rather quickly. The don't turn into some flying anoying things do they? I have been keeping them cleaned out of the tank but when I went to clean it the other day there was quite a few of them running around.

sound like dermistid beetles. They feed on the dead/dying crickets...and lots of other stuff. I'd dispose of them if possible as you don't want them running around in your house.

Hello Skinzfan72 ... I have been a Skins Fan since 1972.

I heard that breeding them is not as easy as one would think. The person who told me this actually breeds them. I thought, heck .. toss a bunch in a container and feed/water them and that would work. Seems there is more to it than I thought.

I suppose I could just buy 100 of them and put them in a tank with a sink or swim idea. Either they reproduce or they dont.

I will probably just buy them as needed from the stores in lots of 25.