Serle
Well-known member
I am using a 60w light bulb to warm my feeder enclosure (crickets & drosophila) maintaining 28 - 30 c , is it detrimental to leave them exposed to constant light 24/7 ?
Night Light on feeders
- Thread starter Serle
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The bright light doesn't seem to bother my crickets. I am using some 100w incandescent bulbs right now myself, and I've noticed at night they tend to stay around them for the warmer temps.
I do have some larger red lights with thermostat (this light), but I'm holding off on those until I affix their new light fixtures and such when I make progress on my bug room. Lots of supplies already bought and sitting in my room, but finding time is another story.
Fruit fly wise, they aren't bothered by anything, but warmer temps like that will blossom grain mite populations much quicker (like usually found as the culture crashes). I find 24 c (75F) about ideal for fruit fly cultures, helps keep mites down and the fly population growing good.
Serle
Well-known member
Xlnt , I know the crickets tend to hide day and night . Do you have a sensible way to harvest the small crickets 1/16 - 1/8 to feed?
@Serle Must be some scared crickets to hide all the time. My colony tend to walk around quite a bit to explore the water dishes, cricket dirt egg container, and food bowl.
For me I just shake the crickets off the crates or cardboard tubes into my tall feeding container and just tweezer out the ones I want as I'm feeding.
The only true method to separate them by size is to keep the same instar crickets in their own housing. I do that by collecting the cricket dirt egg container and letting them hatch in another container, and repeating the process. I keep two main tanks, one for adults and the 2nd for small 1 month old crickets, and small tank just for hatching eggs (and move the crickets to the other tanks as they age, or let the tanks be switched for their age).
My colony tend to walk around quite a bit to explore the water dishes, cricket dirt egg container, and food bowl.For me I just shake the crickets off the crates or cardboard tubes into my tall feeding container and just tweezer out the ones I want as I'm feeding.
The only true method to separate them by size is to keep the same instar crickets in their own housing. I do that by collecting the cricket dirt egg container and letting them hatch in another container, and repeating the process. I keep two main tanks, one for adults and the 2nd for small 1 month old crickets, and small tank just for hatching eggs (and move the crickets to the other tanks as they age, or let the tanks be switched for their age).
