Starting a cricket colony

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OGIGA

OGIGA

Dead Leaf Mantis
Joined
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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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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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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.

 
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.
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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. ;- )

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

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

 
Chameleonare said:
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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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. ;- )

 
No roaches, please. :rolleyes:

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.

 
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.

 
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 <a href='http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=10085&view=findpost&p=59404'>http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=10085&view=findpost&p=59404</a> 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.
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Maybe I should do something about it, like add a light bulb. Nah, I'll just keep them somewhere warmer.
 
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.

 
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.
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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. :p
 
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:

 
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. @___@

 
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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