Starting a cricket colony

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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.

 
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.

 
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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Here's my cricket colony... :D

Crickets.jpg


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?

housecricket.jpg


Field cricket?

Fieldcricket.jpg


Do I have a mix of crix? :blink:

 
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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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?

 
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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