Varied wild cricket cultures?

[CosbyArt]

After a bad batch of crickets from a local pet store, I have been looking for a replacement feeder. As after all the flies and moths I have been using for months won't be around much longer - winter is coming (the cool 60 degree nights lately are proving it).

One obvious choice are breeding wild crickets. I have been catching several crickets lately in my fly traps that are near the ground.

Today for example I first caught four, then earlier tonight eight more crickets. I've only seen the local typical black field crickets (Gryllinae Sp.); however, I noticed the ones from my traps are two species. Oddly enough it seems the other is the house cricket (Acheta domesticus), just like the ones I bought from the pet stores (I have never seen them before today in the wild, and there is no way they are ones I bought). Also a bonus is it seems I caught both sexes of each species too.

I'm curious if anyone has cultured wild crickets, and if so which is better? Is there a difference between wild house crickets (Acheta domesticus) and the store bought variety (besides their diet)? Can the two species be housed together in the same tank?

I must admit if the black field crickets (Gryllinae Sp.) are kept/feed the same as the pet store species I will likely try them. As it seems the adults are larger (works great for my larger mantids), and I have a source to stockpile a culture with hundreds from my sister's yard.

Here are the photos from the two cricket captures today - the crickets have a light powdering of Sphagnum peat moss as that container is typically used to snag the feeders from my tank, but was handy to capture/hold the ones from my traps.

 

[dmina]

Don't have nothing to add..I have to admire how committed you are to gathering your own wild insects... that would be another full time job for me, to feed all my mantis... very interesting... and thanks for sharing

 

[Salmonsaladsandwich]

There is one thing you'll probably want to be aware of. You know how crickets are a bit carnivorous and can be dangerous if the mantis doesn't eat them fast enough? When cricket paralysis virus struck and disrupted the house cricket industry, they started selling virus- resistant "super crickets". Which are actually a kind of field cricket. (Tropical, because northern varieties need diapause. Your crickets might need it, actually.) the super crickets came to be known as "killer crickets" because they're much more voracious predators than house crickets, they will attack anything that doesn't attack them first. They can kill and eat living frogs and geckos.

It looks like you have at least a few field crickets of some kind in there. I would use them with caution and make sure that a mantis is hungry before leaving them in with it.

 

[CosbyArt]

Don't have nothing to add..I have to admire how committed you are to gathering your own wild insects... that would be another full time job for me, to feed all my mantis... very interesting... and thanks for sharing

Thanks, I do spend a lot of time collecting feeders but thankfully have some traps that save me time. Although there are many times I still have to use my aerial net and get busy catching myself, because the traps don't have enough.

The ultimate goal though is to be able to culture some of them so I can offer a varied diet to my pets. So far about the only thing I have cultured successfully and they will eat are the wax moths (besides my fruit flies/springtails/isopods which are more special purpose). Others such as mealworms they refuse to eat, but many others I haven't been able to culture (at least inside).

There is one thing you'll probably want to be aware of. You know how crickets are a bit carnivorous and can be dangerous if the mantis doesn't eat them fast enough? When cricket paralysis virus struck and disrupted the house cricket industry, they started selling virus- resistant "super crickets". Which are actually a kind of field cricket. (Tropical, because northern varieties need diapause. Your crickets might need it, actually.) the super crickets came to be known as "killer crickets" because they're much more voracious predators than house crickets, they will attack anything that doesn't attack them first. They can kill and eat living frogs and geckos.

It looks like you have at least a few field crickets of some kind in there. I would use them with caution and make sure that a mantis is hungry before leaving them in with it.

Interesting about diapause, they might need it; however, there is a colony that lives in a large rock "statue" in my backyard year round. The rock "statue" started off as a wishing well made from geodes, but building it was soon abandoned and was filled in with the remaining geode rocks. Even with snow on the ground last year I have seen some under the rocks doing well - not overly active but alive. I assume the rocks hold in heat from the sunlight and protects them from the elements, to allow them to continue living.

Kind of like my isopods. I dug through the snow and I can collect them under rocks year round too (as I started to collect them last year in the middle of winter).

Thanks for the warning; however, anything with a biting mouth is usually disabled (especially with any size) and I always pinch off their hind legs at the knees too. Makes them a easy feeder I don't have to worry about (other than them trying to knock off a molting mantid). I collect them at feeding time in a plastic container and use tweezers to put them in with my mantids, and disable their features then - ie tweezer smashing.