Recent content by Sgt. Bilko

Success! I installed a DIY single head mister on for 1 min every hour to the cricket lay soil bin. I also ordered from Ghann Cricket Farms. The last batch of 200 adults did their thing. I now have thousands of pin heads. They are in the separated from the main population. Time will tell how...

Sadly no. Second batch in with no results. It’s likely the soil getting too dry. You?

Quick update. Final setup. I’ve introduced my setup of 200 banded crickets. The laying bin received immediate attention. Hoping for some good results.

Depends on your ambient temperature. My garage would not be possible at 20-30F. My basement is cooler than the house at 68 F, but much warmer than the garage. Im able to keep 88-90 in the bins with the heating elements active.

Oh and I added a 150W Ceramic Heating element. The halogen is set on a Kasa switch same schedule as the Cham enclosure. Heating element is on the temp control switch. Monitoring it all with Govee WiFi temp sensor.

As suspected, all of my shipped crickets arrived DOA. Traveled this week and picked up some banded for breeding. Introduced them to the new home. I’ve already witnessed egg laying from several females. Let’s see how this goes.

Right. You can buy by the piece part and build what you need. The tie bars (cross members) are welded onto the side framing sections. These are not optional. These can be taken away (with care taken to make sure you keep structural integrity) by grinder if needed.

Totally agree with this! My hybrid enclosure sits on the Menards version - Performax. Fortunately, I did not have to cut the sides on mine. The Performax was generally cheaper than the options at HD.

Losing faith breeding crickets will arrive alive. :( Most likely will be a frozen popsicle cricket treat.

Thanks Ray. I use a Neptonion feeder and take away what is not eaten a couple of hours later. Kam is a ferocious cricket killing machine. He usually dispatches 10 or so in less than 10 minutes.

100W Halogen Heat lamp ran all night. Unfortunately, my max temperature never rose above 74 degrees. I guess I underestimated the heat load in the bins in my basement. After reading up on the issue, I’ve ordered an 11x17” heater pad which will go under the main bin. This is the guy I snagged...

Check in. Kam seems to be back at it, in terms of colors. I adjusted my home Nest temps ‘min’ Eco setting…BUT he did shed last week.

Question. Now that I’m ready to start breeding, should there be special consideration on where the banded crickets are sourced from? I was considering Josh Frogs or Rainbowmealworms. Does it really matter where I start for a food quality feeder cricket lineage? Might be overthinking this one...

That would drive me nuts. I would never know how much Kam is eating! How do you do it?

Thanks! I’m definitely not a fan of adding breeding to the list and of responsibilities! But let’s see where this takes me ;). Stay tuned.