Breeding crickets in one cage

Gbeats

Member
Hello all,

So I have this idea in my head and I would like some input from those who have successfully bred crickets. I only have one female veiled about 7 months old so she will slow down eating sooner than later and I intend to keep the food light for egg laying purposes. With all that being said I don't need a lot of crickets and I have a crazy idea...

Ok, so what if I breed crickets in one container?? Like keep the adults with the babies. The cons I read about this mostly are the adults will eat the babies and that's OK for me, I don't want thousands anyway. I know the temps vary for each life stage...but not that much. I could just have the light on one side to create a temp gradient.

I'm thinking I will take my 10 gallon aquarium, get about 15-20 adults. Obviously have food, fresh veg and water available. Have a small Tupperware of dirt with wire mesh on top for the females to lay jn that I will keep moist(on opposite side of light).

Will the life cycle just happen like it does in the wild? What are your major problems with this idea. I have googled and YouTubed and NO ONE is doing this...is it really impossible? Or just not the most prolific?
 
The issues we run into is other crickets digging up the eggs, as well as the little turds ripping each other apart. They'll especially pick on the young crickets. We always offer various foods so its not a protein deficiency... probably more of a space issue. We have large tubs and a lot of of egg crate, so if its a space issue then they really need to be thinned out or kept in very large containers.

One other struggle is sorting them out by size. Wrangling crickets is a PITA when mixed up, we would end up with mostly smaller crickets then we wanted to feed... so if they are mixed John would pick them out by hand. Picking out 3 dozen large crickets by hand in a container with a few hundred takes a lot longer than just shaking out a tube into the dust bin.

It can certainly be done, but splitting them into at least two containers makes it a little easier.
 
Some people have found crickets hatching out in their laying bins so it can be done. How bad will it smell???

I find its the older ones that die off and get stinky. They're easy to raise up to the 3 or 4 week mark and no stinkies... after that its a crap shoot.

We find babies hatching 7-8 weeks after most hatch - so John tends to keep the substrate around for a while to get them all. We will typically keep 1-3 week olds together, but by week 3 there is a big size difference.
 
The issues we run into is other crickets digging up the eggs, as well as the little turds ripping each other apart. They'll especially pick on the young crickets. We always offer various foods so its not a protein deficiency... probably more of a space issue. We have large tubs and a lot of of egg crate, so if its a space issue then they really need to be thinned out or kept in very large containers.

One other struggle is sorting them out by size. Wrangling crickets is a PITA when mixed up, we would end up with mostly smaller crickets then we wanted to feed... so if they are mixed John would pick them out by hand. Picking out 3 dozen large crickets by hand in a container with a few hundred takes a lot longer than just shaking out a tube into the dust bin.

It can certainly be done, but splitting them into at least two containers makes it a little easier.
Thanks for the info! And yeah I would just take a scoop and she can get a variety of sizes to hunt
 

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