cricket breeding....

vgaines

Member
Now that I have my crickets set up in a large rubbermaid container I want to set up a 10 gal and see if I can hatch out some babies. I have a small under tank heater and a unopened bag of repti earth. From what I understand I need to put a container of soil in with the adult crickets for a day or so to allow them to lay eggs. Then I remove the container of soil and put in in another container that is warm. Does the baby tank need any kind of bedding or just the container of soil? Do I keep the soil misted or dry? Do I have to have egg crate in with the babies or will toilet paper/paper towel rolls be ok? Thanks for any advice...

PS if they have wings and sing are they mature??:rolleyes:
 
deep petri dishes (1" min) with moist substrate make for easy transfers between your colony and your egg incubation tank. The soil needs to be moist, if the eggs dry out theyre no good. A bare bottom tank for your eggs/pinheads is best, maybe a paper towel, just so you can find the newly hatched pinheads easy. Incubate the egg dish for a week or so at 85F, and you should have plenty of pinheads to deal with

you'll also want to leave the dish in w/ the adults for longer than a day, preferably a half week-full week
 
deep petri dishes (1" min) with moist substrate make for easy transfers between your colony and your egg incubation tank. The soil needs to be moist, if the eggs dry out theyre no good. A bare bottom tank for your eggs/pinheads is best, maybe a paper towel, just so you can find the newly hatched pinheads easy. Incubate the egg dish for a week or so at 85F, and you should have plenty of pinheads to deal with

you'll also want to leave the dish in w/ the adults for longer than a day, preferably a half week-full week

Thanks for the info....
:D
 
deep petri dishes (1" min) with moist substrate make for easy transfers between your colony and your egg incubation tank. The soil needs to be moist, if the eggs dry out theyre no good. A bare bottom tank for your eggs/pinheads is best, maybe a paper towel, just so you can find the newly hatched pinheads easy. Incubate the egg dish for a week or so at 85F, and you should have plenty of pinheads to deal with

you'll also want to leave the dish in w/ the adults for longer than a day, preferably a half week-full week

Wow thank for the info! Maybe I can talk my hubby into letting me start a breeding colony :D
 
I also covered the laying medium with a pc of screen while in with the adults, it seems to help keep the males from going after the eggs
 
I also covered the laying medium with a pc of screen while in with the adults, it seems to help keep the males from going after the eggs

+1
actually works great
I just stopped having the patience to cover all my petri dishes and have too many pinheads when they hatch anyway :p Im not a patient man
 
Another quick question. I clean my cricket bin every two-three days. I take out everything and put crickets in another rubbermaid. I clean out all dead and poop. Will it be ok to move the laying dish to clean?

Thanks again chefboyardee for the great info. You made it much less confusing for me.. :eek:
 
if you have access to 20 oz deli cups with a mesh screen lid those are by far the easiest way I have been able to breed crickets. Get eco earth (coco fiber) from petco and get it wet and fill a deli cup with the fiber and stick it in the bin. Keep the crickets on heat and leave the deli cup in with the adult crickets for 2 days. Pull the cup out after that and snap on the mesh lid. If you dont use the mesh lid it will get friut flies. Spritz the eco earth every day so the eggs dont dry out and 2 weeks later you will have 1000s of pinheads. First pic is the hatching crickets. Second pic is the impending flood of hatching crickets lol.
 

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Awesome ha thank you. About how may crickets do you need to breed? I just picked up 50 yesterday but she has probably eaten around 12 or so
 
Awesome ha thank you. About how may crickets do you need to breed? I just picked up 50 yesterday but she has probably eaten around 12 or so

I usually get around 500 - 1000 adults in one tub before putting the cups in to get eggs. If they are not chirping like crazy they are not sexually mature so you might need to grow them up a little until they are breeding.
 
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