cricket growth rate

[mons00n]

So here's the dilemma I'm currently in: I just purchased 1000 small crickets from an online vendor for $25 which is substantially cheaper than getting 50-100 at a time from petco/petsmart (~$5-$10). Here I am a week later and they've already grown a substantial amount. I suspect they will be too large for my 3 month old panther within another few days. I've made sure that there was always food in there consisting of cricket-crack, oranges, and potatoes.

Is there a way to control how fast they grow? I've read on here that cooler temperatures correlate to slower growth rates, how true is this? They're currently housed in my garage which is probably 80-95 during the day (they have a fan on their container constantly). Inside the house they'd be at a constant 79-80 so I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make. Should I not be giving them a constant supply of food?

Thanks in advance for your help! Oh and does anyone in Vegas want to buy some larger crickets? =p

 

[Rob G]

Yes lower temps slow growth and warmer tems speed up growth. I don't really consider 80 as a low temp. Maybe put the container of crickets inside near an a/c vent so it will be relatively "cold" so the growth rate is slowed

 

[sandrachameleon]

Crickets take about 6 weeks from hatching to maturity / death. You can only slow that down a little with cooler temperatures (80F is not cool, it is warm).

Perhaps when your crickets reach maturity, you will give them a place to lay eggs and in a few weeks time you will a new batch of very small crickets!
http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html
http://chameleonnews.com/03JanWellsCrickets.html
http://skylab.org/~chugga/cricket/