Veteran Cricket Keepers?!

[heyshelbyrae]

Okay, so I'm getting tired of going out and buying crickets every week.

I've tried searching the posts here, but a lot of them seem repetitive and haven't shown any step by step type photos. If anyone has photos (or a link to a certain post/website with photos) from when they originally set up their cricket breeding bin, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out

 

[PandoraChams]

Cricket Breeding Basics

I am relatively new to cricket breeding, but I am finding out that 1000 crickets every couple weeks is getting expensive even when I am able to buy them for $20 a box.
My first attempt of hatching eggs went fine but just after they were in the process of hatching I had an envasion of regular house ants which came in and made a beeline to my hatchlings and killed and ate them and tried to carry off the eggs. It was a disaster..out of the box full of untra tiny pinhead babies, I had only 4 left alive. Lesson learned
Breeding:
Getting eggs is the easy part..the constant heat is tricky. Best if the eggs are kept at 84 degrees..the lower degrees such as 75 the longer they take to hatch..overheat them past 93 and they are cooked. So keep a temp gage inside.
I am using a cat bed heat pad, sold at Petco. and place under a plastic tub with tight locking lid. I use organic dirt ( perhaps there is a better substrate than this) but so far this is working for me in a plastic flower pot water lid which I bought from the dollar store. I get the organic dirt from Lowes or Wally World.
I take 50 or more of my older crickets and leave them in this container until they die of old age but continue to feed and care for them as I do all of them. I don't care to actually feed the older crickets to my Veileds. The younger ones are healthier for them anyway. Any of the breeder survivors still around after I am finished getting eggs are set free outside now the the weather has warmed.
I take the pan and gently empty the dirt with eggs in another plastic storage box about twice as large as a shoe box. I add a bit of sand to the box and stir gently with a fork. Then I mist the dirt to keep it moist and from drying out. Put the heat pad under the new box with just the eggs and dirt. Place temp gage inside and then check and mist as needed. Now I cover the container with Press and Seal..then wait and wait..anywhere from 13 to 23 days, you should start seeing hatchlings. Punch a few needle holes in the Press and Seal...but not big enough to allow ants in.
Once they start to hatch I put cricket water cubes (chopped up) in a couple of upside down bottle caps and some cricket food in a plastic can lid cover and then cover the box with "Press and Seal" and check daily as needed.
I have found the the moisture can mildew the cricket food because the moisture collects like rain drops over the top of the box, so change your food as at first sign of clumping and mildew. Once they are big enough I do not worry about the ants and change them out to a larger clear see through cricket container. Currently I have a large plastic container for my feeders which I had been buying by the 1000. The breeding box about half that size and the egg incubator box about the size of two shoe boxes. I like the clear plastic containers which let light in so its not always dark inside for the crickets.
Its said their life span is about 8 weeks, so within 3 or 4 weeks you should have feedable size crickets available.
Im still in learning mode myself, so others with more experience can probably add to this..

 

[bimac6]

Here's a very detailed thread that was just posted in the other day: https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-cricket-rearing-tub-74765/

Hope it helps