Seeing as there always seems to be someone or other enquiring about how to breed crickets, I thought I would share our method (which so far, has been extremely successful for us).
Step 1: Set up a breeding tank.
[] Buy a plastic tub from a cheap shop - the type with a click-on lid.
[] Cut the centre out of the lid and use a soldering iron to replace it with aluminium flymesh. Make sure you do not use the fibreglass flymesh, crickets will eat straight through it.
[] For a substrate, cover the base of the tub with about 1cm of 'Unprocessed Wheat Bran' which can be purchased from the cereal aisle in your local supermarket. It's around $1.20 for a 500g bag.
[] Put in a few slices of carrot, a small dish of homebrand fishfood flakes, and a dish of water crystals. We use the 'Rainsaver' brand, which you can buy from Bunnings or most supermarkets. Don't bother with the reptile-specific water crystals, they do the exact same job but cost two or three times as much.
Step 2: Just add crickets!
[] Buy a tub of 'large' crickets. Try to find a tub with lots of females - they are easily identified by the large 'ovipositor' sticking out of their rear end. They use this tube to lay their eggs.
[] Bung your crickets into the breeding tank you have set up as per step 1.
[] Find a warm spot for the tub and be sure to replace any food/water as it is consumed or soiled.
[] Once the crickets begin chirping, you'll know they are ready to lay their eggs.
Step 3: Peat moss.
[] Buy a bag of peat moss from Bunnings.
[] Take a shallow chinese food container and fill it 3/4 to the top with peat moss.
[] Spray the peat moss to dampen it thoroughly.
[] Place this container of peat moss into the breeding tub. Eventually you will notice all the female crickets venturing into this tub and laying their eggs.
[] Once they seem to have stopped laying (which could take 2, 3 or 4 days), remove the peat moss container. You will probably see eggs submerged in the peat moss around the perimiter of the container - they look like small grains of rice.
[] Place a lid on the chinese container. Be sure to use one with plenty of (very small) ventilation holes.
Step 4: Incubate the eggs.
[] The eggs need to be incubated at a temperature of around 28-30 degrees celcius. As you can see, we simply line the tubs up and place a lamp over them. The lamp has a red reptile bulb in it, and we use a probe thermometer to keep an eye on the temps.
[] After approximately two to three weeks, the eggs will hatch. As the two-week mark is approaching, make a habit of checking the tubs daily. Eventually you will see tiny white crickets wandering around on top of the peat moss.
[] Once the crickets have begun to hatch, place a toilet roll into the peat moss tub with a piece of carrot inside. Snap the lid back onto the tub.
[] The baby crickets will make their way inside the toilet roll. Then, all you need to do is remove the toilet roll and place it into the 'rearing tank'. This can be exactly the same setup as your breeding tank, but preferably on a slightly larger scale. As you can see, we raise the baby crickets in a 3 foot fish tank which is kept next to the egg tubs - they like the warmth from the heat lamp.
Step 5: Raise the babies.
[] Now all you need to do is keep the baby crickets in a warm spot, with fresh food and water crystals as neccessary.
[] Make sure all cricket tanks/tubs have a secure flymesh lid on them - crickets are real escape artists (something we found out the hard way
).
[] It will take approximately 8 weeks to grow your baby crickets to adult size - once you've got the whole thing down pat, you can get a cycle going and hopefully won't have to purchase crickets ever again
Here are some baby crickets I've got on the go at the moment. These ones are 3 weeks old. I've also got some real littlies hatching at the moment, and a further two tubs of eggs that are still incubating.
Good luck!
Step 1: Set up a breeding tank.
[] Buy a plastic tub from a cheap shop - the type with a click-on lid.
[] Cut the centre out of the lid and use a soldering iron to replace it with aluminium flymesh. Make sure you do not use the fibreglass flymesh, crickets will eat straight through it.
[] For a substrate, cover the base of the tub with about 1cm of 'Unprocessed Wheat Bran' which can be purchased from the cereal aisle in your local supermarket. It's around $1.20 for a 500g bag.
[] Put in a few slices of carrot, a small dish of homebrand fishfood flakes, and a dish of water crystals. We use the 'Rainsaver' brand, which you can buy from Bunnings or most supermarkets. Don't bother with the reptile-specific water crystals, they do the exact same job but cost two or three times as much.
Step 2: Just add crickets!
[] Buy a tub of 'large' crickets. Try to find a tub with lots of females - they are easily identified by the large 'ovipositor' sticking out of their rear end. They use this tube to lay their eggs.
[] Bung your crickets into the breeding tank you have set up as per step 1.
[] Find a warm spot for the tub and be sure to replace any food/water as it is consumed or soiled.
[] Once the crickets begin chirping, you'll know they are ready to lay their eggs.
Step 3: Peat moss.
[] Buy a bag of peat moss from Bunnings.
[] Take a shallow chinese food container and fill it 3/4 to the top with peat moss.
[] Spray the peat moss to dampen it thoroughly.
[] Place this container of peat moss into the breeding tub. Eventually you will notice all the female crickets venturing into this tub and laying their eggs.
[] Once they seem to have stopped laying (which could take 2, 3 or 4 days), remove the peat moss container. You will probably see eggs submerged in the peat moss around the perimiter of the container - they look like small grains of rice.
[] Place a lid on the chinese container. Be sure to use one with plenty of (very small) ventilation holes.
Step 4: Incubate the eggs.
[] The eggs need to be incubated at a temperature of around 28-30 degrees celcius. As you can see, we simply line the tubs up and place a lamp over them. The lamp has a red reptile bulb in it, and we use a probe thermometer to keep an eye on the temps.
[] After approximately two to three weeks, the eggs will hatch. As the two-week mark is approaching, make a habit of checking the tubs daily. Eventually you will see tiny white crickets wandering around on top of the peat moss.
[] Once the crickets have begun to hatch, place a toilet roll into the peat moss tub with a piece of carrot inside. Snap the lid back onto the tub.
[] The baby crickets will make their way inside the toilet roll. Then, all you need to do is remove the toilet roll and place it into the 'rearing tank'. This can be exactly the same setup as your breeding tank, but preferably on a slightly larger scale. As you can see, we raise the baby crickets in a 3 foot fish tank which is kept next to the egg tubs - they like the warmth from the heat lamp.
Step 5: Raise the babies.
[] Now all you need to do is keep the baby crickets in a warm spot, with fresh food and water crystals as neccessary.
[] Make sure all cricket tanks/tubs have a secure flymesh lid on them - crickets are real escape artists (something we found out the hard way
).[] It will take approximately 8 weeks to grow your baby crickets to adult size - once you've got the whole thing down pat, you can get a cycle going and hopefully won't have to purchase crickets ever again
Here are some baby crickets I've got on the go at the moment. These ones are 3 weeks old. I've also got some real littlies hatching at the moment, and a further two tubs of eggs that are still incubating.
Good luck!
