Advice on breeding crickets?

[Lachie3112]

Hi guys,

I'm a bit frustrated at the moment trying to breed crickets. I must accomplish this before I can get any more animals.
Currently I've got a large tub, probably around 10L or more (don't know the exact size) with coco peat and egg cartons for the crickets. I've also got 2 smaller plastic tubs with nothing in them. How can I get these little critters to breed?

I've followed online tutorials and such, but they never succeed in producing more crickets. (Although funny thing is I can sometimes get crickets to breed accidentally in the frog tank, its just too hard to get them out and into a better container)

Any tips?

 

[mummabear]

Are you using large crickets?

 

[Thyla]

there are so many factors which will either make or break the ongoing success of the colony. Here are some I would look into more:
-temperature
-laying substrate
-egg incubation
-moisture in the form of drinking water
-sloughing

 

[maddog-1979]

breed woodies instead, get a larger tub, 56ltr are great. i started with 1 kg and my colony is now over 3kg's after 9 months and feeding 5 bearded dragons. it has saved me a small fortune

 

[Bathrezz]

My advice is just like maddog-1979. Drop the crickets and start woodies or even mealworms.
You can keep all stages of woodies whereas a cricket you need to separate the babies from adults all the time.

 

[Paintbrushturkey]

dead easy,
-have 2 tanks a "breeding tank" and another tank keep the breeding tank at around 26 C bit lower or higher doesn't matter, lower temps takes longer to hatch higher tems increases water evaporation rates (ie more misting etc),
-fill the first tank with large adult crickets, make sure they are fed + hydrated well well, else they will eat their own eggs/ hatchie crickets substrate choice doesn't really matter i use 50% sand 50% coco peat but i don't think it matters.
-punch a bunch of holes in the bottom of a takeaway food container (small holes) then fill that takeaway container with wet sand (if you have water runnign out of the holes that is to wet)
-place this container in the first container and leave it there for a couple of days, then remove it, put a layer of gladwrap (or similar e.g. stockings (although you may get some weird looks at the iga if you walk in there and buy nothign but 20 pairs of stockings) over the top of it (if you see large droplets forming on the gladwrap you have done something wrong) and place it in the breeding tub, ensure it stays damp (not wet, just damp) and wait for however long it taks them to hatch (from the back of my mind it is somewhere aroudn the 20 day mark but i'm not sure)
-once you see hatchling crickets jumping aroudn in the food container add in bits of food/ sourches of moisture and presto you have your very first batch of homegrown crickets.
-for added efficency keep each generation in a seperate tub (as larger crickets tend to eat smaller crickets). i have found that large 20-30l storage tubs with the lid cut out and replaced with stockings or flymesh extra fine wire mesh (to stop the large crickets chewing up the stocking/flymesh).

I hope this makes some form of sense to you, but it is pretty easy and crickets are pretty hardy breeding subjects so i wish you the best of luck

PS as a source of water 0.5% potato dexrose agar works excellently, if crickets ket stuck on the agar increase the % or agar, also change it weekly as this stuff gets nasty very fast (originally a minimal bacterial culture medium)

 

[mad_at_arms]

I have recently changed over to floral foam blocks as my laying medium.

Provided the block doesn't dry out they are pretty straight forward.
Stand it upright, cut a small well in the top to add water. Place in a takeaway container in cricket tub.

 

[Lachie3112]

I was sort of avoiding feeding cockroaches to my frogs at an early age, which is why I keep crickets, but I guess now that they're almost 4 years old and around 7.5cm I can give woodies a go.
Thanks for the help.

 

[CodeRed]

They look good. I was using corpeat from bunning with a flyscreen lid. The crickets made a mess with this

 

[dragondude]

Hi guys,

I'm a bit frustrated at the moment trying to breed crickets. I must accomplish this before I can get any more animals.

This was the same for me that's why I decided to try and breed crickets.

Followed the tutorial videos, but I provided heat, set to 30deg C.

14 days later eggs hatched
Far left corner

This is the most crucial and difficult part.
Providing moisture so that they don't die but at the same time you don't want to drown them.

I then decided to breed woodies instead.
Found it much easier, quieter, less smelly, live longer, easier to feed to my bearded dragons and higher flesh to shell ratio than crix.

I now have 2 breeding tubs that is in cycle to let the other colony replenish and build up again whilst the other one is in use.

Hope this helps
: )

 

[Lachie3112]

How do you guys feed your lizards and frogs woodies? I got 3 packs yesterday at the VHS Expo but feeding wise its a bit hard as when I put them into the tank they ran under the pond. Should I take my frogs out and feed them in a carry tank or something like that? In the past I've always just chucked in a couple of crickets and watched the frogs go for them but these woodies are much faster than crickets.