I'll put this out there again, for those of you interested...
I used to breed these critters for my dragons a few years ago… I used a large, tall plastic container (from Woolies/Go-Lo/Cheap As Chips) for about $7. Cut a reasonably large hole in its lid, hot-glue flywire/old stocking into the gap. Put Natural Unprocessed Bran in the bottom for substrate – about 2 inches (5cm) worth – available from Woolies or any Produce Store. Give them toilet rolls, egg carton pieces etc for hiding in. Using another container, approx. 1 – 1.5” (3-4cm) deep (mine was about 3” (7½cm) square), put potting soil in this to the brim, (make sure it’s “pure” potting mix with no fertilisers etc), moisten by misting, keep it moist at all times. This is where the females will lay their eggs. On a lid of another container (one of those chinese food/take-away containers will do), put a layer of either cotton balls or paper towels – 2 sheets thick – (cotton balls are the better choice, as they retain the water for longer), moisten by misting with a squirter bottle, must be fairly wet, put slim wedges of orange, apple, potato, sweet potato, carrot rings, etc, mist well. Throw in a few cat or dog biscuits onto the substrate. Try to keep the substrate from getting wet, as this will encourage mould. Start your colony from one or two tubs of large crickets, as “fresh” as possible. Females have “stick” things out of their butts – the ovipositor - from where they lay their eggs. Males don’t. Your colony should consist of about 10 – 12 females to 4 males. Keep the colony in a warm, sunny position, mist the food (vegies, not the dry food!) every day, change the vegies every second day. In next to no time you’ll see the females dig into the dirt, backwards, and lay their eggs. Each female will lay about 500 eggs each time, eggs take a while before they hatch, but you will see what looks like tiny ants in the colony. A closer inspection will tell you they are cricket babies!!! After about a week of the females laying, to avoid confusion, remove the container of cricket eggs to another colony, already set up the same as above, keeping the container of eggs damp. Pop in another container of potting mix to the adult colony and start again! Hope this helps – any other queries on this, just let me know! J