dragonslair27
Not so new Member
Hello, just wondering if anybody knows how to breed crickets?
Breeding crickets?
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Snowman
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I've done it a few times. I just put a Chinese container with damp vermiculite in a click clack with adult crickets. Always results in pin head crickets without fail.
dragonslair27
Not so new Member
Okay cool thank you but what if I can't find vermiculite could I just use a heat mat?
L
LizardLady
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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
dragonslair27
Not so new Member
awesome thank you soooo much 
L
LizardLady
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You're very welcome!
Notorious_Guf
Active Member
I've recently had success breeding crickets. I Just put fresh top soil in a big plastic tub, kept the soil damp and warm, throw in a tub or 2 of adult crickets. Feed them as you normally would & keep some wet paper towel in for water. They'll lay eggs straight away and after a few weeks you'll start getting baby crickets. Keep the feed and the water going and I have kept 80 - 90% of the soil damp the whole time, don't stress if it dries out for a day or two. They are growing well, no mould or any dramas, so I'm really happy!
personally i used to use slightly damp cotton balls with a wee bit of water sprayed on.
first it was supposed to be an additional water source to supplement the vegies i was giving, but soon found out they used em to deposit eggs as well.
easy to check and remove too, kinda like mini packets of eggs about the size of small rice grains which i could separate into individual plastic tubs/chinese containers for different batches.
Crickets eggs themselves are pretty resilient and can tolerate a period after the buds dry, but just keep em damp so they don't dry out too much. Crickets can and will cannibalize on their mates, especially if the water supply is inadequate, another reason why i separate the bubs from the adults just to be on the safe side.
and for the babies, watch out for water droplets because they seem to drown in the smallest wet spots post cleaning their tubs, learned this the hard way when one batch stuck onto an inadequately dried container.
first it was supposed to be an additional water source to supplement the vegies i was giving, but soon found out they used em to deposit eggs as well.
easy to check and remove too, kinda like mini packets of eggs about the size of small rice grains which i could separate into individual plastic tubs/chinese containers for different batches.
Crickets eggs themselves are pretty resilient and can tolerate a period after the buds dry, but just keep em damp so they don't dry out too much. Crickets can and will cannibalize on their mates, especially if the water supply is inadequate, another reason why i separate the bubs from the adults just to be on the safe side.
and for the babies, watch out for water droplets because they seem to drown in the smallest wet spots post cleaning their tubs, learned this the hard way when one batch stuck onto an inadequately dried container.
T
Tildy
Guest
Can we sticky this thing? It would be an awesome resource for alot of people.
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