Can't get crickets to produce eggs? Sterile??

[privet01]

after several years of breeding my own feeder crickets I suddenly can't seem to breed them anymore. I found this article..... http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....turns-them-on/ but I'm not to sure that's what's at play here.

I've always used moist eco earth in a shallow plastic dish with a screen on top to keep them from burrowing. Usually just a day of laying and nine days later I have thousands. However for the last four months I've had nothing. Even leaving the eco earth container in for several days produces nothing. Temperature is consistent and not changed from other years.

Certainly the store bought cricket are not sterilized now. That wouldn't seem to be worth the effort for the commercial breeders to try a get the small percentage of us that breed our own.

So I'm a little perplexed. My reasons for not believing it's the virus in the article is due to they don't seem overly sex-crazed. In fact, they seem not concerned about reproducing. Any ideas?

[Krispy]

Dude, whats the secret to breeding them. Weve tried the 3 tote way you usually read about over and over. Produced nothing but a bad smell and anger....

For someone with pets like me this would be a massive money saver.
Mr Pacman
3beardies
3wtf
3relf
5anoles
2long tail grass lizards
10firebellies
2ball pythons

My cricket count for feedings is insane. Usually buy boxes of 2000 to last maybe a week lmao.

Lmao cmon man whats the secret? There should be a cricket breeding sticky i say....

[privet01]

How do I do it.... this is a link to a page that I found more useful and informative about what I needed to do than any of the youtube videos and other pages on the subject...... http://www.wormman.com/breeding_crickets.cfm Too many people just go way to overboard in procedures and efforts.

Essentially, when the crickets get old enough to mate successfully.... usually when they are chirping like crazy around five to six weeks old, I just put a shallow plastic container about four inches square with very damp eco earth in with the crickets. Usually only a day of laying is all it takes to get more than you'll ever use. It's a good idea to get some screen or mesh that's large enough for the female to get her ovipositor through and put that on top the soil so the crickets won't burrow and kick the soil out. Nine days later during the warm months and up to twenty days in the cooler months I'll have new crickets.

I keep the cricket on a shelf in the garage in plastic storage containers. You'll likely need four containers to ensure you always have a brood at the size you want for feeders. I lay the lid cross ways on the container so they get good ventilation. They won't climb the slick sides. Get the ones that have the glossy finish on the sides so the crickets can't climb out. But you'll need to rough up the bottom with sandpaper so they can move around. Otherwise it's like trying to walk on slippery ice and I think it stresses them. Food is just about any vegetable or piece of fruit scrap you have. They seem partial to lettuce, carrots and oranges. For water, I still use the polyacrylamide crystals, though some have claimed bad experiences with it.

As for my OP, the day after I posted I finally got a mess of crickets to hatch. So hopefully whatever caused my issue is gone and I won't have to make trips to the pet store every two weeks.

Thinking more about it, I'm starting to think that maybe I did have that virus infection and it just took a while for it to infect all my breeding population. As I'd gotten in the habit of re-using some of the honeycomb cardboard I keep in the containers for the crickets to find a hiding place. Possibly that was letting me infect the subsequent generations of crickets until none could reproduce.

This last batch I had used all new honeycomb cardboard and washed everything else with bleach. It still took fourteen days before hatch, which is not typical for me this time of year. Nine is normal. And certainly these adult crickets I'd gotten from the pet store did not seem to be sex-crazed like the previous crickets had that where not producing.

Hope this helps you breed your own, because they are really easy to deal with and I actually find them as interesting as my fbt's.