I finally managed to purposely culture crickets. I have had crickets lay eggs in some of my enclosures in the past and the eggs have hatched out, but it was always in a cage that housed large frogs that just ignore something as small as a pin-head cricket. Whenever I tried to culture them on purpose I had always failed. This time I tried something different.

I took some small Ziploc storage containers and filled them with moist coconut bedding and placed them in the adult cricket bin. A few days later I took them out and capped them, periodically opening them up to let some fresh air in and remove any mold that had formed. After about a week or two, I took the covers off permanently and placed them in a large critter keeper with a paper towel in between the top and the rest of the enclosure. That was about a week or two ago. I am not sure on the elapsed time as I did not write anything down. I should've, but didn't.

Well, last night, much to my delight, I discovered that the eggs had finally hatched! There were thousands of them. I first noticed a bunch of them on the bare plastic bottom of the keeper, then upon opening it up I saw many, many more in the Ziploc containers. The surface of the coconut bedding was literally alive with crickets, I could not actually see the bedding at all.

This came at a perfect time, as my fruit flies cultures aren't producing yet. My bean weevil cultures are exploding at the moment, which is a mixed blessing. I like to use them as a supplement to the diets and not as a staple. Last night I was forced to use them as a staple (I hadn't discovered the pin-heads until after I was done feeding) and I am not really comfortable with the that. Beetles and their larva are high in chitin, which can cause impaction, and bean weevils are a type of beetle.

So now I have pin-heads and the fruit flies should start to emerge any day now. My little guys should be well fed for the forseeable future.

Now I am just waiting on the waxworm cultures, I am hoping for some success before Christmas.