Crickets

[BugBoy99]

I will post some photos of my setup, once they're a little more established. Thank you so much for everybody's help.

[unkempt1]

I will post some photos of my setup, once they're a little more established. Thank you so much for everybody's help.

Please do! I don't breed crickets (just roaches), but I never realized what went into breeding them! Hehe I may give it a try just as a hobby. What can I say? I like to tinker.

[BugBoy99]

Haha, join the club. I've kept millipedes, roaches, giant land snails, beetles, roaches, mealworms, fruit flies, birds, cats, dogs, hamsters, rats, rabbits, frogs(of course), fish and I can't remember what else... It's what we live for. Will post photos soon.

[BugBoy99]

Okay, here are my first photos. I had a yikes moment last night, when I found three crickets under the screen. SO, I tried something different. I cut the inside out of a margarine containers lid, placed the netting(from an old fishing net) over the container, and then placed the outside of the lid over the netting. It is working great!


Container for egg-laying

Female cricket exploring the container

I might modify it later.

JV

[fish4all]

The fiberglass window screen works great, I used it many times when I raised crickets.

As for feeding the little ones, I moved the eggs into a smaller container and fed them in a very small plate I turned upside down so the bottom rim held the food in place. I mostly used egg layer mash for all my crickets and had them breeding too fast to feed off to the mantids I had at the time. I fed them anything I could get as far as vegetables and fruit. For water, I used crystals in a shallow plastic can lid with window screen over the top. They would like water off the screen and the crystals with zero drownings.

I will see if I have any pictures from back then. It was a long time ago and I don't think i will be raising them again, the smell just got too bad with a big colony even cleaning it out once a week.

[BugBoy99]

Thank you fish4all. I think that, for now, I'm going to let the cricket breeding thing go. We basically live in mold paradise, and my egg substrate keeps getting covered in mold. I haven't managed to hatch one batch of eggs due to the mold.

[fish4all]

Don't give up, don't use a substrate! It isn't needed. And the stuff is called plastic canvas.

I live in a mold haven also. I raised crickets through 6 generations. I ever used a substrate and it worked great. Anytime I have ever tried a substrate with insects it always molds here unless it is the middle of summer and the few weeks it dries out completely around here.