Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Container Set Up
Prepare a container for your breeding colony using a 20-gallon plastic container or old aquarium with a lid that fits securely. Create ventilation in the lid by cutting a large hole in it and covering it with wire fly screen secured with duct tape.
Fill a 1-pint container with soil or washed sand to a minimum depth of two inches and dampen it with water. Place this into the large container for the crickets to lay eggs in.
Place pieces of egg crate and cardboard tubes from the center of toilet rolls or paper towels around the container to give the crickets somewhere to hide.
Create a water dish by using a small container or lid of a peanut butter jar and filling it with damp cotton balls. Use another small container or jar lid for fruit and vegetable scraps. Clean these daily to prevent bacteria build-up. Place some porridge oats or bran on the floor of the container.
Place your container in an optimal location. Consider any noise issues and give consideration to temperature. The optimum breeding temperature for crickets is 88 degrees. At lower temperatures they still breed but fewer eggs are produced. Add a reptile heating pad under the tank to keep your crickets at 85 to 90 degrees.
Clean the container every two days to prevent odors once you introduce the crickets. Remove the lid and place it sideways over one end of the container. Chase the crickets to the covered end and move the egg crates and paper rolls to the covered end. Use hot water and a mild soap to clean one end at a time then dry with paper towels.
Breeding
Add crickets to the container. Female crickets have three extrusions at the rear and the male has two. It is best to have more females than males as the males often eat the eggs, and more females means more babies. Start with at least 20 crickets, but you can begin with as many as 500 if you have a large number of pets to feed.
Mist the soil/sand container daily to ensure it stays damp. If the eggs dry out they will not hatch.
Remove the egg-laying container from the colony after 10 days and replace it immediately with another one. Keep the egg-laying container in a 2-gallon plastic container at the same temperature as the main colony, and make sure the sand/soil does not dry out. After one to two weeks tiny baby crickets will emerge.
Feed the baby crickets the same food and water as the adults. Grow them to the size you want, for your pets or to sell, and keep some to return to the breeding colony to replace older crickets that die. Do not return them to the colony until they are at least half the size of the adults or they will likely be eaten.