Cricket Breeding
Once the farm is ready and we know what our crickets will eat lets start the breeding.
You will need:
- 10 to 30 crickets if you will only use them to breed, or from 500 to 1000 if you will also intend to feed your reptile.
- Heat pad or heat bulb. This can be worked around if you want, continue reading.
- Thermometer
The heat pad and the thermometer are to ensure that the crickets live in an environment of about 85º F, which is the perfect breeding temperature. If you go over 95º F crickets will start to die. If you go under 70º F the will not die, but will breed less.
If you don’t want to buy a heat pad or heat bulb, you can put the crickets in a warm room, near a heater, or even on top of the computer if it’s always working, it’s up to you.
The next step is placing the nesting container, without the cover, into the breeding container. Also put the jar covers with food and water gel.
Once the environment is ready, now put the crickets in the breeding container, and close it with the screened cover.
In 4 to 7 days the female crickets will have laid their eggs in the nesting container and it should be removed. If you want, you can put another nesting container in the breeding container to keep the crickets breeding.
Put the cover on the nesting container, remember it must have holes so the moisture can get out. The nesting container now should be put into a rearing container and kept at about 85ºF to 90ºF make sure the substrate keeps moist. If needed spay it with water.
In about another 4 or 5 days the eggs will start hatching, it’s time to provide them some food. Remove the sandwich tub cover, and put some lettuce and greens on the substrate.
Once you’ve got tons of babies running around, put some food and water gel in the rearing container using jar covers. Put the egg flats inside the rearing container and a bit of toilet paper that goes from the substrate to the bottom of the rearing tub. The paper will be used by the babies to get out of the nesting container.
When all the baby crickets have left the nesting container, remove it from the rearing container. When the crickets get about 1/4″ put them in the breeding container so they start the process again.
Important Tip:
Before you put the crickets in the breeding container you should clean it, and replace the egg flats for new ones if they are very messy.
All you have to do is open the breeding container, pick the egg flats (lots of crickets will be inside) and move them to a spare container. Then, using a box or similar you can move all the crickets to the spare container.
Clean the container with hot water and soap to kill bacteria. Also clean the food recipients, if you can put them in boiling water to kill bacteria also. Once this is done, dry everything and put the crickets back in the breeding container.
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