Jerusalem Cricket ate through deli.

LawnShrimp

Arachnoangel
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Dec 9, 2016
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907
That is one ugly cricket. Where can I get one? :happy:
What is care, breeding, and lifespan for Stenopelamtids?
 

DubiaW

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
471
That is one ugly cricket. Where can I get one? :happy:
What is care, breeding, and lifespan for Stenopelamtids?
I'm going to try collecting some of these, so hopefully you can get them from me. I don't know the lifespan but if they can be housed communally without cannibalism then they should breed pretty easy and lifespan doesn't matter. That's the next step, put them together and see if they play nice. Unfortunately I only have the one right now. When I've ran into these in the wild they are always alone. That doesn't exactly scream communal species but stranger things have happened.
 

VolkswagenBug

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 26, 2017
Messages
500
That is one ugly cricket. Where can I get one? :happy:
What is care, breeding, and lifespan for Stenopelamtids?
They have them for sale occasionally (usually in bursts every 3 months or so) at Bugs in Cyberspace. I don't know of any other online sources. If you live in the SW US, that's probably the best place to collect them, but I've never seen a wild one here in Utah. My friend claims that he saw one when camping, though.
You could also ask in the Classifieds here.
Care is pretty basic. They like burrowing, so give them a lot of solid substrate. They prefer humidity, so keep it moist, but they live in the desert, so they won't die if it's a bit dry. I don't think many people have figured out breeding, and those who have have kept it a bit of a secret AFAIK. Lifespan is a few years, I think? I've had mine for 6 months and it's still going strong (I don't think it's even molted even though it's a juvenile).
I'm going to try collecting some of these, so hopefully you can get them from me. I don't know the lifespan but if they can be housed communally without cannibalism then they should breed pretty easy and lifespan doesn't matter. That's the next step, put them together and see if they play nice. Unfortunately I only have the one right now. When I've ran into these in the wild they are always alone. That doesn't exactly scream communal species but stranger things have happened.
I don't think they can be housed communally. They're pretty aggressive towards other insects and that probably includes other J crickets, so I would imagine that an interaction would not end well. Breeding is possible with 1 female and 1 male and heavy monitoring (though one might still die in the process), but incubation is supposed to be really hard.
 

DubiaW

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
471
They have them for sale occasionally (usually in bursts every 3 months or so) at Bugs in Cyberspace. I don't know of any other online sources. If you live in the SW US, that's probably the best place to collect them, but I've never seen a wild one here in Utah. My friend claims that he saw one when camping, though.
You could also ask in the Classifieds here.
Care is pretty basic. They like burrowing, so give them a lot of solid substrate. They prefer humidity, so keep it moist, but they live in the desert, so they won't die if it's a bit dry. I don't think many people have figured out breeding, and those who have have kept it a bit of a secret AFAIK. Lifespan is a few years, I think? I've had mine for 6 months and it's still going strong (I don't think it's even molted even though it's a juvenile).

I don't think they can be housed communally. They're pretty aggressive towards other insects and that probably includes other J crickets, so I would imagine that an interaction would not end well. Breeding is possible with 1 female and 1 male and heavy monitoring (though one might still die in the process), but incubation is supposed to be really hard.
You are from Utah. What city? I grew up there. I can tell you exactly where to find Jerusalem Crickets. Go to The White Sand dunes outside of Jericho. I've also found them in Skull Valley. There is a place called White Rocks in Skull Valley. Have you ever been there? It is south west of the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley. FYI I have also collected Mormon Crickets on Stansbury Island by flipping debris.

If I figure out how to breed these it won't be a secret anymore. I've become proficient at breeding and incubating crickets. I just put a 1/2 lb deli (filled with moist coco fiber 1/4 inch from the rim) in the cricket cage for two days. The gravid females will lay eggs in it. Put the lid on and poke four small holes around the side with a thumb tack. Place it in a warm place (90°F, I put mine in my roach cage). They should hatch out within a few weeks depending on temp. Take the lid off and let them jump out. You can co-house them with roaches at 90 °F and they will grow really fast. If you need them small move them to a room temp cage and open the deli's in there and they will grow much slower. Same deal just take the lids off the deli's and let them jump out. I've been feeding mine apples (for moisture) carrots, dog food, granular cricket food and Total bites. I have about 3000 pinheads right now just from putting deli's in overnight with my feeders before feeding them to my T's and centipedes. If you put them in a 10 gal tank just make sure to scrape the silicone off of the inside about 3" down from the top. They can crawl through the screen at the top. This works for brown crickets and black crickets as I have incubated the same species in the same deli and reared them together.

I'm going to try the same technique for Jerusalem crickets with a few variations due to their housing needs.
 
Last edited:

VolkswagenBug

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 26, 2017
Messages
500
You are from Utah. What city? I grew up there. I can tell you exactly where to find Jerusalem Crickets. Go to The White Sand dunes outside of Jericho. I've also found them in Skull Valley. There is a place called White Rocks in Skull Valley. Have you ever been there? It is south west of the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley. FYI I have also collected Mormon Crickets on Stansbury Island by flipping debris.

If I figure out how to breed these it won't be a secret anymore. I've become proficient at breeding and incubating crickets. I just put a 1/2 lb deli (filled with moist coco fiber 1/4 inch from the rim) in the cricket cage for two days. The gravid females will lay eggs in it. Put the lid on and poke four small holes around the side with a thumb tack. Place it in a warm place (90°F, I put mine in my roach cage). They should hatch out within a few weeks depending on temp. Take the lid off and let them jump out. You can co-house them with roaches at 90 °F and they will grow really fast. If you need them small move them to a room temp cage and open the deli's in there and they will grow much slower. Same deal just take the lids off the deli's and let them jump out. I've been feeding mine apples (for moisture) carrots, dog food, granular cricket food and Total bites. I have about 3000 pinheads right now just from putting deli's in overnight with my feeders before feeding them to my T's and centipedes. If you put them in a 10 gal tank just make sure to scrape the silicone off of the inside about 3" down from the top. They can crawl through the screen at the top. This works for brown crickets and black crickets as I have incubated the same species in the same deli and reared them together.

I'm going to try the same technique for Jerusalem crickets with a few variations due to their housing needs.
Thanks, I'll definitely look there. I haven't ever been to Skull Valley. I'm from West Valley City.
@Hisserdude, would you say this is a female or male? I'm leaning towards female.

It's a little bit blurry because it was moving around while I was trying to take the picture. I was thinking female, but I'm not sure.
 

Hisserdude

Arachnoking
Joined
Apr 18, 2015
Messages
2,453
You are from Utah. What city? I grew up there. I can tell you exactly where to find Jerusalem Crickets. Go to The White Sand dunes outside of Jericho. I've also found them in Skull Valley. There is a place called White Rocks in Skull Valley. Have you ever been there? It is south west of the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley. FYI I have also collected Mormon Crickets on Stansbury Island by flipping debris.

If I figure out how to breed these it won't be a secret anymore. I've become proficient at breeding and incubating crickets. I just put a 1/2 lb deli (filled with moist coco fiber 1/4 inch from the rim) in the cricket cage for two days. The gravid females will lay eggs in it. Put the lid on and poke four small holes around the side with a thumb tack. Place it in a warm place (90°F, I put mine in my roach cage). They should hatch out within a few weeks depending on temp. Take the lid off and let them jump out. You can co-house them with roaches at 90 °F and they will grow really fast. If you need them small move them to a room temp cage and open the deli's in there and they will grow much slower. Same deal just take the lids off the deli's and let them jump out. I've been feeding mine apples (for moisture) carrots, dog food, granular cricket food and Total bites. I have about 3000 pinheads right now just from putting deli's in overnight with my feeders before feeding them to my T's and centipedes. If you put them in a 10 gal tank just make sure to scrape the silicone off of the inside about 3" down from the top. They can crawl through the screen at the top. This works for brown crickets and black crickets as I have incubated the same species in the same deli and reared them together.

I'm going to try the same technique for Jerusalem crickets with a few variations due to their housing needs.
Yeeeeeaaah no, that will definitely not work for breeding Jerusalem crickets, these guess have WAY different breeding habits than your average house cricket, please keep in mind that these aren't even that closely related to the crickets that you are used to breeding.

They are extremely territorial and cannibalistic, and have to be kept separately. Mating them is like mating tarantulas, most of the time you can get them to hook up successfully if you do things right, but there is a high risk of one of them getting killed in the process. Once you have a mature pair, you have to take both individuals out of their own containers and put them in an enclosure with very shallow, flat substrate, and let them find each other, the male will pursue the female and begin mating with her, which is a long and complex process that makes it look like he is biting the sh*t out of her. (Like in my video here, I have a few different videos of this process actually, this one actually shows the male's phallic lobes extending and him producing the spermatophore, unlike my other videos where the camera ran out of battery before that part...).

After mating, the male's spermatophore should stay stuck to the female for several days for successful fertilization, (my females rubbed theirs off too soon I think, which is why none of my eggs hatched). Then, when she's ready to lay eggs, she'll dig several inches down into her substrate, and lay them rather randomly in the soil, (despite claims that they lay them in clutches and protect the eggs, David Weissman and I think that they just lay eggs randomly in the soil, maybe close together, and then abandon them, since females tend to lay several clutches in their lifetime, and just wouldn't live long enough to guard each one).

Ideally the eggs should be separated from the mother, and then would hatch within a month of being laid, for most species. Unfortunately, neither I nor David Weissman have figured out how to consistently get the eggs to hatch. David has had a few hatch here and there, but those were more like happy accidents, and not all of their brethren hatched either. :/

Anyway, after laying two to three clutches of eggs, the female then dies. The adults generally only live a few months to almost a year, while nymphs take one or two years to reach maturity.

All of this information comes from my experiences trying to breed a few pairs of JCs I reared myself, as well as several conversations I had with the world's expert on the Stenopelmatidae, David Weissman.
 
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Hisserdude

Arachnoking
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Apr 18, 2015
Messages
2,453
Thanks, I'll definitely look there. I haven't ever been to Skull Valley. I'm from West Valley City.
@Hisserdude, would you say this is a female or male? I'm leaning towards female.

It's a little bit blurry because it was moving around while I was trying to take the picture. I was thinking female, but I'm not sure.
I'm leaning toward female too, but I'm not so sure TBH, would need a clearer shot of it's rear.
 

keks

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 7, 2017
Messages
517
Yeeeeeaaah no, that will definitely not work for breeding Jerusalem crickets, these guess have WAY different breeding habits than your average house cricket, please keep in mind that these aren't even that closely related to the crickets that you are used to breeding.

They are extremely territorial and cannibalistic, and have to be kept separately. Mating them is like mating tarantulas, most of the time you can get them to hook up successfully if you do things right, but there is a high risk of one of them getting killed in the process. Once you have a mature pair, you have to take both individuals out of their own containers and put them in an enclosure with very shallow, flat substrate, and let them find each other, the male will pursue the female and begin mating with her, which is a long and complex process that makes it look like he is biting the sh*t out of her. (Like in my video here, I have a few different videos of this process actually, this one actually shows the male's phallic lobes extending and him producing the spermatophore, unlike my other videos where the camera ran out of battery before that part...).

After mating, the male's spermatophore should stay stuck to the female for several days for successful fertilization, (my females rubbed theirs off too soon I think, which is why none of my eggs hatched). Then, when she's ready to lay eggs, she'll dig several inches down into her substrate, and lay them rather randomly in the soil, (despite claims that they lay them in clutches and protect the eggs, David Weissman and I think that they just lay eggs randomly in the soil, maybe close together, and then abandon them, since females tend to lay several clutches in their lifetime, and just wouldn't live long enough to guard each one).

Ideally the eggs should be separated from the mother, and then would hatch within a month of being laid, for most species. Unfortunately, neither I nor David Weissman have figured out how to consistently get the eggs to hatch. David has had a few hatch here and there, but those were more like happy accidents, and not all of their brethren hatched either. :/

Anyway, after laying two to three clutches of eggs, the female then dies. The adults generally only live a few months to almost a year, while nymphs take one or two years to reach maturity.

All of this information comes from my experiences trying to breed a few pairs of JCs I reared myself, as well as several conversations I had with the world's expert on the Stenopelmatidae, David Weissman.
:wacky:
 

VolkswagenBug

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 26, 2017
Messages
500
I'm leaning toward female too, but I'm not so sure TBH, would need a clearer shot of it's rear.
Thanks! They're a bit hard to get a decent picture of, especially since the best camera I have is a Samsung Galaxy tablet, so I'll assume it's female. Not that important, anyway, since I don't intend to breed.
 

DubiaW

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
471
Yeeeeeaaah no, that will definitely not work for breeding Jerusalem crickets, these guess have WAY different breeding habits than your average house cricket, please keep in mind that these aren't even that closely related to the crickets that you are used to breeding.

They are extremely territorial and cannibalistic, and have to be kept separately. Mating them is like mating tarantulas, most of the time you can get them to hook up successfully if you do things right, but there is a high risk of one of them getting killed in the process. Once you have a mature pair, you have to take both individuals out of their own containers and put them in an enclosure with very shallow, flat substrate, and let them find each other, the male will pursue the female and begin mating with her, which is a long and complex process that makes it look like he is biting the sh*t out of her. (Like in my video here, I have a few different videos of this process actually, this one actually shows the male's phallic lobes extending and him producing the spermatophore, unlike my other videos where the camera ran out of battery before that part...).

After mating, the male's spermatophore should stay stuck to the female for several days for successful fertilization, (my females rubbed theirs off too soon I think, which is why none of my eggs hatched). Then, when she's ready to lay eggs, she'll dig several inches down into her substrate, and lay them rather randomly in the soil, (despite claims that they lay them in clutches and protect the eggs, David Weissman and I think that they just lay eggs randomly in the soil, maybe close together, and then abandon them, since females tend to lay several clutches in their lifetime, and just wouldn't live long enough to guard each one).

Ideally the eggs should be separated from the mother, and then would hatch within a month of being laid, for most species. Unfortunately, neither I nor David Weissman have figured out how to consistently get the eggs to hatch. David has had a few hatch here and there, but those were more like happy accidents, and not all of their brethren hatched either. :/

Anyway, after laying two to three clutches of eggs, the female then dies. The adults generally only live a few months to almost a year, while nymphs take one or two years to reach maturity.

All of this information comes from my experiences trying to breed a few pairs of JCs I reared myself, as well as several conversations I had with the world's expert on the Stenopelmatidae, David Weissman.
What temp did you incubate the container in and how much humidity? I could never get crickets to hatch out until I put the eggs in my 90°F roach cage. They lay their eggs surface deep so they might need high temps to hatch. Just a thought.
 

Hisserdude

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Messages
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What temp did you incubate the container in and how much humidity? I could never get crickets to hatch out until I put the eggs in my 90°F roach cage. They lay their eggs surface deep so they might need high temps to hatch. Just a thought.
JCs lay their eggs several inches to a foot deep underground in the wild, so high temps are likely detrimental to their development. I kept mine at about 74F, maybe lower. I also kept the substrate the eggs were in fairly moist.
 

Hisserdude

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Messages
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Thanks! They're a bit hard to get a decent picture of, especially since the best camera I have is a Samsung Galaxy tablet, so I'll assume it's female. Not that important, anyway, since I don't intend to breed.
Yeah, they don't like to stay still! :D Indeed, knowing the gender doesn't really matter unless you intend to breed them.

All this Jerusalem cricket talk is making want to get some again, they were quite fun to keep, and their life cycle is so different and interesting compared to true crickets. I just wish they were cheaper, I bought all 8 of mine for $2 per specimen, but I don't think that vendor is in the hobby anymore, everyone else sells them for $9-15 per individual now! :eek:
 

VolkswagenBug

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Messages
500
JCs lay their eggs several inches to a foot deep underground in the wild, so high temps are likely detrimental to their development. I kept mine at about 74F, maybe lower. I also kept the substrate the eggs were in fairly moist.
Yeah, I've read that the adults and nymphs do prefer temperatures around 70±5 degrees F, so I'd imagine the eggs are similar.
Yeah, they don't like to stay still! :D Indeed, knowing the gender doesn't really matter unless you intend to breed them.

All this Jerusalem cricket talk is making want to get some again, they were quite fun to keep, and their life cycle is so different and interesting compared to true crickets. I just wish they were cheaper, I bought all 8 of mine for $2 per specimen, but I don't think that vendor is in the hobby anymore, everyone else sells them for $9-15 per individual now! :eek:
Wow, $2 per specimen? That's crazy! I got mine for $10 and considered it quite the steal! I still think it's worth it, though. They're really fun to take care of and super interesting.
 

Hisserdude

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Yeah, I've read that the adults and nymphs do prefer temperatures around 70±5 degrees F, so I'd imagine the eggs are similar.
Indeed, they are subterranean creatures that normally only come to the surface at night when it's cool out, they aren't fond of high temps.

Wow, $2 per specimen? That's crazy! I got mine for $10 and considered it quite the steal! I still think it's worth it, though. They're really fun to take care of and super interesting.
Yeah, it was a great deal, they were pretty small nymphs though, some were only an inch long. Made it a lot more fun keeping them though, getting to watch them get bigger and bigger! :) Supposedly I live pretty close to prime JC habitat, so I may go on a little hunt next week now that it's cooler and see what I can find...
 

VolkswagenBug

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Indeed, they are subterranean creatures that normally only come to the surface at night when it's cool out, they aren't fond of high temps.



Yeah, it was a great deal, they were pretty small nymphs though, some were only an inch long. Made it a lot more fun keeping them though, getting to watch them get bigger and bigger! :) Supposedly I live pretty close to prime JC habitat, so I may go on a little hunt next week now that it's cooler and see what I can find...
I actually didn't know JCs lived in Idaho. That's interesting, you'll have to tell us about your findings!
 

Hisserdude

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I actually didn't know JCs lived in Idaho. That's interesting, you'll have to tell us about your findings!
Oh yeah, they are here in south Idaho, they just aren't that easy to find... Will definitely let you all know if I find any here. ;)
 

DubiaW

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Messages
471
JCs lay their eggs several inches to a foot deep underground in the wild, so high temps are likely detrimental to their development. I kept mine at about 74F, maybe lower. I also kept the substrate the eggs were in fairly moist.
I thought about that but ground temps here can be higher than that here even deep down. It could be different for species from different regions. I recently got a little temp gun so I can start doing soil temp data when I collect. It makes sense that they would incubate at a similar temp to their peak activity or what ever temp the soil is when they are found by flipping. Now there is still the question of soil moisture and ambient humidity during incubation and when to separate the nymphs to avoid cannibalism.
 

Hisserdude

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I thought about that but ground temps here can be higher than that here even deep down. It could be different for species from different regions. I recently got a little temp gun so I can start doing soil temp data when I collect. It makes sense that they would incubate at a similar temp to their peak activity or what ever temp the soil is when they are found by flipping. Now there is still the question of soil moisture and ambient humidity during incubation and when to separate the nymphs to avoid cannibalism.
That's true, still, they usually only come out at night, which does suggest they like things on the cooler side.
Indeed, the exact preferred substrate moisture level for successful egg incubation has yet to be found, if only the eggs my females laid weren't infertile. :(
I would think the nymphs should be separated as soon as they hatch to avoid cannibalism.
 
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