Raising Black Field Crickets...

[Chuckiee]

Hello everyone,hope y'all are having an amazing day.I live in Bosnia and there are no pet shops in here that sell Acheta Domestica crickets,so I considered raising black field crickets found in wild...But same problem happened year ago...They cannibalize each other...As far as I know,crickets wont cannibalize each other unless there is sufficient space for them and food is abundant.I keep around 50 of them which is pretty small amount considering the size of the container I keep them in...its 38 l container and for food I use dry cat food which they eat just a little bit,I also put some spinach and potato...so I'd say it could be that they dont like to eat none of this stuff,what should I feed them with? I also heard that dry dog food and goldfish granules would be a good choice...But I dont know,hope someone can help me with this...Thanks in advance!

 

[richard22]

You should give more egg cartons if they’re eating eachother, and also better food. They can do it anyway, but be sure to remove all dead crickets FAST so to lower disease risk. A better dry food would be chick feed since it has many vitamins, otherwise you could use unflavored soy protein powder, a cheap feed, wheat germ, fish flakes, and/or dog food. Better produce would be oranges and/or squash, be sure to wash all produce off well. Make sure you have a wet area of the enclosure for egg laying or a wet egg laying container regularly moistened. You should keep them around ~31C. Potential issues could be the egg hatching, many of them might take months to hatch or won’t without a simulated winter season (diapause), but not all eggs will diapause, or maybe in Bosnia they won’t anyway, but if they do maybe experiment and try to get hundreds of eggs laid and perhaps several will hatch in the heat without diapause. Then hope they don’t eat eachother, but unless they’re weak they rarely will if given enough space.

 

[The Mantis Menagerie]

Hello everyone,hope y'all are having an amazing day.I live in Bosnia and there are no pet shops in here that sell Acheta Domestica crickets,so I considered raising black field crickets found in wild...But same problem happened year ago...They cannibalize each other...As far as I know,crickets wont cannibalize each other unless there is sufficient space for them and food is abundant.I keep around 50 of them which is pretty small amount considering the size of the container I keep them in...its 38 l container and for food I use dry cat food which they eat just a little bit,I also put some spinach and potato...so I'd say it could be that they dont like to eat none of this stuff,what should I feed them with? I also heard that dry dog food and goldfish granules would be a good choice...But I dont know,hope someone can help me with this...Thanks in advance!

Can you acquire any roaches? Even breeding household pests is probably better than trying to work with these crickets.

 

[Villagecreep]

Hello everyone,hope y'all are having an amazing day.I live in Bosnia and there are no pet shops in here that sell Acheta Domestica crickets,so I considered raising black field crickets found in wild...But same problem happened year ago...They cannibalize each other...As far as I know,crickets wont cannibalize each other unless there is sufficient space for them and food is abundant.I keep around 50 of them which is pretty small amount considering the size of the container I keep them in...its 38 l container and for food I use dry cat food which they eat just a little bit,I also put some spinach and potato...so I'd say it could be that they dont like to eat none of this stuff,what should I feed them with? I also heard that dry dog food and goldfish granules would be a good choice...But I dont know,hope someone can help me with this...Thanks in advance!

Make sure if you use mesh, that its wire and not fabric, or anything organic. they can eat through it!

 

[richard22]

Once eggs hatch the adults will need to be separated so they don’t eat the babies.

 

[Bob Lee]

Wild crickets sound like a spectacular idea compared to cutting my own finger off.

I put my best effort into that euphemism

 

[Andrew Clayton]

@richard22 @The Mantis Menagerie @Villagecreep @Bob Lee , this post is from April 2018 and the OP hasn’t been on since October 2018 great advise but

 

[Introvertebrate]

@richard22 @The Mantis Menagerie @Villagecreep @Bob Lee , this post is from April 2018 and the OP hasn’t been on since October 2018 great advise but

So what’s your point?

 

[Andrew Clayton]

So what’s your point?

Nothing to do with you! Answer with a snide remark and you shall receive a snide remark

 

[The Mantis Menagerie]

@richard22 @The Mantis Menagerie @Villagecreep @Bob Lee , this post is from April 2018 and the OP hasn’t been on since October 2018 great advise but

I glean information from old threads, so while replying to a decade-old thread is a bit excessive, I think it is fine to reply to this one.

 

[Andrew Clayton]

I glean information from old threads, so while replying to a decade-old thread is a bit excessive, I think it is fine to reply to this one.

See I know where you’re coming from maybe if the question was about Ts that are going to still be around yes, but the question is about crickets and the user is no longer active so I don’t see a real reason to have a debate over an answer for someone who isn’t going to see it and has probably by now got an answer to the problem since they are no longer active just my opinion though. Plus I only stated the facts and said that it was good advise I don’t see where this has provoked any reply’s. Adding to a decade old thread would still be okay though if it’s someone looking for a solution to a problem that someone may already have had but in slightly different context like maybe a problem with a LP and one with an L Klugi.

 

[Introvertebrate]

I was a bit snide. I frequent boards where folks routinely pick up where they left off 10 years ago. It’s puzzled me why the newness of threads matters to younger members, but I can see the relevance.

Yes, chances are we won’t hear from the OP anymore at this point.