Anyone ever attmepted to interbreed house crickets with field crickets?

[Moltar]

Same genus

Yep. I assumed as much or they probably wouldn't have even made the attempt. There are a few thousand dead folks whom's loved ones would probably like to thank those Brazilian scientists in person.

It's probably a bit of a stretch to think this cross could result in killer crickets though. The more likely scenario in my mind is that the big, tough field crickets will end up munching on the soft little brown ones. [nomnomnom]

 

[Travis K]

OH YEAH, the title of this thread is all wrong



Crossbreed/X-breed not interbreed

 

[ZephAmp]

True, but cross-genera hybrids are extremely rare....impossible about 99.99% of the time. In fact, I cannot think of any involving insects.

Princisia vanwaerebeki x Gromphadorhina portentosa has recorded hybrids, but there is some dispute as to whether or not they should be in separate genuses, let alone separate species...

 

[bugmankeith]

The whole reason for my idea was to produce fatter, healthier feeders that dont get sick easily. That's the only reason why, not to make killer crickets.

And as far as releasing house crickets on the species map it states their native in my area. As a matter of fact i've been to a house infested with them, and they never bought crickets, as they have no pets to feed. They surround dumpsters, houses with lots of filth, or areas with a fireplace, oil burner, or logpile.

 

[JohnDapiaoen]

cross breeding crickets is true unfortunately, back when i used feeder crickets many would excape and after a few years i start seeing big field crickets with feeder cricket colors and they were huge! I feel bad since thier whole gene pool is messed up in my area and im the probable cause. here are pics of the few normal ones i could find (or unoticeable hybrids):

the giant hybrids:

 

[John Kanker]

I would guess your "hybrid" crickets John are Gryllus assimilis or another Gryllus species.

Cheers John.

 

[JohnDapiaoen]

Thank god that's a relief though I do feel stupid

 

[Louise E. Rothstein]

Anyone ever attempted to interbreed house crickets with field crickets?

Wild hybrid crickets...?-They might not be: house crickets have enough color variation to produce "field cricket hybrids" that are not really hybridized.

Have any of these "hybrids" withstood more scientific inspection than a probably fleeting glimpse from a distance...if they have NOT even been checked over for such things as full maturity and whether they are fertile,and,if so, what the offspring look like we do NOT really know whether these "wild hybrid crickets" are not either color phases in house crickets or purebred native crickets of species other than BLACK field crickets.

 

[Vulgaris]

I've tried it many times. Male crickets will attempt to court any female (regardless of species) but the females refuse to mate with males that are not of the same sp. They can tell the difference in the type of chirp. Their genetalia are probably incompatible anyway

It's not possible, but it sure would be cool

 

[Louise E. Rothstein]

More than two kinds of crickets turn up in this country.
Please have your "hybrids" identified before you announce that they ARE "hybrids"
because they might turn out to be something entirely else.

 

[Alltheworld601]

to not confuse babies? i dunno.
But i would have kept the male cricket and that female cricket in the enclosure...so you can have hundreds! lol

edit
this reminds me
I let a bunch of petstore crickets outside once (when I had my bearded dragon) then a few months later I started seeing lightish/darkish crickets jumping around.

And now a few years later, the whole population of field crickets have disapeared in my area...my neibores, and niebore niebores and down by the river...
i dont think it was because I released those guys, but maybe.
I only found 1 young field cricket (normal black colored) in the past 4 years.
and that was yesterday.

Okay so I realize I'm bumping an older thread. But its interesting, so maybe it deserves a bump. Also I have experienced the same thing as the quoted poster.

When I only had two tarantulas I would often buy too many crickets to keep alive for as long as it takes tarantulas to consume that many. Also for a while my leopard gecko boycotted crickets, and I was left with a whole mess of them in a little plastic tank that nobody wanted to eat. So quite a few times I let the light colored pet store crickets go outside and just started fresh a week later. After a few times of this, I too started seeing what looked very much like hybrid crickets appearing in my grass and even on my porch. They werent like anything I'd ever seen...we have a lot of those black field crickets around here just living wild, and these strange new crickets were sort of a mix between the wild ones and the pet store ones. The cold weather has since made them stop appearing, but I was seeing them for a WHILE. It is my guess that its because I released so many.

I hope I didn't destroy a precarious ecosystem..though the wild black ones are a whole lot more aggressive and probably invasive than the pet store ones, so I imagine the balance will stay about the same.

Lot of new people joined since this post was started, anybody else have similar experiences?

---------- Post added 10-14-2012 at 09:02 AM ----------

aand i'm retarded, I didnt' see the second page of this thread. Most of my questions have been answered there and there's probably no need to continue it. Well..my apologizes..I'd delete my response if I could, but I can't figure out how. Sorry!

 

[Tenodera]

For anybody interested in this issue, do the hybrid crickets look like this: http://bugguide.net/node/view/701989
Or this: http://bugguide.net/node/view/454116/bgimage? Or something else?
I was confused seeing light, patterned Gryllus for the first time too, but sometimes the coloration goes away as they mature, and I've gotten them from normal adults. My guess is it's environmentally influenced. There are also some species like Gryllus firmus and personatus that are regularly brown or tan.

 

[Alltheworld601]

they look a lot more like the second link...but i dont know much about crickets. i just was concerned about whether or not I had destroyed my local ecosystem...lol

 

[selkielass]

Yep. I assumed as much or they probably wouldn't have even made the attempt. There are a few thousand dead folks whom's loved ones would probably like to thank those Brazilian scientists in person.

It's probably a bit of a stretch to think this cross could result in killer crickets though. The more likely scenario in my mind is that the big, tough field crickets will end up munching on the soft little brown ones. [nomnomnom]

African strains of honeybees are well adapted to the tropics and tothe defending their homescolony against aggressive predators.
European strains have been selected to be gentle, and store away lots and lots of honey.
*Both* are introduced species that while beneficial to agriculture have had detrimental effects on native species of bees.
But if you want insect pollinated fruits and vegetables you need bees pf some sort to get good yields.

Pls don't go on about thousands dead by bee sting. Its no fairer to bees than going on about deadly spider bites, venemous snakes or roach borne disease is to those creatures as a whole.

 

[spydrhunter1]

when at petsmart, if i ever get too many crickets i let the leftover ones go in my back yard. .

Precisely why the USDA-APHIS requirements for exotic insects are so stringent.

 

[patrickbull]

I have also seen the mix after letting them go around the house. And yes I'm very aware of the different species. And they were not any of the native species. I don't think you should worry about having messed up any ecosystems....my friends. The regular black "field" genes normally overcome the domesticated genes after 2 years or so. Only the positive traits that would benefit the species would carry on if they provide advantages for living outside in that environment......Don't worry if you are still seeing crickets you haven't messed up any ecosystem lol. The odds are just as much in favor of you helping it than hurting it......

 

[Introvertebrate]

I thought Acheta domestica was strictly a fair weather cricket. If it does manage to breed with a local species, it's offspring would die off the minute the first frost hits.

 

[Spiderman937]

Throw them up in the air and catch them until they learn to use their wings, if they have full length hind wings. Has anyone ever done this? I used to do this to lure bats and large darner dragonflies.

 

[bugmankeith]

Throw them up in the air and catch them until they learn to use their wings, if they have full length hind wings. Has anyone ever done this? I used to do this to lure bats and large darner dragonflies.

I tried it with ones I kept as pets, over time they learned to crawl to the end of my finger and jump off and use their wings, it was really cool because most people have no idea they can fly, mainly males.

 

[Peter_Parker]

Apparently they don't even know they can haha, at least the crickets at every pet store I've ever been don't.. I've seen plenty of mature males with full sets of wings tumble precariously off ledges of reasonable height or climb to the top of some object and jump off without any attempt to slow their falls with those "long, papery structures on their backs"..