Black field crickets eggs / nymphs

[BoyFromLA]

I was, and I am still more of a person who prefers roaches over crickets as feeder insects.

It is because of this notion, and as well as my first hand experiences that in comparison to roaches, crickets are:

• Cannibalize too frequently
• Die too easily
• Just too noisy
• Just too smelly

Therefore I always go for roaches, not crickets.

But about a month ago, I was out of the right size feeder insects for larger tarantulas, and stopped by at the local pet store to get some.

There I found the ‘black field crickets’, and I got curious. Their size were good, even for larger tarantulas, and they wouldn’t burrow unlike superworms. So I did buy twenty four of them just to see how it goes.

It was good. Maybe it was because I fed all too quickly to even get the over all experience of keeping them as feeders.

So I wanted to try out some more, and looked pretty much everywhere to get more of them, but unfortunately, they are currently out of stock from everywhere.

Well, that’s too bad I thought.

Then, while I was sorting out the recently used enclosures to clean up, I found these.





One of the female must’ve laid some eggs before it was tossed into tarantulas’ enclosures.

Now I will have to see if I can grow these into some decent sized adult crickets so I can breed them myself.

A new adventure just began.

 

[HexLazerr]

Not sure if these are one of the native Gryllus species, but after breeding several of the native field crickets, they are for certain hardier, live much longer and seem not to cannibalize when fed properly, very much unlike house crickets. Best of luck to your eggs, hopefully you can get a colony going!

 

[BoyFromLA]

but after breeding several of the native field crickets

Share me some insights, know-hows.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Best of luck I caught a wc pair once this year but they never bred it had baby’s both refused to eat and died of old age possibly. I can’t seem to get slings to eat baby roaches.

 

[Kada]

They are pretty cool crickets. But quiet, they are not

 

[Dry Desert]

Share me some insights, know-hows.

Black crickets are the worst sort of crickets available.

They are very, very noisy, twice as dangerous towards molting inverts, and will cannibalise without a second thought.
People I know use them mainly for lizards etc.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

Crickets are disgusting, but...so are roaches, if you're breeding them. Why not just buy what you need, as you need it? If they're consumed within minutes of arriving home, then they never have a chance to:

*cannibalize
*pass on peacefully in their sleep
*make noise
*stink up the joint

With the added benefit of not having to worry about total infestation in the event of an escape.

I keep a few (less than 20) extra in a penpal for a little while in the winter, just because sometimes we'll have snow storms that'll hamper availability for a week or so. And if I feed them, I feed them, & if they die, they die. Even if you've got a ton of stuff...I've never met a pet shop that couldn't supply several hundred on demand. Those are the tribulations of breeding the wretched little beasts..

 

[BoyFromLA]

Why not just buy what you need, as you need it?

I’d too, if they are readily available at all time, but it does not seem like it.

 

[fcat]

I keep my crickets very similarly to my tarantulas. Reptisoil, a hide, spring water but organic carrots for food. I'm getting a lot more mileage out of them, especially the small ones. I would say over one week I might lose one cricket, so about 2% when I buy 50 at a time. The larger crickets, the adults nearing the end of their natural life span anyway, don't seem to last as long, I bet I lose 10-15%, but I still get about 2 weeks out of them. Once the whole batch has been fed off, I freeze then trash the entire contents of their enclosure and clean it with soap and water, then sanitize it with alcohol. Remove dead ones the moment they are discovered. I can smell their stink on them when I remove them from the bag from the store, but the charcoal in the reptisoil seems to cure that. I smell all my crickets before I feed, if they stank they go to the isopods. They rarely have a detectable smell when kept this way, unless I neglect them. My poor isopods are protein deficient now lol. I think I'd be getting even more mileage if I upgraded them from a critter keeper.

I keep them in my bedroom because I love the sound.

When possible, I try to feed the females off first, because I don't want to breed crickets in my apartment, and I still have found babies. :/

 

[Introvertebrate]

I've had pretty good success with plain old Petco house crickets, but the first generation will die off quickly. That's why you need the eggs. I bought a batch of Petco crickets back in January, and I've been breeding them ever since. I must be on my 10th generation by now.

• Cannibalize too frequently - I haven't noticed that.
• Die too easily - You'll get some die offs from subsequent generations, but not a lot. I've got some 6 month old house crickets.
• Just too noisy - No stopping the noise. Sometimes I'll move the bin to another room.
• Just too smelly - my roaches smell more.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I keep my crickets very similarly to my tarantulas. Reptisoil, a hide, spring water but organic carrots for food. I'm getting a lot more mileage out of them, especially the small ones. I would say over one week I might lose one cricket, so about 2% when I buy 50 at a time. The larger crickets, the adults nearing the end of their natural life span anyway, don't seem to last as long, I bet I lose 10-15%, but I still get about 2 weeks out of them. Once the whole batch has been fed off, I freeze then trash the entire contents of their enclosure and clean it with soap and water, then sanitize it with alcohol. Remove dead ones the moment they are discovered. I can smell their stink on them when I remove them from the bag from the store, but the charcoal in the reptisoil seems to cure that. I smell all my crickets before I feed, if they stank they go to the isopods. They rarely have a detectable smell when kept this way, unless I neglect them. My poor isopods are protein deficient now lol. I think I'd be getting even more mileage if I upgraded them from a critter keeper.

I keep them in my bedroom because I love the sound.

When possible, I try to feed the females off first, because I don't want to breed crickets in my apartment, and I still have found babies. :/

You toss all the soil out too ? Isn’t that stuff expensive?

I've had pretty good success with plain old Petco house crickets, but the first generation will die off quickly. That's why you need the eggs. I bought a batch of Petco crickets back in January, and I've been breeding them ever since. I must be on my 10th generation by now.

• Cannibalize too frequently - I haven't noticed that.
• Die too easily - You'll get some die offs from subsequent generations, but not a lot. I've got some 6 month old house crickets.
• Just too noisy - No stopping the noise. Sometimes I'll move the bin to another room.
• Just too smelly - my roaches smell more.

Dubia don’t smell , orange heads do a little bit. Crickets are better for slings some won’t eat roaches.

 

[fcat]

You toss all the soil out too ? Isn’t that stuff expensive?

At the scale of my critter keepers, I'm using about 2 cups of dirt. I use the stuff I've previously sifted out for being to sharp/hard/big/heavy (always charcoal pieces too), so it doesn't get wasted. If I had a batch of crickets that I fed off with zero losses, then I'll just freeze that container whole and start a new container, so by the time Im due to re-up on crickets, I can just grab a "clean" enclosure out of the freezer. That's to control mites. It's the rotting cricket tainted substrate I don't want to recycle. I wouldn't want to live in recycle corpse dirt either.

I only put about 1" for the babies so they don't get crushed and 2" for larger. Never seen mold.

You just reminded me that chewy canceled my black Friday order with no explanation. I had bought 6 bags of reptisoil for $31.

I know its probably not doing anything except stretching a few dollars lol, but it makes me think I'm giving my feeders a good life considering they drew such a short stick. And maybe just maybe, less chance of spreading anything to my beloved Ts.

I only ever buy it on sale, or pay of max of Crapco prices which is about $12 for me. Sometimes Scamazon runs promos if you spend a certain amount. When I know it's an actual deal, I'll buy a few extra bags if I can afford it. And cork bark. I never walk away from a good cork bark deal.

 

[Introvertebrate]

My egg laying substrate is vermiculite from Lowes. I tried reusing a batch once, for the next cricket generation, but it got a bit too nasty.

 

[Kada]

Twice as dangerous towards molting inverts, and will cannibalise without a second thought.
People I know use them mainly for lizards etc.

Agree with that. They are more aggressive feeders and seem to have higher protein requirements. I find if crickets are eating each other but being fed lots of vegetarian things, add some protein. Fish food or whatever. Probably will never stop them eating their dead, but it does seem to cut down on actual predation. I also used them for lizards mainly. And centipedes. Easy to breed.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

I’ll only use black field crix if I can feed them all off quickly. They do live longer (if not fed off of course), but I saw one eating its freshly molted bin mate, who was still very much alive with half its abdomen. I almost barfed.
I use vermiculite for brown, banded house crickets, too, but have yet to see babies. How long did it take yours to appear?

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I’ll only use black field crix if I can feed them all off quickly. They do live longer (if not fed off of course), but I saw one eating its freshly molted bin mate, who was still very much alive with half its abdomen. I almost barfed.
I use vermiculite for brown, banded house crickets, too, but have yet to see babies. How long did it take yours to appear?

You can actually buy black field crix our local pet stores only carry the Fluker crickets. I only ever buy them for slings lately. I’ve been just using mealworms instead.

Agree with that. They are more aggressive feeders and seem to have higher protein requirements. I find if crickets are eating each other but being fed lots of vegetarian things, add some protein. Fish food or whatever. Probably will never stop them eating their dead, but it does seem to cut down on actual predation. I also used them for lizards mainly. And centipedes. Easy to breed.

Larger mandibles than regular crickets too.

 

[SpookySpooder]

I’ll only use black field crix if I can feed them all off quickly. They do live longer (if not fed off of course), but I saw one eating its freshly molted bin mate, who was still very much alive with half its abdomen. I almost barfed.
I use vermiculite for brown, banded house crickets, too, but have yet to see babies. How long did it take yours to appear?

About 1-2 weeks from the time the female oviposits the egg bundles, depending on heat.

I hate crickets. But I kept them pretty successfully when I did use them so I've figured out a pretty good system for constant pinheads and I've befriended the pet store employees so they'll happily fish out just 1 gravid cricket for me per week, lmao.

 

[Dry Desert]

About 1-2 weeks from the time the female oviposits the egg bundles, depending on heat.

I hate crickets. But I kept them pretty successfully when I did use them so I've figured out a pretty good system for constant pinheads and I've befriended the pet store employees so they'll happily fish out just 1 gravid cricket for me per week, lmao.

I thought only the Scottish nationals were that tight !!.

 

[Smotzer]

if they are readily available at all time, but it does not seem like it.

Here (my one local LPS) always has every size of crickets so I never really have needed to actually attempt to produce them myself which is great! I actually gotta do a run and get a lot of pin heads for all the slings and crabs.

 

[SpookySpooder]

I thought only the Scottish nationals were that tight !!.

Aye, me and the boys down at the pub are always joshing about their boss and customers, so if I just want 1 fatty mama cricket to lay eggs they'll throw one in the bag for me. Depending on who's manning the register, they also might just dump a bunch of pinheads into the same bag and charge me $0.15 for the one cricket.

Otherwise, I wouldn't even buy them. $0.15 per cricket x a collection of 44 = $6.6/week x 4 = $26/mo on crickets and I'd rather spend that money on slings... and when I'm maxed on slings I'd rather buy somebody else a T, than give it to the pet shop owner, LOL.

For anybody else interested in pinheads but not the adults or the hassle of rearing them... I just plop the mama cricket in a deli cup with moist old substrate, she lays whether there are uricating hairs and webs or not, often within the hour of being set in there, it's an interesting process to observe. After a few days I throw her to a larger T or the scorpion garbage disposal I just got. Repeat this in a new deli cup next week... and after a couple weeks, you will have a different cup with pinheads emerging every week. Just dump them into a colony bin and grow them out or feed them off from there. All without the hassle of rearing noisy and smelly adult crickets, or the males.

Now you just have to learn how to keep then alive. But uh, when you do, you'll end up with thousands and thousands of pinheads.. so when they grow too big, I donate them back for store cricket credits. I don't even care if it's at a 1000:1 ratio, as I'll have that many pinheads and I just need a female cricket to refresh the cycle.

As for raising crickets to adulthood and breeding the whole colony... it's too much work, too many tradeoffs compared to the other feeder types.... so IMO not worth it.