Cricket breeding question

[MondoMundo]

Put together a little breeding setup today, I followed some advice saying to cover the egg laying dish/substrate with some mesh to help prevent eggs being eaten, was this right? Im concerned now that the mesh might put them off/ make it harder for them to actual plant the eggs

 

[The Seraph]

Put together a little breeding setup today, I followed some advice saying to cover the egg laying dish/substrate with some mesh to help prevent eggs being eaten, was this right? Im concerned now that the mesh might put them off/ make it harder for them to actual plant the eggs

To my knowledge, crickets have an ovipositor, a spine that helps them lay their eggs. This should be able to go between the mesh, unless it is ridiculously fine.

 

[MondoMundo]

To my knowledge, crickets have an ovipositor, a spine that helps them lay their eggs. This should be able to go between the mesh, unless it is ridiculously fine.

Yeh it can go through the mesh, it probably will be fine, I’ve already spotted one laying. I may try without though next time just to see the difference.

 

[sschind]

Put together a little breeding setup today, I followed some advice saying to cover the egg laying dish/substrate with some mesh to help prevent eggs being eaten, was this right? Im concerned now that the mesh might put them off/ make it harder for them to actual plant the eggs

I use window screen on occasion to prevent digging but lately I have just been putting the laying dishes in at night and taking them out in the morning. I'm sure some get eaten but when you hatch a thousand or so it really doesn't matter. You shouldn't have any problems with the mesh.

One question, why are you breeding them? I mean what are you feeding? I have found that banded crickets are much easier to raise successfully and if you are looking to feed off the younger crickets its the only way to go IMO. They are smaller as adults so if you are looking for big crickets the house crickets are better but I've never had much luck getting them past the 3 or 4 instar stage in any quantities that make a difference. I need lots of pinheads and 1-2 instar right now (feeding baby tailless whipscorpions) and I would never go back to the house crickets.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Have you ever tried fruit flies for those whipscorpions?

 

[Introvertebrate]

........or bean beetles?

 

[MondoMundo]

I use window screen on occasion to prevent digging but lately I have just been putting the laying dishes in at night and taking them out in the morning. I'm sure some get eaten but when you hatch a thousand or so it really doesn't matter. You shouldn't have any problems with the mesh.

One question, why are you breeding them? I mean what are you feeding? I have found that banded crickets are much easier to raise successfully and if you are looking to feed off the younger crickets its the only way to go IMO. They are smaller as adults so if you are looking for big crickets the house crickets are better but I've never had much luck getting them past the 3 or 4 instar stage in any quantities that make a difference. I need lots of pinheads and 1-2 instar right now (feeding baby tailless whipscorpions) and I would never go back to the house crickets.

They’re for my tarantulas and my friends bearded dragons, I’ve got locusts, house crickets and black crickets. Probably just over 50 adults in each tub.

I’ve been told to leave the egg laying dish in for about 7 days.

I’ll read up on banded crickets today though it’s not something I’ve come across yet

 

[Ellenantula]

I may have done things the difficult way, but I always put a condiment cup full of substrate in adult cricket container (no screening), and then exchanged it each week and let the babes hatch in a plastic shoebox. It's certainly possible a few eggs were eaten by the adults.
I got tired of breeding crickets eventually, and darn if they didn't lay eggs in their own frass and I'd still find lots of baby crickets in adult container.
Perhaps feeding my crickets a good veggie diet with some catfood 'protein' added kept them from cannibalizing their young.

Anyway, my point is there are many ways to breed crickets successfully -- some more time consuming than others.
Good luck!

 

[Aquarimax]

Have you ever tried fruit flies for those whipscorpions?

I have used fruit flies for very young tailless whipscorpions with success, for what it is worth.

 

[Aquarimax]

Yeh it can go through the mesh, it probably will be fine, I’ve already spotted one laying. I may try without though next time just to see the difference.

I have been breeding them for years with the mesh. It can work without the mesh if you remove the substrate regularly, but there will be some predation on the eggs. I find that the advantage to the mesh is that you can do everything inside one bin (with a smaller nursery bin inside it)! Thus saving space and keeping things fairly simple.
I demonstrate how that works in this video:

 

[Schledog]

Have you ever tried fruit flies for those whipscorpions?

I wouldn’t count on having a whipspider diet solely on fruit flies, it’s not enough nutrition according to Orin’s whipspider book. Although it can work for some true spiders and mantids, just go the safe route and feed crickets and roaches.

 

[sschind]

I have used fruit flies for very young tailless whipscorpions with success, for what it is worth.

Have you ever tried fruit flies for those whipscorpions?

I have read that tailless whips raised on fruit flies alone have more difficulties. I have done it in the past and to be honest I had very good luck but I just want to add some variety. Besides after a couple of molts the fruit flies are pretty small. If I can get these banded crickets to molt successfully They will grow with them.

edit: Posted before I saw you response Dog. What you said.

 

[sschind]

They’re for my tarantulas and my friends bearded dragons, I’ve got locusts, house crickets and black crickets. Probably just over 50 adults in each tub.

I’ve been told to leave the egg laying dish in for about 7 days.

I’ll read up on banded crickets today though it’s not something I’ve come across yet

I've always been tempted to try locusts but never took the plunge. I've gotten house crickets to breed like crazy but I never had much luck getting them past the first few molts. I seem to have huge die offs at each molt and by the time the 2nd or 3rd one is done I'm down to so few it isn't worth the effort. I believe it may have something to do with humidity and I'm trying something new with the bandeds so I won't know for sure if it is the crickets or my new methods but as long as the babies stay alive I really don't care. It takes so long for them to reach adult size that they are gone long before then.

I buy 500 adults once a month and I use them as my breeders and feeders. Adult Bandeds will live for a month house crickets won't and thy don't smell as bad. Partly because they don't die off as readily and partly because I think they are better at eating their dead.

I used to leave my containers in for several days and even up to a week but I've started taking them out after 1 day for 2 reasons. First I don't use a screen so I don't want the adults digging down and eating the eggs, second I want my batches to stay more or less the same size.

If I take them out after a day I get the first few babies hatching about 2 weeks later the next 2 days are a big hatch and then they are pretty much done and I can take the container out. If I leave it in for a week I've found that the whole hatching process can extend over close to 2 weeks sometimes and I have a mix of sizes once they start molting. My way all the ones in the same batch stay pretty much the same size. Also, I've found I have more issues with the laying dishes molding over because after a week there is also a lot of frass mixed in with the laying medium and the eggs.

I'm still playing around with idea trying to find out what works best for me but if this next hatch goes as expected I think I'm pretty much done tweaking things. The only thing I will continue to play around with is laying containers in incubating containers. For this batch I used a 4 inch 8 ounce deli container for the laying container and when I took it out I put it in a 9 inch deli for the incubating container. I would use 6 inch delis for the incubating container but teh ones I have are not high enough and the lid touches the soil. If this works I will probably just get some higher 6 inch ones. The babies hatch and fall into the bare bottom 9 inch container from which I can easily dump them into their kritter keepers for rearing.

 

[MARC NORMAN]

I do it without the mesh and have had no problems, they produce fine.

 

[sschind]

I have been breeding them for years with the mesh. It can work without the mesh if you remove the substrate regularly, but there will be some predation on the eggs. I find that the advantage to the mesh is that you can do everything inside one bin (with a smaller nursery bin inside it)! Thus saving space and keeping things fairly simple.
I demonstrate how that works in this video:

Cleanded out? Come on man.

Just kidding Max. Of all the cricket rearing videos I saw yours is the one that most closely resembles the method I use. Its short and simple to the point and covers everything. My biggest difference other than not using mesh is I don't leave the nursery container in the big bin and I put the laying container in it right away. I also don't use extra heat but temperature control is the next thing I will address. I'll probably section off a portion of one of my shelves with styro and use some heat tape on a thermostat. Right now my room stays between 75 and 80 (we shall see about this Wednesday. Predicted high of -15 F) most of the time so I'm not too concerned even though it does take longer to hatch. I also don't dump the babies in with the adults. I feel like they would eat them and I like to have the sizes separate. Of course I have plenty of room (for now) so multiple bins isn't a problem.

The last thing I noticed is that you said after about 4-5 weeks they should be mature. I've never had them mature that fast. I know its because of the temperatures but in fact I have yet to have a baby cricket that I hatch out reach maturity. I usually go through the babies too fast.

Anyway, again great video. Even though I had pretty much worked out my method before I saw it I was pleased to see someone doing pretty much the same thing and it works for them as well.

 

[MondoMundo]

I've always been tempted to try locusts but never took the plunge. I've gotten house crickets to breed like crazy but I never had much luck getting them past the first few molts. I seem to have huge die offs at each molt and by the time the 2nd or 3rd one is done I'm down to so few it isn't worth the effort. I believe it may have something to do with humidity and I'm trying something new with the bandeds so I won't know for sure if it is the crickets or my new methods but as long as the babies stay alive I really don't care. It takes so long for them to reach adult size that they are gone long before then.

I buy 500 adults once a month and I use them as my breeders and feeders. Adult Bandeds will live for a month house crickets won't and thy don't smell as bad. Partly because they don't die off as readily and partly because I think they are better at eating their dead.

I used to leave my containers in for several days and even up to a week but I've started taking them out after 1 day for 2 reasons. First I don't use a screen so I don't want the adults digging down and eating the eggs, second I want my batches to stay more or less the same size.

If I take them out after a day I get the first few babies hatching about 2 weeks later the next 2 days are a big hatch and then they are pretty much done and I can take the container out. If I leave it in for a week I've found that the whole hatching process can extend over close to 2 weeks sometimes and I have a mix of sizes once they start molting. My way all the ones in the same batch stay pretty much the same size. Also, I've found I have more issues with the laying dishes molding over because after a week there is also a lot of frass mixed in with the laying medium and the eggs.

I'm still playing around with idea trying to find out what works best for me but if this next hatch goes as expected I think I'm pretty much done tweaking things. The only thing I will continue to play around with is laying containers in incubating containers. For this batch I used a 4 inch 8 ounce deli container for the laying container and when I took it out I put it in a 9 inch deli for the incubating container. I would use 6 inch delis for the incubating container but teh ones I have are not high enough and the lid touches the soil. If this works I will probably just get some higher 6 inch ones. The babies hatch and fall into the bare bottom 9 inch container from which I can easily dump them into their kritter keepers for rearing.

That’s a good point about it getting a bit messy the longer the egg laying dish stays in, I might take it out sooner than intended and have smaller batches

 

[MondoMundo]

I've always been tempted to try locusts but never took the plunge. I've gotten house crickets to breed like crazy but I never had much luck getting them past the first few molts. I seem to have huge die offs at each molt and by the time the 2nd or 3rd one is done I'm down to so few it isn't worth the effort. I believe it may have something to do with humidity and I'm trying something new with the bandeds so I won't know for sure if it is the crickets or my new methods but as long as the babies stay alive I really don't care. It takes so long for them to reach adult size that they are gone long before then.

I buy 500 adults once a month and I use them as my breeders and feeders. Adult Bandeds will live for a month house crickets won't and thy don't smell as bad. Partly because they don't die off as readily and partly because I think they are better at eating their dead.

I used to leave my containers in for several days and even up to a week but I've started taking them out after 1 day for 2 reasons. First I don't use a screen so I don't want the adults digging down and eating the eggs, second I want my batches to stay more or less the same size.

If I take them out after a day I get the first few babies hatching about 2 weeks later the next 2 days are a big hatch and then they are pretty much done and I can take the container out. If I leave it in for a week I've found that the whole hatching process can extend over close to 2 weeks sometimes and I have a mix of sizes once they start molting. My way all the ones in the same batch stay pretty much the same size. Also, I've found I have more issues with the laying dishes molding over because after a week there is also a lot of frass mixed in with the laying medium and the eggs.

I'm still playing around with idea trying to find out what works best for me but if this next hatch goes as expected I think I'm pretty much done tweaking things. The only thing I will continue to play around with is laying containers in incubating containers. For this batch I used a 4 inch 8 ounce deli container for the laying container and when I took it out I put it in a 9 inch deli for the incubating container. I would use 6 inch delis for the incubating container but teh ones I have are not high enough and the lid touches the soil. If this works I will probably just get some higher 6 inch ones. The babies hatch and fall into the bare bottom 9 inch container from which I can easily dump them into their kritter keepers for rearing.

How long does a cricket take to moult btw? On average?

 

[sschind]

How long does a cricket take to moult btw? On average?

You mean the process for one cricket to go from one instar to the next or the time in between. For individuals its fairly quick, probably a matter of hours for the whole process. Not at all like a tarantula. Between molts depends a lot on temperature. The higher it is the quicker they grow.

 

[Aquarimax]

I wouldn’t count on having a whipspider diet solely on fruit flies, it’s not enough nutrition according to Orin’s whipspider book. Although it can work for some true spiders and mantids, just go the safe route and feed crickets and roaches.

I wouldn’t advocate fruit flies as a sole diet either. I used fruit flies as a bridge to small crickets for very young whipspiders.

 

[Aquarimax]

Cleanded out? Come on man.

Just kidding Max. Of all the cricket rearing videos I saw yours is the one that most closely resembles the method I use. Its short and simple to the point and covers everything. My biggest difference other than not using mesh is I don't leave the nursery container in the big bin and I put the laying container in it right away. I also don't use extra heat but temperature control is the next thing I will address. I'll probably section off a portion of one of my shelves with styro and use some heat tape on a thermostat. Right now my room stays between 75 and 80 (we shall see about this Wednesday. Predicted high of -15 F) most of the time so I'm not too concerned even though it does take longer to hatch. I also don't dump the babies in with the adults. I feel like they would eat them and I like to have the sizes separate. Of course I have plenty of room (for now) so multiple bins isn't a problem.

The last thing I noticed is that you said after about 4-5 weeks they should be mature. I've never had them mature that fast. I know its because of the temperatures but in fact I have yet to have a baby cricket that I hatch out reach maturity. I usually go through the babies too fast.

Anyway, again great video. Even though I had pretty much worked out my method before I saw it I was pleased to see someone doing pretty much the same thing and it works for them as well.

I had forgotten that it tripped a bit over that word!
It does sound like our methods are quite similar. I decided to try to keep everything within one bin mostly for reasons of space, but is could see how your variation works fine if space isn’t much of an issue. I have an assortment of creatures that eat crickets, but never so many that I go through all the babies...you probably have more cricket eaters than I do.