how many crickets?

[K-TRAIN]

ok, my parents made it clear no roaches, so im stuck between meal worms and crickets. since theres a shortage of meal worms i have to breed crickets.

i have three empty tanks. a twenty gallon long, a ten gallon, and what i think is a fifteen gallon high (the ten and the fifteen gallon were from yard sales).

how many crickets could i have in each to successfully produce a continuous stock of crickets?

i need to get some not only to lower costs of food (the petco by me raised there prices) but to also have a source of small crickets for the eggs my leos have produced when they hatch.

also any suggestions for raising the crickets are appreciated.

thanks,
k-train

 

[inverts]

I would say you could house "roughly" 250 adult crickets in a 10gal. tank and 500 adult crickets in a 20gal. I prefer to house crickets in Rubbermaid or Sterilite plastic boxes, they are much easier to clean and stack when you are dealing with large quatities of crickets.

Here is an information page I wrote on starting a colony of crickets: "Raising Crickets"

I also wrote an information page on raising mealworms that you might want to go ahead and check out while you are at the site.
Here is a link: "Raising Mealworms"

 

[K-TRAIN]

I would say you could house "roughly" 250 adult crickets in a 10gal. tank and 500 adult crickets in a 20gal. I prefer to house crickets in Rubbermaid or Sterilite plastic boxes, they are much easier to clean and stack when you are dealing with large quatities of crickets.

Here is an information page I wrote on starting a colony of crickets: "Raising Crickets"

I also wrote an information page on raising mealworms that you might want to go ahead and check out while you are at the site.
Here is a link: "Raising Mealworms"

thanks.

but when you say plastic boxes, what sizes do you use? i think i might order 1,000 large crickets, so how big of a container would be needed?

 

[scottyk]

I'm just going to throw this out there. Have you really made every effort to educate your parents as to how safe a species like Dubia can be?

I used to struggle with raising crickets years back for my herps. They smell, are "really" noisy, are very dirty and actually a bit complicated to raise. The colonies have a tendency to crash from getting filthy, and take much more maintenance than roaches.

If they are worried about escape, trust me, a couple of thousand crickets getting loose will drive you way more crazy. Dubias will quickly dry out or die from the cold, and won't even try to escape if you leave the lid off.

See if you can get them to look at some of the facts on the roach websites like www.blapticadubia.com

Dubia are related to pest cockroaches the way a Chihuahua is related to a timberwolf. They are both canines, but most similarities end there.

Heck- I'm a 41 year old business professional with a family. PM me and I'll talk to them for you. Not trying to harp on it, but believe me, my advice to you is to not even bother trying to raise crickets. It's a big giant pain in the arse for little return...

 

[K-TRAIN]

I'm just going to throw this out there. Have you really made every effort to educate your parents as to how safe a species like Dubia can be?

I used to struggle with raising crickets years back for my herps. They smell, are "really" noisy, are very dirty and actually a bit complicated to raise. The colonies have a tendency to crash from getting filthy, and take much more maintenance than roaches.

If they are worried about escape, trust me, a couple of thousand crickets getting loose will drive you way more crazy. Dubias will quickly dry out or die from the cold, and won't even try to escape if you leave the lid off.

See if you can get them to look at some of the facts on the roach websites like www.blapticadubia.com

Dubia are related to pest cockroaches the way a Chihuahua is related to a timberwolf. They are both canines, but most similarities end there.

Heck- I'm a 41 year old business professional with a family. PM me and I'll talk to them for you. Not trying to harp on it, but believe me, my advice to you is to not even bother trying to raise crickets. It's a big giant pain in the arse for little return...

i have tried educating my parents about them, but they still wont listen. i know how much crickets smell and how loud they are, and im accually hoping that'll make them think differently.

im going to show them this thread now and hopefully it'll help convince them.

i raise B. Dubia for a teacher in my school, and i know firsthand that there better then crickets. its just a matter of convincing my parents of how much better they are.

 

[K-TRAIN]

ok, my parents wont budge on the whole roaches versus cricket issue, but i was browsing around on different sites for prices, and i came across superworms.

would they be a good substitute? i mean, i know baby leopard geckos cant eat them, but i have a uromastyx, golden geckos, and the adult leopard geckos, and a few turtles. could they eat them instead of roaches?

the sites all suggest feeding to monitors, beardies, etc. but not leos.

 

[BoomBoom]

I have to agree, roaches are alot easier to breed. I have bred Crickets and roaches. Heres why...

Roaches:
Pros
-Bigger meals for your animal
-Easier to breed
-Don't smell
-Don't have a potential to escape in a flash
-They are not noisy (not even hissers)

Cons
-Creepy looking to the ladies
-Boring to watch (they are food anyway)


Crickets:
Pros
-They tend to breed by the hundreds at a time
-They give your animal something to chase
-Fun to watch (sometimes)

Cons
-They smell
-Loud at night (only the males seem to do it)
-Small meal
-They poop alot
-They eat too much
-Potential headache if they get lose

 

[crpy]

I have to agree, roaches are alot easier to breed. I have bred Crickets and roaches. Heres why...
Crickets:
Pros
-They tend to breed by the hundreds at a time
-They give your animal something to chase
-Fun to watch (sometimes)



you forgot =taste better