# Breeding Gryllodes sigillatus



## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Do any of you breed Gryllodes sigillatus? I had been buying a box of a 1000 1/8" inch crickets for the last seven years from my LFS every month and a half. I would say I feed 50% fruit flies and 50% crickets to mantellas. Over the really harsh polar vortex like winter most of my G. sigillatus nymphs died a few weeks after I got them, probably because they got too cold and dry. Normally I had better survival rates with sigillatus and I could keep them for longer with few mortalities, so it was just more convenient to buy them, but not this time. I had about three dozen survivors I decided to just let grow to adulthood and see if I could raise pinheads. I was always unsuccessful with Acheta domestica, and I would have mass mortality and it would smell really bad and attract phorid flies. 

However, out of about three dozen crickets I got at the beginning of January, about 25 of them are still alive, and still breeding. I've pulled maybe 7 or 8 clutches of eggs, and still have another one. That means they're over 120 days old. I have produced several thousand crickets now of different ages, all about a week in age apart, and my adult crickets are still breeding. I have one small bin with the breeding adults, two other small bins with 1/8"- 1/2" crickets, one shoebox of one week old crickets, and one large bin with ones that are subadult or adult.

I've been keeping them in an incubator made with a box made out of plywood with a reptile heating cable on an old rack shelf that the cricket containers sit on. Since I had so many crickets I had to remove the top lid and just throw a blanket over the containers to keep it insulated. With the adult crickets still breeding, and the subadults about ready to breed, I've had a steady supply of very small crickets hatch out once a week, and more than I can feed.

They seem to prefer higher humidity and temperatures than the Acheta do. Sometimes my containers get condensation but as long as the food doesn't spoil with mold or it gets too wet they have done very well.


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

I am not familiar with these. Would you say that they would be appropriate feeders for darts, too? Thumbnails and larger species? How chitonous are the shells of the crickets at the age you feed them? Do they take dusting ok? They sound a bit more of a hassle to set up in the first place compared with fruit flies, but maybe it evens out over time? Is this something that would be easy to do at a smaller scale (I don't need thousands and thousands of them)? Do you worry about crickets that the frogs miss growing to adulthood in the tanks? Sorry about all the questions - I am always on the lookout for viable supplemental food supplies 

Thanks for posting!

Mark


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

They're the new variety of cricket that farms have been using since the cricket paralysis virus killed off most of the Acheta domestica on farms. They're much hardier and easier to keep than Acheta domestica. They don't seem to be as cannibalistic either, and I don't have a lot of mortality, as long as they're kept warm and humid. That's probably why I lost a good portion of them over the winter because of how harsh it was.

Well, from just three dozen crickets I've got thousands of all different ages, and I've been purposely saving the surviving adults to see how much longer they'll stay productive. I've been feeding almost exclusively one week old crickets every day to every other day for a month. I've had so many that I tried offering them to my tincs for once. My tincs seemed to enjoy them and could handle the one week old size, but I fed them a few at a time to minimize the amount of crickets that could possibly survive and grow large enough to harass the frogs. But the tincs ate about a teaspoon full each of one week old crickets when I tried to feed crickets to them. 

At least in my mantella tanks, I have never found an adult cricket, or even a half grown one the last seven years feeding them 50% of the time to mantellas. I'll probably monitor the tinc tanks for a while to see if I find any half grown crickets.

Since I have many subadult crickets now, I will have way more pinheads soon. It's definitely not maintenance free like fruit flies, but I seem to get even better production out of the crickets lately than fruit fly cultures. 

Most important part is keeping them warm with some humidity but make sure food doesn't mold or condensation doesn't cause wet spots for disease outbreaks. Also, periodically cleaning the bins which takes more work than setting up a fruit fly culture and forgetting about them. But if you have larger dart frogs, mantellas, small tree frogs, baby geckos, I think it's worth it as you can get a steady supply of very young crickets to feed to your frogs for much cheaper than dealing with the hassle of DOAs from shipping pinheads or one week old crickets.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Ugh I'm pretty much sworn off crickets since my leopard gecko days. So smelly. So noisy. Bean beetles and FFs aren't cutting it?

Have you tried pea aphids?


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I have never gotten any of my frogs really to enjoy bean beetles. But crickets has been the mainstay of my mantellas' diet for a very long time. Bred both types of expectata, crocea, madagascariensis, pulchra, ebenaui multiple times and cowani once long time ago with crickets.

G. sigillatus don't smell nearly as bad as Acheta and not nearly as noisy. Pea aphids only Nasco has them but not sure if I want to spend $30 for shipping and another $22 for aphids, if you don't take the time to make pea cultures frequently you're stuck and have to order more.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Huh, really? All my frogs go for BB, including the baroni


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

hypostatic said:


> Ugh I'm pretty much sworn off crickets since my leopard gecko days. So smelly. So noisy.


This! So much this! I don't miss crickets at all. I used to keep a lot of reptiles and definitely don't miss the crickets.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

But have you worked with the new banded crickets (G. sigillatus)?  Very big difference.


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## highvoltagerob (Apr 14, 2012)

Ive never tried breeding crickets but I do feed banded crickets to my fire belly toads. They are definitely less smelly and don’t die as easily as the species I fed prior to the banded.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Yep, and less noisy too. Which is why I'm glad to be culturing them. I've fed three meals of one week old crickets to my tincs and slightly older ones to the mantellas and still have plenty of pinheads, plus the subadult crickets are starting to chirp and as soon as I make room for more, I'm going to let them breed.


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

I had a small breeding colony of regular crickets a number of years ago (had 100+ tarantulas to feed), but I eventually just couldn't stand the smell so I let the colony die off by feeding all the adults out.


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

I'm in a similar boat. I buy 1000 1/8" every month from the local pet supply place, I wouldn't actually call it a pet store- just supplies. I am actually looking to buying bandeds direct because the local supply is just not reliable; being kind of part time retiree folks.
I feed tree frogs, glass frogs and leaf frogs crickets, and the terribs get crickets when they beg well enough. I'm good at growing them out, but i really bite at the breeding. I can get eggs, i can get pinheads most of the time, but the gap between birth and 1/8" eludes me. I'm sure it's because i just don't have a nursery where I can keep it 80-90F. The room temperature works well to hold and grow (and I don't want them growing too fast).
I had heard that G. sigillatus was harder to raise than the domestics. I guess that was wrong. So you have inspired me to set up some kind of incubator and give the 1000 banded I'm getting next week a go at a full life cycle. Crickets are definitely the biggest expense I have, even more so than Repashy Superfly which I buy 6kg at a time.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I'll take some photos at some point but just been too busy. Basically my incubator is nothing more than a cheaply made box of plywood with a lid that doesn't even fit on tight. However, since I've had to stack so many cricket boxes on top of each other, I've just taken off the lid and thrown a blanket on it. 

Buy a reptile heating cable and wrap it around an old metal shelf from a rack and sit it in the bottom for the cricket bins to sit on top. Once crickets start chirping, take a deli cup for shipping frogs with damp coco peat and put it in with the crickets for a week until you see it packed with eggs, then put one of Josh's frogs lids on it that has the teeny tiny holes for fruit fly cultures. Close the lid on a piece of paper towel to wick up condensation. Put it off to the side in the incubator box and check it in a week. Once you start seeing pinheads, transfer them into a small container with a lot of ventilation holes to allow high humidity but plenty of ventilation and keep in the incubator. I just put a piece of newspaper that leads out of the deli container for the crickets to climb out. I use potato / vegetables for moisture and chicken feed / veggie scraps. They love, love dandelion flowers and leaves!

They're not like Acheta at all, almost more like raising Blaptica dubia in my experience as they prefer high humidity and high temperatures. Just make sure condensation doesn't start appearing in the container and cause moldy food. Even if the food spoils, as long as you replace it and wipe up the mess, the crickets are much more forgiving. There's a lot of moisture in my pinhead container that spoiled some of the food but I didn't have many dieoffs. Other nice thing about G. sigillatus is that the adults will breed well for about a month. Mine appear to be nearing the end of their lives, but still seem to be breeding.


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## frogger1414 (Mar 11, 2014)

Thanks for the tips on breeding crickets. Definitely makes it seem easier then I was thinking. Gonna have to give it a shot, buying 5k a week is starting to get ridiculous. I don't use them for frogs yet but seems like a good option with a continuous supply of pinheads. Wondering if it wouldn't also be more nutritional then fruit flies since you can gutload them.


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## Jimmyto111 (Apr 29, 2019)

I juggle with cricket breeding also.im interested in the nutrition they can provide.I have about 2000 pinhead and 500 1/8inch.... got rid of all my adults but I kept 4 containers full of eggs. Lol to my girlfriends face when I tell her every week I wont keep crickets again. My frogs dont really enjoy them. They love melo and springtails even more. Although gut loading is precious I find they are troublesome to raise. I haven't tried gryllodes yet.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I've now been raising my own batch of G. sigillatus since April. I've got my method mostly down at this point.

Step 1: Materials 

Incubator: You will need plywood, a old wire shelf not used for frogs, reptile heating cable. Thermostat (optional).

Various sizes of containers. Get a tall, deep rubbermaid bin. You will need to cut a large hole out of the lid and use hot glue to put aluminum screening over the holes for ventilation. Use one for breeding adults.

I like to use organic salad containers that are fairly small. Cut a large hole and use weed block fabric with hot glue for ventilation.

You should have at least one large breeder / subadult container, three to four midsize bins for young crickets, and several small salad containers for hatchling crickets.

- Deli cups for shipping frogs with with tiny holes in the lids like the kind Joshsfrogs sells for hatching out pinheads.

-Coco peat for egg laying

- Something for crickets to cling on, like crumpled newspaper, egg cartoons. Crumpled newspaper works best for pinheads.

- Chicken growers mash (unmedicated) as a staple food. Potatoes, carrots, and greens for moisture. Note that they are very fond of dandelion greens and flowers.


Step 2: Wrap the reptile heating cable around the metal shelf and place it on the bottom of the plywood box. You may need a thermostat in case it gets too hot. I never use a thermostat, as at least mine is warm to touch but no risk of melting the bin or burning.

Step 3: Place the cricket bin with the breeders in the back. Make sure your rack is large enough to accommodate smaller cricket containers and egg dishes. Feed the crickets and place the egg laying container in there for a week. The media should always be damp but not soggy.

Step 4: After a week, put the lid on the container with the ventilation holes and place it somewhere else on the metal shelf to keep it warm. Joshsfrogs recommends using a piece of papertowel snapped onto the lid to wick excess moisture. It usually takes another week before you get pinheads. When you start seeing pinheads, transfer them to one of the small salad containers.

Note to keep an eye on the moisture. Too much condensation will drown the crickets and mold food as well as attract phorid flies, but they are more sensitive to dehydration at this stage.

Step 5: After about a week or so from hatching, I remove the egg laying container from the pinhead bin, and move the pinheads to room temperature to delay their growth so I have longer time to feed out. After a few weeks at a lower temperature I move them back into the incubator so I don't have long lags between adult breeders and pinheads. 

Generally you will get about five successful batches once a week of pinheads from a group of breeders until production declines. At that point, rotate your juvenile crickets into the bin and save the old breeders for food for your larger reptiles and frogs. 

I feed my mantellas small crickets as a staple, and have been offering them to my tincs once or twice a week because I get so many. 

Cleaning can sometimes be a pain, but generally I don't clean the bin until I move crickets. You generally have to do more cleaning in the breeder bin. I just use a scoop like a small cup to collect frass and dried pieces of potato and either put in the trash bag or save for organic fertilizer for my garden.


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

Rain Frog, have you gotten pics yet?
I am producing pinheads. I don't collect eggs as often as you do, but it's working. I'm having a hard time visualizing your set up, and mine is spread out with reptile heaters and several shelves/racks. I don't think my set up is as humid as yours, and I have yet to go a complete (egg to egg layers) cycle as well. But I'm getting tons of little one's.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I get a fresh batch of pinheads every week usually. I feed pinheads as a staple to my mantella frogs, and usually once or twice a week can feed my tincs. The real challenge I have with pinheads is making sure they have an adequate supply of moisture. I've tried paper towel with water but they often end up stuck. Fresh slices of potato seem to be the best option, but miss a day and you'll lose a lot of pinheads quickly if the slice of potato dries up. What I do is save those plastic containers organic spinach comes in at the grocery store, drill a large hole and use weed block fabric as ventilation. 

I have discovered that I have fewer dieoffs if I leave the dish of peat in with the crickets longer, because low humidity causes high mortality with G. sigillatus pinheads. Overcrowding can cause high mortality too.


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

Okay, I just switched to potato slices, I'll see how that goes. I was suffering what I thought was an acceptable loss to the paper towel gods.


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## stevenacres (Jan 20, 2020)

Fluker's Orange cubes are great and add some nutrients into the crickets, as well as keeping them hydrated.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

The old metal shelf is wrapped with reptile heating cable. Since the photo was taken, I have upgraded and put the crickets in a bigger bin, and use the smaller blue bin for juvenile crickets. At the time the picture was taken, I used small food containers with holes but there was too much condensation and too many escapes so now I use organic spinach containers with weed block fabric hot glued to the lids for ventilation. I incubate the eggs on the rack as well. I use Joshsfrogs lids with holes punched in them over the incubating cricket egg deli cups. Since the cricket containers are taller than the lid of the plywood box I made, I just drape a heavy blanket over the cricket bins to keep them warm.


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## Troia (Nov 17, 2019)

Have any of you tried boiled rice? I use that along with pears and whatever else I can find. I have found that the bandeds jump way higher than the greys.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

No, never tried boiled rice. I do try and put a water dish in with adult crickets, but they still will eat up a potato or an orange quickly for moisture and nutrients.

I've seen some people make their own cricket quencher cubes, but potatoes are relatively cheap and a way for me to get rid of ones that are growing eyes and too soft for eating myself. 

I haven't used water crystals yet because I've heard reports of people's frogs accidentally swallowing a dehydrated crystal, killing the frog. But water crystals may work well if I going out of town or something temporarily.


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## Troia (Nov 17, 2019)

I never use water crystals, to me it looks to similar to the stuff that they put in baby diapers.


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## Kmc (Jul 26, 2019)

Fatalities with water crystals have been documented. With zoo birds and a brown anole.

I am not able to execute links especially with this jumpy phone.

Mechanical hazard aside, they are unhygienic filth sponges and ill appropriated for insct husbandry use.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I would like to figure out a different way to "water" my pinhead crickets than potatoes all the time. While it works, again, if I forget one day and the potato gets too dry they die quickly. Which is why they seem to do better if I leave the dish of coco peat that they hatched out of in the container even if there's a little condensation. 

One idea is to take coffee filter and push it through a hole in a small medicine bottle to wick up water, but the problem here is that the medicine bottle is too slick for them to climb. Normally when I provide adult crickets with water I use a deli cup filled halfway with water and coffee filters like for fruit flies and have only rarely found dead crickets. But this won't work with the pinheads.


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## Troia (Nov 17, 2019)

Actually I have a trick for that. What I do is buy chick waterers from the feed store fill them up with water and then put cotton pads or balls in it. I don't have to refill for a few weeks at the very least.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I may just have to try that. The other idea I have in mind is trying the medicine bottle trick, but maybe tilt it on its side in a clay saucer or something that crickets can climb but won't get the bottom of the cricket tub wet and nasty.


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## Troia (Nov 17, 2019)

Sounds like my idea


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I found some tiny clay saucers at Lowe's that are better than the condiment cup, easier for crickets to climb, but here's what I've done. I've made tiny chick waterers with a paper towel underneath to wick up water or cotton balls for the pinheads to drink from. This saves me a lot of time and less attention so I'm not having to put a new piece of potato in there every other day or so.


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