# How to culture crickets?



## MartinShaver (Dec 20, 2006)

Anyone have a write up on this?


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## pa.walt (Feb 16, 2004)

*cricket search*

try to do a search on here for raising crickets.
this topic comes up at least once a year on here.
walt


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## thumbnail (Sep 18, 2005)

*crickets*

Its very simple and easy to do.
You will need a tall sterilite or rubbermaid container one of the ones thats atleast 2 feet long and 18 or more inches tall. Next cut a large opening in the middle of it and glue some plastic or metal screen over the hole. Now add newspaper or papertowels to the bottom. Add a few egg crates. For food and water use small dishes. I prefer to using something similar to a peanut butter jar lid. In the water dish I place the cricket quencher, and in the food bowl use either monster diet cricket food or similar product. I also give them fresh veggie's every few days or so. This is all the basic needs to grow crickets. Just remember to clean and replace eggcrate and base layers when they get to soiled. For breeding you will need to add a 2 to 4 inch deep deli cup filled to the brim with vermiculite or bed-a-beast. Keep this moist in the cricket bin. After a few hours in the container with the adult containers the females will start sticking there ova dipositers(the pointy thing on there butts) in the bedding. They will lay tons of eggs in this and you will need to place the egg container in a moist room temp. or just above container with a good lid. Add a new container in with the adults because they will still be laying eggs. When you have a sufficient amount of eggs and they are placed in a secure container after about two weeks you should have pinhead crickets. In the container with the eggs I would place a paper towel roll or maybe a piece of cork. This will make it easier for you to collect pinheads when they hatch as they will naturally crawl to this. If you want to grow them up for future colonies then keep about 50 to 100 back and let them grow up under the same conditions as the parents.
I hope this helps. This is how I raise all of my crickets and trust me I breed tons for all of my insectivorious herps.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

I regularly buy a couple dozen adults to get pinheads for my frogs, but take into account how noisy and smelly crickets are. Blatta lateralis roaches are super easy to breed, and are supposedly more nutritious then crickets. They also are alot cleaner, and cant fly or climb glass like most roaches do. I switched over about 6 months ago and my cresties and beardies love them! I can feed 5 beardies and 3 cresteds off a 30 gallon roach culture with 10 minutes of work a week, and probably feed off 30-50 nymphs to my leucs each week.


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## zombiefish (Sep 22, 2006)

How important is the grow medium? I've been using coco fiber or peat mix in a tupperware container. Water saturated and cycled out every four to five days. I put a lid on the container after spraying it with water. I only use fish flakes for food and they drink out of the container. after they hatch I spoon them into mini four oz. containers with holes drilled in the lid and place them in the appropiate tanks. They feed on those for 4-5 days and I remove them. I don't particulary care for the look of plastic containers in my vivariums, I just started breeding crikets again and am always looking for new ways to do things. 
thanks,
jeff


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

MartinShaver said:


> Anyone have a write up on this?


I see no one bothered to ask/tell how many you'll be wanting produce.

As a staple, how many frogs....?

That it'll determine how 'hard' you have to make it for yourself.

Crickets and they way I breed them are probably 10x easier than it is for me to make fly cultures.

Another note is that commercial crickets (when you first get them, until they die and are cleaned) emmit a very 'different' odor than ones you might culture yourself, generations later. A lot has to do w/ what is being fed and parasites can play a role as well (very common in commercial crickets) because that dictates what they excreate/absorb and also the longevity of the cricket. Commercial crickets don't live long because this in aggrevation to stress=more dead crickets=more smell. Home grown and clean they can live many months as opposed to a week/few days.


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## MartinShaver (Dec 20, 2006)

I am thinking of 6 RETF in a 90g tank.


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

MartinShaver said:


> I am thinking of 6 RETF in a 90g tank.


For some reason I'm not responses via email.

But you're going to need a really large size culture to keep 6 of those frogs fed.

Probably a couple 20 gal. sized containers. You might get by w/ one just depends on how well you can culture them.


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