# Do crickets need light?



## shockingelk

I created a cricket production area mostly based the info here: http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html ... 14 gal tub, catfood dusted with dry milk, a cloth kept consistantly wet by a reservoir, egg cartons and 2" deep tupperware containers filled with damp soil for egg laying.

I purchased 100 large crickets and put them in there 9 days ago. On the day I purchased them, many of the crickets had egg laying appendages (what are they called?) approx 1/3 of their body width. The crickets are all over the soil when I open the lid.

Digging through the dirt today at Day 9 showed nothing I could identify as an egg. The link above says that in _"4-7 days the nesting material will be positively packed with oblate white eggs."_

The crickets are in 100% darkness 24/7 - the only problems I can imagine are lack of light or impatience.

Help?


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## feedersinc

are you sure the crickets are adults? whats the temps? If they are adults it shouldnt take but a few days, you can look at my site for a breeding guide on crickets. No they dont need light.


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## shockingelk

Many have the long egg-laying appendage, other than that I can't say if they're adults or not.I purchased them two weeks ago, so if they weren't sexually mature at that time, they're two weeks closer to it now.

It's about 75-80 deg F in the basement where they are. I think I was expecting the eggs to be larger - digging around in the soil under better light, I now see tiny slightly bowed slivers.

Thanks!


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## KeroKero

Sounds like impatience. The adults have wings all the way down their back, so it's pretty clear when they are subadult and adult. When females are laying, they won't just be on the egg laying substrate, they will be butt deep in it, with their ovipositors (that's what they are called) as deep into the substrate as they can get. Removed the egg laying container until the majority of the crix in the conatiners are adults and your females are really fat. Aviod putting egg laying containers in the colony until they are ready to lay, and keep them in there only as long as neccessary to avoid mold issues and predation by the adult crickets. I'd add some veggies to their diet as well, they need a protien source but that shouldn't be the only source of food.

Crickets should have a day/night cycle like all other critters... lighting doesn't have to be significant, but they should have some light.

The eggs look like small little grains of rice.


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## Arklier

Females start to get an ovipositor several molts before their final one. It just gets longer and longer with each molt. Here's a pic of an adult female:










Notice how long the wings are, and that the ovipositor is almost 3/4ths the length of the body. If it doesn't look exactly like this, you probably have females that are just short of their final instar.


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