Cricket breeding/raising?
To start, all that is needed is some sort of container to act as abrooder/incubator. The container must be large enough to provide room, butnot so large that it cannot be heated. You can use a garbage can, aRubbermaid container, a wooden box, an aquarium, or any type of containerthat will allow free movement, air flow, heating, and room for all of thecomponents necessary to successfully breed crickets.
The first question to ask is, ?How many crickets do you want to breed?? Theanswer to this question will determine the size of the container you will needand how many breeder crickets you will need. There are male and femalecrickets. Each female will lay about 100 eggs in her lifetime, and she will layabout 5-10 per day until 100 is reached. They sometimes lay more or less, butyou can bet on approximately 100. If you want to have 1000 crickets, you willhave to start with at least 10 female crickets and 10 male crickets. You willalso have to provide space for 1000 crickets. One thousand crickets take up agreat deal more space than 20 crickets, so you have to plan ahead. A20-gallon Rubbermaid container, a 20-gallon fish tank, or a garbage can willeasily hold 1000 crickets.
How do you distinguish the males from the females? The female cricket hasthree long extrusions on her back and fully developed wings. The male crickethas two extrusions. In the female, the extrusion is called the ovipositor.This is the sexual organ of the female cricket and is what is used to lay eggs.The female will stick the ovipositor into the soil and lay eggs. The ovipositorwill deposit the eggs beneath the surface of the soil or bedding material youwill furnish to house the eggs before hatching.
Back to the box. The container you will use must be escape-proof from theinside and out. You do not want critters getting in as much as you do not wantcrickets escaping. The enemies of the cricket are numerous: centipedes,millipedes, spiders, and a whole host of insects find crickets an attractiveaddition to their daily menu. Crickets are excellent climbers and jumpers, sothe container has to be closed on all sides.The container has to also provide air and heat. Crickets need fresh air to stayhealthy and to breed. The best way to provide air is to use some sort of coverthat allows the passage of air but one that doesn?t have holes. A piece of clothsecured over the top can provide air and no escape for your crickets orentrance for the enemies of the crickets. Use of cheese cloth, an old shirt, orany old cloth will work. Try to boil it first so that any bacteria in the cloth iskilled before use.
Once you have decided upon a container, your next problem will be to figureout how you will provide heat for the crickets. Crickets breed and grow best ina temperature of about 88 degrees. They will breed at lower temperatures, butyou will have a higher mortality of the young and a lower egg lay rate. Thereare a number of ways to heat the crickets. You can keep the crickets in a warmroom. For instance, you can keep the cricket bin near a furnace or otherheating source. Another way is to heat the bin. You can do this by using aheating element like the type used for heating reptiles, or you can heat the binusing a light bulb. In the case of a bulb, you have to make some provisions sothat the bin does not get too hot and kill the crickets or start a fire. Athermostat can be added to the bulb. This will cost a couple of dollars, but youwill be able to set the thermostat on 88 Degrees and get optimum growth fromyour crickets. I prefer using a warm room or using a reptile type heater. Thiswill minimize the chance of a fire.
Choose your heating method and then gather up the rest of your supplies. Youwill need a food dish. A shallow dish will work well. A cap or cover from apeanut butter container works well. You will also need a water dish. Cricketsshould not have access to an open water dish. An open dish will causedrowning, bacteria growth and will sour the entire culture. Try to give thecrickets water in a different way. There is a new product available that willallow water in gel form. This stops many of the problems that used to pervadebreeding and raising crickets. You can also set up a ?wick watering system.?This type of system allows the crickets to get water from a dish through asponge or cotton. If you use this method, you must remember to change thecotton or sponge every couple of days so that you will not have a build-up ofbacteria. You can also give water another way, which is the way that werecommend, by using a slice of fruit or potato every couple of days. Thecrickets will get water and food from the slice.
Use chicken mash as a food for your crickets. Egg layer mash works well. Heatthe mash in an oven to kill bacteria before giving it to the crickets. Thecontainer should also be cleaned really well so all bacteria is killed.
You will also need some sort of substrate so the crickets can lay eggs in it.There are two ways of doing this. One way is to place removable egg layingcontainers in the main containers. These containers can be something like amargarine container or some sort of soup container. The other way is to placea substrate of soil or peat moss. on the bottom of the entire container so the crickets canlay eggs on the floor, in the sand. Then, you can use the entire container as anincubator. I like this way of doing it because you do not have to remove smallcontainers all the time and place them into incubators. The problem of doingit this way is that you have to use a different container for each generation, oryou will not be able to easily size your crickets for resale. If you use a separatecontainer with the substrate on the floor, you will have to date the container,so you can ascertain the age of the crickets. If you keep detailed records like?Date Started? and ?Date Babies Started Hatching,? you will have a system ofkeeping all one size together and will be better able to offer them for resalebased upon size. You will not sell many mixed size crickets. Cricketcustomers are buying crickets to feed pets, fish, or to go fishing. They haveneeds for specific sizes, and if you can?t give them those sizes, you will not sellcrickets.
Want to read more? Go here:http://www.wormman.com/breeding_crickets.cfm
Good Luck with your cricket venture!