Breeding and Raising the House Cricket
Achetus domesticus (HOUSE CRICKET)
By Ian Hallett
Pictures by
David
Pickering
PAGE CONTENTS
Introduction
Materials Required
Basic Set-Up
Feeding Your Crickets Breeding
the Crickets
Incubation of Eggs Rearing
Hatchlings
Feeding Out Crickets To Your Herps
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The house cricket
Achetus domesticus is a
staple and
nutritious food
for many herp species. Obtaining a reliable supply of these insects can be
a bother, especially if one requires a constant supply of newly hatched
'pinhead' crickets, to say nothing of the costs of feeding a large
collection with pet-shop-bought crickets. The following article outlines a
method for cricket raising which has been developed over the past two years
in order to provide a collection of frogs (Mantellas, Discophus, and
Dendrobates) with a constant supply of small and large crickets.
There are several things to consider before you decide to
raise crickets:
- The crickets will make a
lot of noise. You must have an area to keep them where this is not a
problem.
-
Escapes will be inevitable! Eventually you
might find yourself falling asleep (or not falling asleep) to the trill of a
cricket courting in the warmth beneath an appliance in your room. If you
live in an apartment your neighbors may find new, unwanted, tenants in the
hallways. Commercial insecticide pellets such as those used to kill earwigs
can be placed in the room with your cricket colony to prevent escapees from
taking over the house.
- Crickets have a definite
odor, but if the colony is well maintained and kept clean, most people do
not find it offensive. A major source of odor is the cotton wool in the
water dishes which can quickly collect droppings so it must be kept clean.
In the method described here, the main colony is kept dry (no damp
substrate) which reduces the smell considerably.
One of the main problems encountered with most
descriptions of cricket breeding is that the eggs hatch in the same
container as the adult breeding colony, usually in a substrate placed on
the bottom of the breeding enclosure. This requires one to sort the
crickets before feeding to various sized animals. The breeding substrate
also quickly becomes littered with dead crickets and droppings. It is
also difficult to keep moist if egg cartons or other hiding material is
placed on top of it.
The method described here provides a removable
egg-laying
container, separating the eggs and adults, thereby raising
yields and providing crickets of various sizes. Depending on the number
of crickets desired the system can be set up in the corner of a room or
the bottom of a closet - space is not a major consideration. The cost to
establish a basic system is about $30.00 plus the cost of the initial
breeding colony of crickets. To start such a colony at least 200
crickets are required, and the colony should not be used for feeding
until well established and your first babies are adult-sized. If you
plan to use some of the crickets for feeding, a batch of 1000 can be
purchased quite inexpensively from a cricket supplier.
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The breeding colony is
housed in one of the deep (26" x
14" x 16" deep)
plastic storage boxes
with
egg
flats inserted vertically throughout
except for about 6 inches at one end
where the water dispenser is located.
Other containers may be adapted for this
use. No substrate of any kind is placed
in the bottom of this container. Holes
(4" x 4") are cut in opposite ends of
the breeding container and covered with
metal mosquito screening secured with
duct tape, to provide ventilation. (Do
not use fiberglass screening, the
crickets will soon eat through it and
escape! Catching 1000 crickets loose in
your apartment is not a task I would
recommend, although I have done it,
once). The water dispenser is a
commercial chick waterer which is
essentially a plastic jar inverted over
a circular trough which holds the water.
Plastic scouring pads or Dacron quilt
batting should be cut to fill the
trough. They will soak up water, making
it available to the crickets while
preventing them from drowning. The
egg
flats should reach to within about
4" of the top of the container. On top
of these are placed two plastic tubs,
such as sour cream or yogurt is
purchased in. One contains food and the
other contains
egg
laying medium. See specific sections
for descriptions of each). A heat pad is
placed on top of the lid of the storage
box to provide adequate warmth. Crickets
thrive at temperatures higher than the
average house temperature. They prefer
80-90 degrees F (26-32 C). If you place
them in a warm herp room this should
provide them with enough heat. At lower
temperatures they will survive and even
breed, but yields will be much reduced.
They also seem to live longer at lower
temperatures, something to keep in mind
if you find yourself with an excess
which you want to keep alive as long as
possible.
Maintenance of the breeding colony
comprises of filling the food, keeping
the nesting material damp and filling
the water when empty. A 1 liter waterer
will last 4-5 weeks. Every 2 months or
so the entire colony and fixtures should
be moved to the second container. The
cricket waste and ex-crickets can then
be dumped out of the first container and
it can be washed. It is best to do this
outside, if possible, as escapes are
inevitable. Over time, cricket droppings
will accumulate on the egg cartons and
the cartons will need replacing. The egg
cartons are most easily handled if they
are glued together in sets of 4 or 5 for
easy removal from the container.
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Feeding the crickets
the right diet is
important for two reasons.
Firstly the crickets need adequate
nutrition to survive and breed.
Secondly, the nutrition from the
crickets will be passed on to your
reptiles or amphibians and so it is
important to keep them healthy. Crickets
require a high-protein diet. Without,
and often with, an adequate diet the
crickets will prey on each other.
Commercial cricket foods are available
in large and small quantities. The large
sacks of cricket chow may not be
available everywhere, check with a local
feed shop. The smaller jars of cricket
food sold at pet shops are very
expensive and I have heard mixed results
about some brand's quality and
acceptability to the crickets. Tropical
fish flakes have also been recommended
as food but the expense is astronomical
if you are raising a large number of
crickets.
As an alternative, I use the following
recipe. It is inexpensive and several
dollars worth will last several months
or more, depending on the number of
crickets you are producing. The same
food is used for all sizes of crickets.
The food is based on commercial dried
cat food. In addition I provide a
supplement of 10 parts skim milk powder
(by volume) to 1 part of a good quality
calcium supplement intended for reptiles
and amphibians. The cat food is shaken
in this mixture until coated and then
given to the crickets. More supplement
can be sprinkled onto the food as the
crickets eat it. To provide a balanced
diet this is supplemented with alfalfa
pellets and, whenever available, raw
vegetable scraps. Top up each as they
are eaten. The food can be placed in a
small plastic container on top of the
egg cartons in the breeding container.
Crickets can be removed and 'gut-loaded'
with higher quality food several days
prior to feeding them to your herps if
desired. However, this diet has proved
sufficient nourishment for the crickets
used to feed a number of amphibians and
several breeding groups of Dendrobatid
frogs.
James/Wells/Lopez Cricket Gutload Recipe
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As long as the crickets
have food, water and a high temperature
they will breed profusely. Their natural
nesting material is damp soil and so to
duplicate this a 500ml (one pint)
plastic tub full of moist nesting
material is placed on top of the egg
cartons in the breeding container. The
nesting
material can be damp sand, peat moss
or my favorite 'turf'. 'Turf' or 'tuff'
(it is similar to coarse bonsai soil) is
a landscaping material consisting of
small clay based pellets which retain
water well. It does not mold as easily
as peat moss.
Since the crickets have no other
substrate in the cage, the crickets tend to burrow into the
nesting medium and
disturb the eggs. However, if it is
packed gently, the crickets will only
disturb the top 1/2" or so and lay their
eggs below. Use a container at least
2-3" deep so the crickets can lay their
eggs down below, where they will not be
disturbed. One or more of these
containers can be placed in with the
crickets. No matter how many containers
of nesting material are placed in the
container, the crickets will inevitably
lay some eggs around the water dish.
These generally will not hatch.
The nesting material requires constant
attention. It must be checked every few
days and sprayed if dry. Peat will need
to be checked far more frequently than
'turf'. The nesting material can dry
rapidly due to the heat pad above it.
Once a batch of eggs is completely
desiccated it is useless.
After 4-7 days the nesting
material will be positively packed with
oblate white eggs
positioned vertically about 1-2" below
the soil surface. The nesting dish
should then be removed and incubated.
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To incubate the eggs, the original lid
is placed on the nesting container and
it is placed on the heat pad on top of
the breeding container. In about 7-10
days it will be swarming with pinhead
crickets and should then be moved to a
rearing
container. At this time, the
nesting container in with the breeding
colony can be removed and replaced with
a new one.
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Once the eggs begin to
hatch, the nesting container is moved to
a
small
sweater box
(16" x 8" x 4"). The lid of this
should have holes drilled into it about
1" apart. There is little chance that
the baby crickets will escape en masse
through the holes, the boxes are usually
too slippery for them to climb and they
have little interest in leaving the food
and warmth at the bottom of the
container. If there is concern about
escapees, a strip of wide cello-tape or
packing tape can be fastened around the
entire inside rim of the container. This
is so slippery that the crickets will
never climb it. A few small pieces of
egg carton, a jar lid full of food and a
jar lid with cotton wool and water are
also placed in the container.
The nesting material must be kept damp
and warm while the batch of crickets
hatches - which can take up to a week.
Snap the lid off the nesting container
before placing it in the rearing box,
but set it loosely back on top, with
spaces for the baby crickets to get out.
Without a cover, the nesting material
will dry out and the water will condense
inside the rearing container, drowning
the baby crickets. If this is a problem,
even with a covering on the nesting
container, place the lid loosely on the
rearing container with a gap to allow
the water to evaporate. Put the nesting
container at one end or the rearing
container and place it on top of the
heat pad to keep it warm.
Thus it is possible to heat the breeding
colony, incubate several batches of
eggs, and raise a batch of eggs, all on
the same heating pad, within a small
area. The rearing containers require
more attention than the breeding colony,
and the water dish must be kept damp
with a spraying at least every two days.
There is no doubt room for improvement
in this stage of the described process.
Once the eggs have all hatched, the
nesting dish is removed, the nesting
material is discarded and the container
recycled. Recycling the nesting material
can cause problems with mold and small,
mite-like insects infesting it.
The batch of
hatchling crickets can be raised in
the sweater box until about 1/2" long.
The end result is a batch of several
hundred to possibly thousands of small
crickets, all of similar size, and all
contained within their individual
rearing container. Successive batches of
crickets, each of a different size are
then available to feed to your
collection. The number of batches will
depend on the desired output and size.
Additional heating pads can be used to
warm stacks of growing crickets.
Once the crickets have reached 1/4" ,
about 50-75 should be returned to the
breeding container. This is extremely
important. The adults live for only a
few weeks and if the breeding colony is
not replenished regularly it will die
out or contain only small crickets,
unable to breed yet.
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The rearing containers
will contain small pieces of egg crate,
and the breeding container should also,
if you plan to feed adult crickets to
your herps. A 4 liter ( 1 gallon) square
water jug works well as a cricket
collector. Remove the bottom from this,
and keep the screw lid on to create a
large funnel. Cover any handle holes
within the jug with duct tape to prevent
the crickets from hiding in them .
Remove one of the small pieces of egg
crate from the cricket containers and
shake it within this funnel. Hold the
whole apparatus over the colony as you
do this to prevent escapes. Sprinkle in
calcium supplements and vitamins as
required, shake gently, and tip the
funnel into the herp cage.
Although these instructions for breeding
crickets may sound extensive, an
established colony as described can be
maintained with only a few minutes of
attention every few days. It must be
stressed that constant care and
attention is required. If you have only
a few animals it may be better to
purchase half-sized crickets in bulk and
keep and feed them as outlined here.
(Purchasing large numbers of mature
crickets is not recommended unless you
can use them in 3-4 weeks - their
average life span). The set up as
described has been found to be more than
adequate to supply several hundred small
(pinhead to 1/8") crickets and a few
dozen adult crickets weekly. Larger
outputs are possible and several
breeding colonies can be set up if you
have the space and the need.
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© Ian Hallett 1995, 1996
photos by
David
Pickering
