Cricket breeding/hatching - Advice please

[Pogie]

Hi,

I started a cricket colony on 12 April 2010, so far 4 tubs have started hatching... Lots of tiny cricks He he.

What I would like to know is how long do I leave the old tub there... meaning when/how long does it take for all the eggs to hatch.

OR

How do I get the tiny babies out of the container? Theyre everywhere.
What I've done so far is to keep 1 tub heated till it hatches... Put it in the rearing container (Heated)
Then when the second one started hatching I emptied the first onto a piece of cardboard n the other side of the rearing container, as the little cricks were still in the ground.

Then when the third one hatched... I emptied the second onto the same cardboard

Now however, the third and fourth are in there as well and if I keep emptying the tubs I'm gonna end up with a mountain of dirt filled with little cricks... as all the babies now go to the cardboard to live in the dirt

Any advice please :-\ :-\ :-\

 

[ladyknite]

sorry, but i'm confused somewhat.
Can you take a pic of your crix breeding set up. I'm not sure how to differentiate between the "tubs" and containers.

Are you asking how to get the babies out of the dirt or how to get the hatching tray out of the container?

 

[JustaV]

So how do you tell males from females ??? I wouldnt even know where to start on breeding except maybe buy 1000 or so and hope to get lucky lol

 

[Pogie]

sorry, but i'm confused somewhat.
Can you take a pic of your crix breeding set up. I'm not sure how to differentiate between the "tubs" and containers.

Are you asking how to get the babies out of the dirt or how to get the hatching tray out of the container?

Yes sorry... guess I rambled a bit heah??? Finding it hard to get my thoughts onto "Paper"

OK here goes
This is my breeding container, where the adults lay the eggs

Keep the TUB (Bowl with ground in it) for 4-5 days and then change to new tub. The ones I take out then get their lids on loosely and are "incubated" till they hatch approx 1 week and 5 days

Then they get put here... the rearing container....

I leave the Tubs heated till the next one hatches... The ground you see on the right has been dumped out of the tubs to make room for new tubs on the left that are hatching, but the babies wont leave the ground on the right. So I cant remove it completely As they are too small to take out by hand. How do I get them away from the dirt to toss it out????

So If I keep dumping the tubs on the left onto the right, I'll end up with a mountain of dirt filled with baby crics....

??? ??? ??? Am I making any sense?????????? ??? ??? ??? ???

Here are some more pics of the babies... they are between 2 weeks and 1 day old....

So how do you tell males from females Huh I wouldnt even know where to start on breeding except maybe buy 1000 or so and hope to get lucky lol Smiley

Its actually quite easy...
Heres a pic, the females have a ovipositor and the males dont.

Meaning.. the females have 3 thingies sticking out the back and the males only 2

 

[JustaV]

That pretty cool, so how long does it take for them to get big enough to feed an almost 5 mth old Beardie?
I don't know anything about breeding but maybe you can use a separate Tub/container for the dirt being dumped so you have a layer of dirt and not a pile?

 

[Pogie]

Hi

That pretty cool, so how long does it take for them to get big enough to feed an almost 5 mth old Beardie?

Well I'm not sure yet... the oldest ones are now 2 weeks old and I recon would be classified as Xtra small... But they seem to be getting bigger daily now, the first week they sort of didnt grow.

So I guess in another week they will be medium sized, So all in all about 3-4 weeks after they hatch they\ll be MEDIUM sized, my BD has been eating medium crics since 5 months old.

 

[Pogie]

No one... no ideas ?

Guess I'lll just have to wait till theyre big enough to be able to pick out by hand....

Anybody know how long from when they hatc to medium sized? Its been 2 weeks, and theyre still tiny

 

[zebraflavencs]

Fish net.
Never tried it on tiiiiny crickets, but it worked on larger ones.
Janie

 

[Pogie]

Thanx,

But, got all the sand off, took spoonsfull of the sand / dirt and as the crics are so tiny and weigh nothing... I just blew over the dirt and they would blow off...

Took 2 hours though, but dirt gone.... Yeah

 

[JustaV]

Well I'm glad you figured it out, As of last night (due to your pics) I decided to try and Breed crickets.... Its was really cool the females almost immediately went to the "dirt" and layed eggs digging at the same time. We will see how It goes Thx

 

[Pogie]

Thanx,

Good luck with the breeding....

If you want more detail, or additional info, heres a link to the site I used

http://www.skylab.org/~chugga/cricket/

 

[northface75]

I'll jump in. those crickets wont be medium at 3/4 weeks trust me. the damn things seem to take forever. I've successfully bred crickets a few times myself, it seems like it takes about 4-6 weeks for them to hatch.

My method: After purchasing a large amount of crickets I put in a small tub (butter tub) filled with moist dirt into the tote. I take it out after about 4 weeks, so its nice and loaded with eggs. I then put that tub of dirt/eggs into a heated small tote. A few weeks later crickets hatch, and they live in that tote until they get medium sized, then they go into a regular sterilite 18 gallon tote, which of course has a tub of dirt in it so they cycle begins again.

not sure if that answered your question lol.

 

[northface75]

looked a bit, found this site:

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/cricketlifecycle.htm

says eggs only take 2 weeks to hatch...seems longer than that..and that from hatch it takes 8-12 weeks before they are adults.

 

[Pogie]

WOW, guess I'm just lucky

My first tub with eggs were with adults for 5 days... Hatche 1 week 5 days after that . . . babies now approx 7mm long and its been 2 weeks and 5 days since they hatched.

Since I started this excersise, 4 tubs have hatched . . . all taking exactly 1 week and 5 days to hatch. Tub 5 will hatch tomorrow and basically I have the setup going that every 4 days a new tub goes in the adult bin for laying, and every 4 days another tub starts hatching.

Are your temps everywhere OK?

 

[Pogie]

Just found this . . .

I think it takes about two weeks before you will start to see tiny little crickets emerge from the soil.

Make sure to provide food for the young crickets, and you can put some egg crate or toilet paper rolls in the container too for hiding places.

About three weeks after the small cricket first emerge they will be about half the size of adult crickets.

You may remove them to another container at this time and start the breeding process with some adult crickets again if you like.

Anyway- breeding crickets is easy- moist soil is the key.

 

[Pogie]

Geez, I'm running out of space in my baby container.

The 5th tub just started hatching and no's 3 and 4 are not done yet... Between the babies and dirt tubs with eggs, I guess I'll have to get a second baby bin ASAP

You should see it in there, it looks like that OLD OLD movie ARACHNAPHOBIA, except its baby crics popping out everywhere and not spiders LOL

 

[zebraflavencs]

lol.. Good B movie.. I enjoyed that one... Surprised anyone ?
Janie

 

[northface75]

I HATED that movie...I hate spiders.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Interestingly enough... Anaconda sends me completely out of the house.. *shudders*.
That and little dogs...
Janie

 

[northface75]

ha. yes they are little monsters aren't they...