I just bought 1000 brown medium crickets and 500 sub adult crickets for a breeding project and I have a few questions

What's the best egg laying substrate to use?
I have Vermiculite, Chinchilla sand and peat moss and was wondering what the best combination would be to use I have heard that putting vermiculite and sand together works well but I don't know the exact quantities to use

How many crickets should I expect?
I have heard a lot off different opinions as to how many eggs the females lay in their lifetime could anyone give me an accurate guess as to how many ill have from the 500 and 1000 batch?

Roughly how many containers will I need to house all my hatchlings?
I read that cardboard boxes can be used to house crickets anyone any experience with this? Also what is the max amount at sub adult and medium should be housing in my 21' long 8' deep 13' wide containers?

What are these caterpillar things I keep finding in my cricket boxes?
Are they harmful or do they serve a purpose?

Thanks very much

i find that moist/wet garden soil or sand to be the best when it comes to breeding crix. each female crix can lay up to 200 eggs so if you have a tank full of crix then u shud do ok m8.. once the males have been chirping away for a few days to a week you will see the female crix prodding the sand / this is them tryin to lay there eggs..
you can house as many crix in your box as you like but when there micro crix be carefull with temps n humidity coz you will lose loads or even them all if things are not right.. the temps i aim for is around 26-28c.
lastly those catterpillar things i cant help you with but i think there harmless as all my beardies have munched them b4 i can get them out of the tank.. maybe sum1 else will tell you wot they are.

hope this info helps..

Bit of an article my sister wrote:
How to breed Crickets - Exotic-Pets.co.uk

I used to use some soil/pete that is for growing either mushrooms or bonsi trees (can't remember which sorry) ...but basically, it retains more moisture. Cheers, Phil

hi I started breeding about 2 weeks ago
All I did was get a box af adult crickets there was about 12 females and 6 males (they are very noisy b.t.w) but them in a tub with some food (bran flakes, oats, fishfood, calcium powder) suck some potatoe in for moister and put another smaller tub with normal garden soil in (kept it moist) then left the laying dish in the breeding tub or about 5-6 days

After that I put the laying dish into a larger bucket with cheese cloth on top as the hatchings are very small. I kept the soil damp all the time and within a week or so I now have between 800-1000 tiny crickets

hope this helps

the little caterpillars are nothing to worry about. they feed on the bran and so are not harmfull, i been told they are very nutritiuos

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Harmless, yes but what are they and where do they come from??

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the catapillars are put in by the livefood companies as they eat the dead crix and the bran, they basically clean up your tub =-)

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Ryan.

hi could any one tell me wot do i need to Breeding crickets plzzz
thanks lynda

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