HELP! Crickets are everywhere!!

[Shakey90]

Haha dont have roaches over here. I keep her on a varied diet anyway, just not roaches.

 

[hammerhead]

My cat tipped over about 1000 crickets in my kitchen one day. My wife wasn't too happy about it till I reminded her she bought the 2 beardies and I'm the one taking care of them, breeding crickets and now silkworms. Most of the crickets found their way to the basement( I found them all over my heater, for the warmth),my vacuum got alot of them, but as long as they don't have a constant supply of water and food they won't live. They also need moist soil to lays eggs in.

 

[Shakey90]

Cool beans. Is it difficult to breed them? I know how to do it but just curious. What exactly are silkworms and how do you breed them?

 

[hammerhead]

Silkworms is alot easier than crickets. I got eggs 30 days ago and they are cocooning today. They eat only mulberry leaves or silkworm chow that you purchase. I'm new at this but so far so good. In about two weeks I'll have moths, then alot of eggs to start the process again. http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad275/hammerhead_bucket_photos/DSCN1009.jpg
My beardies love them too. I put crickets in and they look at me like " where are those juicy worms". http://www.wormspit.com/bombyxsilkworms.htm

 

[crickest]

We are growing crickets and still don't have any big enough to feed, although we're getting there. We tried silkies and my dragon pooped on them instead of eating them. Go figure.

 

[spurlee01]

Geez, I thought Lilly was bad for stepping on or laying on her food.

 

[hammerhead]

Watch what you wish for. I started breeding crickets because I couldn't get them shipped in the winter and got tired of spending 70 bucks a week. Before I knew it I had over 50,000 in barrels ans rubbermaid containers. I will say one thing. Make your own food for them. I take dry cat food ( find the one with the highest calcium), powdered nonfat dry milk and reptical(small amount) and used an old coffee grinder I had. You can also buy chicken mash, don't waste you money on cricket food in stores.

 

[crickest]

We do the dry cat food mixed with the repti-vite (since our dragon won't touch anything that's been dusted with the multi-vitamin) and dried dragon pellets, but we can't seem to get the big enough to feed. How many breeders did you start with?

 

[hammerhead]

I started with a couple hundred. They must be adult crickets to mate. They have full wings. The females have the three prongs on their butt,the long middle one is what deposits the eggs, the male have 2 small ones. When the females get really fat they are loaded with eggs. I used coconut substrate, kept damp and they laid eggs like crazy. Growth depends on the temperature, near 90 degrees they grow fast. If you have too many keep some in a cooler spot and they grow slower.It takes about 4 months to grow to adult.

 

[crickest]

Alright, then we are on track. . . its been almost two months since I dropped the aquarium the babies were in on the floor. We lost about 10,000 itsy, bitsy crickets. I just realize it took so long to grow them big enough to feed. It's funny. I have crickets I ordered online, about 1/2 inchers, that I put in the grow bin. I shake a bunch into my bag in the evening, then offer them all to Spark. He only eats the big ones. When he's done I put the babies back into the grow bin for later. (I feed the crickets out of a glass pyrex bowl, Spark hangs over the side and eats his fill. That way I don't have to try and catch the darn things later on.)