Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, my name is Jesse Horne. I havent been on this forum in a while and was wondering if anyone knew the breeding habits of the Jerusalem Cricket. I keep a moderately sized colony in a terrarium for my alligator lizards, but have yet to see how they breed, or were and how the eggs are deposited. On a side note, i have seen several people on the forum asking were they can get them and /or buy them. As far as i know they arent sold in any petshop as pets of feeders. They arent really hard to keep, you just have to provide them with nice deep bedding and some plant and animal protein with the occational misting. For the most part if you want some you either have to go out and catch them, or have someone get them and sedn them to you. Im not sure at all though of their legality as in shipping and or breeding them. Any responses would be much appreciated.

-Jesse M. Horne

First, at the end of this reply is a link to a page containing the email address of someone studying these creatures. If anyone can help you, this person sounds like the one to contact for any specifics! As for what I can offer, from what I know of Jerusalem crickets, they need to be able to dig and maintain burrows in order to successfully reproduce...that's where they mate and where the females lay their clutches of eggs, underground. If your setup doesn't offer them this opportunity, then I guess you can't blame your crickets for not breeding. They also seem to have an unusually long life/breeding cycle--anything from one to three years--so even if you could get them to breed, the amount of time it'd take for the eggs to hatch and the nymphs to mature might not make it worthwhile for you in the end.

Either way, good luck with them. I wish I lived in a part of North America that had more interesting species like this!

Jerusalem Cricket Info/Link

yeah i actually got to see a burrow of a female that had eggs, i was lucky that her burrow was right next to the glass. They do have plenty of room to dig and such, they have roughly 8 inches of peat mulch and cocconut fiber to dig through with some soil from outside as well as some live plants growing in there for them to much of from time to time, though they show way more interest in the dead crickets that they get as well as the cilchid pellets. they are actually a pretty low maintenence pet if they are cared for properly to begin with.