Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have about 50 crickets in a 40 gal tub with lots of egg crates they have water via wet toilet papper and i feed them fish flakes as well as fresh veggys they have been chrping for like 3-4 weeks now but still no babys whats happening? are the parents eating the eggs. they have laid eggs but no babys have come out of that. ive taken some of the eggs out of the tub and put them in a seprate bucket for about a week and still nothing. so what am i doing wrong???

I haven't personaly tried to breed crickets; nor do I understand why anyone would want to. But... I do know that the eggs need to be incubated or maintained at a certain temp and need to stay semi moist. What are you using for the adults to lay their eggs in and what temp are they at?

Perhaps someone with a bit more cricket knowlege can pick it up from here...

Dan
Crunchy Critters Roach Farm

Hello, here is a great link that I found a couple of months ago. I don't keep my breeders in cardboard boxes like the care sheet suggest (I use a large Rubbermaid type,I think a 20 gal).
I did put a hot rock in with my breeders. I've hatched thousands of baby crickets in a very short time.
I hope this helps!!!
John
Link

np
Link

The sheet is from a guy named Don Wells. If you do a Yahoo search with that name and crickets you should find it.
Take care, John

>>i have about 50 crickets in a 40 gal tub with lots of egg crates they have water via wet toilet papper and i feed them fish flakes as well as fresh veggys they have been chrping for like 3-4 weeks now but still no babys whats happening? are the parents eating the eggs. they have laid eggs but no babys have come out of that. ive taken some of the eggs out of the tub and put them in a seprate bucket for about a week and still nothing. so what am i doing wrong???

Do they have peat moss or sterile soil in a 1/2-1 1/2 inch deep, damp, to lay eggs into? I am thinking if you only have egg crates that the eggs are just wasted, drying out with nothing, soil wise, to protect them. Once they hatch they need humidity/moisture too or the pinheads immediately perish. You also want to keep them warm.....80* ish.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

They will lay their eggs in that and you will have to keep it from drying out. The eggs also need to be kept a little on the warm side, 75-80 degrees.

The chirping just means that you have mature males...they're saying, "Hey baby, I'm in the mood." But, if you don't have any mature females that seek out the males (They pick the ones that sing the best, go figure. LOL!), you wont have any eggs, of course.

If the toilet paper is a hassle, you can give them apple or orange slices for water and that will give them some nutrients too.

>>i have about 50 crickets in a 40 gal tub with lots of egg crates they have water via wet toilet papper and i feed them fish flakes as well as fresh veggys they have been chrping for like 3-4 weeks now but still no babys whats happening? are the parents eating the eggs. they have laid eggs but no babys have come out of that. ive taken some of the eggs out of the tub and put them in a seprate bucket for about a week and still nothing. so what am i doing wrong???

Since you didn't indicate having a special container with breeding material such as peat moss, bed-a-beast, or other no-fertaliser soils, that you are using the toilet paper wad as the breeding medium. This won't work since the eggs need to be moist, not over wet. Eggs should also not dry out. Make a saucer or container with an inch or two of substrates mentioned above in the container. You can leave the container in the cage over night (be sure they can get in and out if deep) and remove them in the morning. Mattering on room temperature, you may not need a heat source and eggs hatch in a few days to a week (if I remember correctly). The reason for removal of the egg container is so that the adults don't disturb the eggs constantly and so that the baby pinheads don't hatch in the adult cricket cage.

Good luck.
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~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

sorry went on a trip... but anyways i do have some(about 2inches in a tupperwear cup about 4"X5"moist soil in the tub. i live in hawaii so the temp is always around 80 and about mid 70s at night maybe i jsut need to keep the soil more wet?