Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I placed laying containers holding a damp 75/25 Vermiculite/Perlite mix into a cricket enclosure containing 250 1/2" crickets. Considering the size and quantity of the crickets in the enclosure, I have the following questions:

1) How long should I leave the containers in the enclosure.

2)How long after I remove the containers for incubation at 85 degrees F should I expect to see pinhead crickets hatch?

Your crickets seem too young to breed at 1/2 inch. They need to have full wings and fully developed ovipositors and be over 3/4 of an inch long which makes them between 4 1/2 to 5 weeks old. The mixture is good. When they get old enough to breed put the mixture in there for 2 days then remove and place it in a 85-95 temp with high humidity. Wait a day and then place another mixture in there for two days. I would suggest if you are going to raise crickets for feed you start with about 1000 crickets. They have a high mortality rate especially when you first trying to raise/breed them. Also the adults will start to die off after their last instar(developement stage)about 5-7 weeks. So be prepared for this and the smell that comes with the dead crickets. Also I would suggest you keep your breeding crickets also at a 85-95 temp. Have plenty for food available and water or they will dig in the soil and eat the eggs. They may do this any way. When we were raising crickets we used lots of fruits and water crystals along with gut load.
Good luck with this. We opted for roaches for feeders. More protein and less smell.

Hope this helps,
Yosemite