Anyone Breeding their own Crickets?

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?

I raised them last year and will again very soon with all my new baby veileds growing fast so here is what I did:

I used vermiculite 3" deep in shoebox conatiners, they tend to borrow down some and that gives them some room.

I also covered the top of the vermiculite with burlap, to prevent them from eating the eggs

Then with 1/2" crix you will have to wait a bit til they are adults, I use full grown adults, 1000 in a 55 gallon tub and leave the containers in there for 3 days then put in new ones.

I take off the burlap and put on the shoebox lid with lots of airholes in the top then incubate at 90 and put in a few fake plant leaves on the top of each conatiner so they can have something to climb out on and in about 10 days you have tons of pins, then just take out the containers and put them in the raising tub.

The easier way I found to incubate is in a large rubbermaid tub with a heating pad under it with a termostat set on 90 or outside in natural heat (outside did the best) When using the tub, I put the pad under the tub, then put a few empty sandiwch sized containers on the bottom and sat the egg tubs on top of those so it didn't cook them with direct heat.

As soon as I put them in the raising tub I take off all of the lids and use total cricket diet, they tended to drown on cricket crystals until they are larger and to TCD gutlaods and waters in a harder gel form so they don't drown.

Hope that helps some!

I'm not calling you stupid but if you don't already know, an adult cricket has wings. Not everyone knows this. Heck even the person who answers the phone at Timberline Crickets doesn't know this.

We order 3000 prewing crickets every week. They keep sending adult crickets. Finally got tired of it and called them. I asked the lady why they keep sending us adult crickets when we order prewing. She actually said, "How do you know they are adults?" What a ditzy person to have answering the phone. Maybe she was just questioning me to see if I actually knew what an adult cricket looks like, who knows.

Karen, I don't think you are calling anyone stupid lol not even sure what brought that up but yes I do know that adult crix have wings, when I buy them for my adult veileds and for breeding I buy full grown winged adult crickets.

I meant that post for Ophis since he didn't buy adult crix to start with. Sometimes when you post something it comes off sounding bad when you're trying to be informative. That's why I said that.

No problem at all, I know you are always very nice in your post and figured I took it wrong and I know that you are dealing with some not so intelligent people on other threads Ive been reading lol

Also if you are having problems with timberline, try ghanns or premiumcrickets, Ive never had problems with either of them sending me to small for my 1/4" or adults for my 3/4" or prewinged.

Also just incase Ophis didn't know. Once you have pinheads, stop putting adults in the tank to keep breeding. The adults WILL eat the pinheads.

... chiming in here with a question. Every time I've tried breeding crix, the lay boxes get totally moldy and mostly the eggs dont hatch. I try more ventilation and the egg substrate dries out and mostly the eggs dont hatch. How do you prevent the mold?

Yeah, thats why I put egg lay containers in the adults tub then move the egg boxes to an incubation tub then move them to a raising tub, well all of that is in the long post above lol

Wendy, I do move em to a separate tub for hatching.... that is where the mold commences... I suck.