Stupid Q about crickets

[AvandisFifth187]

I'm about to try and start breeding crickets, and I've heard alot of people say I should use soil as the laying and hatching substrate. I was wondering if I could use coconut fiber instead. Could somebody please help enlighten me?

 

[DAND]

Yes, you could but I would either bake it or deep freeze it to eliminate any wood mites that could be present in the fiber. I freeze any fiber I use (I use it for my spiders) and use boiling water to expand it. Obviously I wait for it to cool before using it.

 

[sschind]

I've tried vermiculite, peat moss, coco fiber, and sand and I have had the best results by far with the coco fiber. The first time I didn't do anything with it and I was amazed at the number of pinheads I got. The second time, I reused the old stuff, I just nuked it to the point where it almost caught fire, got it wet, put it in with the crickets for 2 days, took it out and put it in my hatching boxes and within 2 days it was covered with mold. I let it be and I got more out of that hatch than the first one. The mold didn't seem to harm anything. I'm about to try my third round today as soon as my adult crickets arrive.