Basics of cricket breeding

Intro

A femail cricket will lay around 100 eggs over 20 days after mateing with a male cricket. The female cricket lays ueing its omniposter. The omniposter looks like a stinger but is completely harmless and only uses the omniposter to lay eggs underground where they are safe from predators. 

The male crickets are easily identifyed beacuse they have no omniposter and will rub there wings to gether to make the well known cricket chirping sound.

How do female crickets lay eggs?

After a femail cricket has mated with a male cricket they will find loose soil to lay eggs in. They will not lay in sand or compacted soil. When they have found a suitable spot to lay they will stick there omniposter in the ground and deposit a egg or 2, they will repeat this process until  they have layed around 10 eggs in 1 day.

When will the eggs hatch?

If kept between tempritures of 20 to 30 degrees Celsius the eggs will take between 8 and 20 days to hach in baby crickets known as pin heads. Take care to not let the soil dry out by spraying twice daily. Incubate in a secure plastic tub to avoid crickets escaping. Crickets cannot climb plastic or glass.

Recommended breeding practices 

When breeding crickets on any scale I would recommended using tubs with loose soil in them with a mesh on the top of the tubs to avoid egg eating by the male crickets.

I add the soil trays to the cricket enclose and leave overnight. I then move the trey to a incubator.

Incubators are not needed but can speed up the process.

You can produce around 200 pin head crickets every 20 days with only 10 female crickets!

Intro to mealworm breeding set ups and kits

BY HIGHGRADEINSECTS10 @ EBAY

INTRODUCTION
The Tenebrio molitor beetle is common all over the world and can thrive in most environments.
The larva of this beetle are called mealworms.

Mealworms are one of the most common insects used to feed reptiles, birds, fish and for fishing bait. Mealworms are also very commonly ate by humans outside of western countries.

Larvae typically measure about 2.5 cm or more, whereas adults are generally between 1.25 and 1.8 cm in length.
The metabolism of the insects can be slowed down by keeping them in the fridge. This method is used to stop the larva from pupating into beetles as the larva are more nutritious than the beetles.Mealworms are high in protein and its nutrient content is comparable to beef.

Why produce your own mealworms?

Mealworms are very easy to breed and require almost no maintenance. They do not smell and are completely harmless.

Given the price of mealworms selling at 2.95 per box at big pet store chains there is big savings to be had producing your own. You could also make money off them if you scale your production up and sell them online.

Wriggling mealworms are also the beast way to lure birds and small mammals like hedgehogs into your garden.

Mealworms are also interesting to watch and are very active. They are also surprisingly good claimers, a fun thing to do with mealworms and there beetles is to put some honey on the end of a twig and watch them climb up for the honey!

Try our basic starter kit for only £9.99
I am selling a complete starter kit on ebay with every thing you need to start producing your own mealworms. The kit comes with a 3 tier meshed bin to separate eggs,pupa and beetles with tongs, gloves, food and mealworm care booklet.

See listing here!

Diet

The diet of a mealworm beetle is wide and varied and they are not fussy eaters requiring a specific diet. Darkling beetle and mealworm diet can be broken down in to 3 sections. Carbohydrates protein and moisture.

Carbohydrates- Bread oats and nuts are recommended as the main source of carbs for the insects. They should also be fed vegetables for extra carbs and micro nutrients.

Protein- The most overlooked part of any insect diet is protein. Many insect keepers make the mistake of giving no protein source whatsoever, this mistake leads to cannibalism and egg eating as well as less egg production and laying.

I would recommend dry or wet cat or dog food. If the food is dry it will need to be crushed first. You can also use nuts, soybeans and or milk powder.

Moisture- Insects can get all of there moisture from vegetables. I would recommend cucumber as the best source for this but almost every vegetable can be used but you should avoid citrus and acidic fruits. You could also mist to keep the insects more healthy. Bug gel could also be used but can be expensive. Bug gel will eliminate food moulding.

Thanks for reading! Please follow this blog for more posts daily.

Intro to cricket breeding setups for home production of crickets

Crickets can be easily bred in large numbers in a small space quickly and easily.

The main use of crickets is for the feeding of various pets including reptiles,

birds, heghogs, frogs, fish and many more.

Why breed your own crickets?

A box of crickets cost £2.95 at big pets store chains in the uk for around 20 to 30 adult crickets. 

These store bought crickets are not fed in-store and many are often dead in the box.

When crickets are not fed a good nutrishios diet they will not provide good nutrishion for your pets leading to health problems and shortened lifespans.

• Save money
• Make money
• Interesting hobby
• Learn about insect biology and habits 
• Fun project
• Crickets make interesting and active pets

Probloms with cricket breeding

The main reason people do not breed there own crickets is the maintenance 

and smell of the crickets. I have designed original products I am selling that solve these 2 probloms and save people time and money when feeding pets.

The smell can be elemenated by using mesh instead of plastic and using a trey to collect the cicket mess.

A set up like this will not need much matance at all, you will just need to add egg laying trey filled with soil for the crickets to lay eggs in and empty the mess trey once a week. Apart from that just add food!

Diet

The diet of a mealworm beetle is wide and varied and they are not fussy eaters requiring a specific diet. Darkling beetle and mealworm diet can be broken down in to 3 sections. Carbohydrates protein and moisture.

Carbohydrates- Bread oats and nuts are recommended as the main source of carbs for the insects. They should also be fed vegetables for extra carbs and micro nutrients.

Protein- The most overlooked part of any insect diet is protein. Many insect keepers make the mistake of giving no protein source whatsoever, this mistake leads to cannibalism and egg eating as well as less egg production and laying.

I would recommend dry or wet cat or dog food. If the food is dry it will need to be crushed first. You can also use nuts, soybeans and or milk powder.

Moisture- Insects can get all of there moisture from vegetables. I would recommend cucumber as the best source for this but almost every vegetable can be used but you should avoid citrus and acidic fruits. You could also mist to keep the insects more healthy. Bug gel could also be used but can be expensive. Bug gel will eliminate food moulding.

Please see my other posts for more info on breeding crickets and other insects!

All products featured and blog content original by High Grade Insects