Crickets: Life cycle, Storing, Feeding, Purchasing

I briefly wrote about crickets in an earlier piece My Lizards have Mites Information/Story/Humor. In “My Lizards Have Mites” I talked about Felix my bearded dragon, and Oscar my anole, and their mites. I discussed how they may have gotten mites, how I discovered them, and how I eradicated them. I briefly discussed the purchasing of crickets, for example supply stores and types of containers that crickets may be purchased in. In his article I will discuss the Life cycle of crickets, Food for crickets, the cost of crickets and the possible cost savings of buying crickets. If you buy crickets in bulk you will need to develop fine techniques for keeping them alive until they are consumed by your pets. I will discuss these and other items in this article. Moreover, I will examine a proper procedure of keeping crickets alive for a long period of time.

 Let’s start with the life cycle of crickets

Life Cycle: Simple metamorphosis. Females deposit eggs in moist soil or sand. The eggs are about an 1/8” long (see photo). After 15 to 25 days, nymphs hatch from the eggs. They resemble adults except for their smaller size and lack of wings. Shortly after hatching the crickets will develop wings.

Nymphs develop to adults in about 12 weeks, When the crickets eventually reach their full Adult size. Once the crickets reach their full size they will begin to die off. This is important to understand if you purchase crickets in bulk and plan on having a 2 week or so supply. If you buy your crickets at the full grown adult stage they may not live a full two 2 weeks. Depending on the type of crickets you are using, you basically want to use crickets that are approximately 3/4 of their full size. It is best to buy your crickets a bit on the smaller size. It won’t take long for the crickets to reach the full adult stage. Your pet won’t mind the smaller crickets for a few days.

Cricket breeders stimulate and promote the crickets too lay eggs by manipulating the ambient temperature. For Example, eggs remain in the egg stage while in cold climates and as nymphs in warmer areas. Under cool conditions, crickets can be kept alive for an extended period of time. However, if the temperature drops below 40F the crickets will die. Keep in mind, if you buying crickets at a pet store on a cold day, make sure you keep them warm until you get them home.

Storing your crickets:

I keep my crickets in a 10 gallon fish tank. I have fine lightly damp bark moss on the bottom of the tank. I also put old egg cartons in the tank. I have a small tank heating pad that sits under the tank to maintain the temperature. I keep it at about 65F. The Crickets will lay their eggs in the moss. Shortly after the eggs are laid, they will hatch. Unfortunately, If not separated the adult crickets will eat the eggs. I frankly don’t worry about it; I am more concerned about keeping the adults alive. It’s too much trouble to breed the crickets unless your truly setup to do so. It makes more sense to buy another container of crickets when the population gets low. I do however keep the crickets I just bought separated from the crickets I already have. This way I can make sure the crickets I already have will be used first.

Food:

Crickets are omnivores and scavengers feeding on organic materials, as well as decaying plant material, fungi, and some seedling plants. Crickets also have been known to eat their own dead when there is no other source of food available, and even exhibit predatorily behavior on other weakened or dead crickets. Crickets have relatively powerful jaws, and have been known to bite humans, mostly without breaking the skin. The bite can, however, be painful when inflicted on sensitive skin such as the webbing between fingers.

I have never been bitten by a cricket, at least not that I am aware of. Most of the time I use latex gloves for protection. Not because I might be bitten but because there a germs on the crickets, and as I wrote about “My lizards have mites” there were mites on the crickets.

For food for the crickets I usually use a few pieces of the lizard food pellets, I just toss them in the container. I also spread some calcium on the crickets. The Crickets will also eat the organic material. Most likely the crickets will be eaten by your pet before the cricket will starve to death.

Water on the other hand is critical. The crickets will drink the moisture that is in organic material. Remember to keep you organic material lightly damp. I also provide a small shallow water dish. Don’t use a dish that the crickets can drown in. The best and cleanest way for you crickets to get water is to put a few slices of potato in the container.

It’s very important to make sure the storage area for the crickets is clean. Be sure to clean out the storage container between restocking. Remove all the organic material and wash the container with some soft soap. Rinse the container several times to be sure that the container is free of the cleaning material. Dry the container thoroughly.

Purchasing Crickets:

There are several ways to acquire crickets. If you have the time and the weather is right for cricket activity, you can catch them hopping about. Maybe you can get the neighborhood kids to catch them for you. You can purchase crickets at pet stores; usually they cost about 10 cents each. This is fine if your pet doesn’t eat very much. Felix (my lizard) eats about 80 crickets a day. You can also by them in a box that holds about 40 or so crickets, this will cost about $3.00. I buy my crickets by the carton that has 500 crickets in it, this costs about $11.00. I buy a container every week.

 Buying and storing you crickets is not rocket science. A few simple techniques such a maintain a proper temperature, providing food and water, keeping the container clean, and a little common sense will do the trick. Crickets are available at most any pet store. Some pet stores will order the crickets in bulk, 500 – 1000 at a time. Just ask.