How to Breed and Raise Crickets

It is very easy to keep and reproduce crickets. Crickets are noisy creatures that have a strong odor. You should be extra careful regarding their enclosures as they can escape easily. You can breed crickets somewhere in the garden or anywhere outdoors if you don't want the breeding colony to make a din in your house.

If you have decided to go ahead and raise crickets to have a steady supply of these squirmy creatures as pet food or a business venture of supplying them to a pet store then here's how to breed and raise crickets.

How to Catch Crickets?
The first and foremost task in breeding and raising crickets is catching them! If you are wondering how to catch crickets then these methods will help you solve your query. You can get up early in the morning and search for crickets under the stones or woodpiles.

If you are unsuccessful catching them in the morning or you are like me who can't wake up early in the morning, try another method of how to catch crickets. Sugar coat breadcrumbs and spread them on the ground in the evening. Place newspaper over the breadcrumbs. Lift the paper in the morning and collect the crickets under it.

You can even use soda or tea to catch the little hopper. Leave a little bit of soda or tea in a can or bottle and leave it in an area populated by crickets. Make sure the crickets can't get out of the bottle or can. You'll surely catch quite a few crickets sipping soda!

You can take a deep bowl and fill it with soup without noodles. Choose a deep bowl as the chances of the crickets to escape are less. Leave it overnight outside or near an area populated by crickets. You will most likely catch a few chirpy friends. Even after trying all the tricks, if you still can't catch a cricket, the best way is to buy some.

How to Breed Crickets?
Crickets can find many ways to escape the cricket farm. They can chew their way out of cardboard boxes and plastic wire meshes. Therefore, you will need to house them in a secure box with a tight lid. You may use a plastic container or a fish tank. Place egg cartons, paper towel rolls in the cricket farm. They love to hide and it becomes easier to transfer them from tank to another. Place the cricket farm in a shady area that has good ventilation. Remember to make air holes for ventilation in the cricket farm or your crickets may die of suffocation.

What do Crickets Eat?
Are you wondering what do crickets eat? Crickets enjoy eating finely chopped fruits vegetables and ground oatmeal. Potatoes, carrots and apples are also favored by crickets. You may also feed them commercial cricket food available in the market. Provide crickets with water soaked in sponge or paper towels. The crickets suck the water from them. You should replace the sponge or paper towels everyday.

Nesting Material for Crickets
Use a small bowl filled with damp sand or peat moss. Place it on the floor of the container. Keep the contents of the bowl moist by spraying water every 3-4 days. The crickets lay their eggs in this moist sand. When the sand is filled with small, oval cricket eggs, place the bowl in an incubator.

How to Raise Crickets?
Place the egg container in an incubator. You can place the bowl on a heating pad and cover the bowl with a lid. Make sure you have punched in plenty of holes for ventilation. The eggs will hatch with tiny pin head crickets coming out of the egg shells. Once all the hatchings are out of the eggs, move the bowl to a sweater box with holes. The sweater box should be kept on a heating pad.

Provide them with food and water soaked in sponge. The baby crickets will eat, enjoy the heat and grow into adults. Once the crickets are 1/4 of an inch in size, place 60 of them in the original cricket farm. These crickets will grow and reproduce, keeping your cricket colony alive.

How Long do Crickets Live?
Crickets can survive up to 24 hours in a cricket bag. In a cricket farm they can live up to 2 weeks or more from birth to death. You need to feed them and take good care of them in order to keep them alive.

Fishing with Cricket
You have raised your crickets as a feed for your pet or maybe you want to supply them to the pet store. After a hard week, you can relax and go fishing over the weekend. Hey, you've got live baits right in your home. What more could you ask for? Crickets make an excellent fishing bait. These little chirpy insects can help you catch fish when all other baits fail. You can use a float or bobber when fishing with cricket baits. An #8 or #10 size hook will be fine. A split shot of about 6 inches should be added above the hook. The hook should pass right behind his head and the barb of the hook should exit the middle of the back. You can start with the bait 3 feet below the surface. Lower the bait accordingly to start getting strikes. When a fish bites your bait do not pull hard on the pole. Give the pole a quick snap with your wrist - a delicate attempt when pulling the fish. Remember the fish can easily take a cricket off the hook. Use the crickets correctly while fishing and catch many kinds of tasty fish.

While picking the crickets, you should handle them with care or you might end up getting a nasty bite. Keep the cricket farm away from your house as the noisy creatures will make you crazy with their chirping. Provide them with optimum conditions and you'll have a happy colony of crickets.

Cricket Trivia

• Crickets can help you guess the temperature. Just count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and add 37 to the number. This will help you guess the approximate temperature of your area!
• Crickets have ear-like sound receptors on their feet.
• Crickets act as rototillers, that is, they break up soil and plant matters.
• People in many parts of the world treat crickets as lucky charms. It is said that if a cricket starts living in the house, the owner will chance upon large amount of money.