What do Crickets Eat?

It was cold and Rohan held his son tight trying to shield him from the wind that was blowing in through the holes that had formed on the roof and the walls of his house. Plastered in one corner, he found tears streaming down his eyes. His wife, Stephanie had already left for work on an empty stomach and Rohan knew that he would have to leave his son alone at home and go out to salvage something for him. Suddenly, he heard a sound that he had heard when he had slept under the open sky, slowly he lifted his eyes up and noticed that a cricket had found its way into his home. He caught it in with his bare hands and placed it underneath a cane basket, crossing his fingers and hoping that it heralded some good news!

Crickets live under rocks and logs in pastures, meadows and alongside roads. These insects belong to the order Orthopetra and the class Insecta. They are brown to black in color and have front wings that vary in length and cover half to an entire abdomen. Their antennas are as long as the distance from the head to the end of the abdomen and their wings are held flat over the body. The hind wings that crickets possess are folded and hidden under leathery front wings. Spiders, ground beetles, small rodents, lizards, spiders and birds are some of the insects that prey on the cricket.

As crickets help in the breakdown of plant material they are considered an important part of the ecosystem. These insects are also reared and used as bait for fish and as food for some pets too. The Chinese people also use them in medicines. Popular as a sport like cock fights; crickets are easy to rear, as they tend to eat anything.

This brings us back to the question…what do crickets actually eat? Crickets are basically omnivores and feed on anything, which are usually organic materials, plant decay, grass, fruits, fungi, seedling plants and even meat. These insects need a good diet otherwise they consume each other.

Specific brands of cricket food are available in the market at feed shops. Tropical fish make an expensive but good meal , vegetables and fresh fruits with rolled oats constitute an ideal meal too. Crickets can also be fed with bread, digestive biscuits, cornflakes, apples, bananas, grapes and also vegetables like lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes. A cost effective and good feeding food is chicken laying mash. If you would like to provide your cricket with additional nutrition, food supplements like alfalfa, calcium supplements and raw vegetable scraps can also be added.

Food for the cricket needs to be placed in and open and shallow container that is located firmly on the ground, it also needs to be cleaned regularly in order to prevent mould from forming. Like most living things, crickets need a good supply of water, but it is advisable to keep the water away from the food in order to keep it fresh and dry. Cotton swabs placed in the water vessel will go a long way to ensure that the cricket does not drown.