Getting started with breeding crickets

If you're anything like me, you've probably been to your local pet store and thought, "man, these crickets are getting expensive, there has to be a better alternative". Well, there is a better way. Breeding your own crickets is easy, and saves a lot of money. In this tutorial, I'll run you through how to get started breeding your own crickets so you don't have to make anymore visits to the store.

Included in our cricket breeding kit:

Heat Pad
Egg laying Container
Water squeeze bottle

Purchasable (optional) extras:

Required extras not included in the kit:

Cricket habitat containers (plastic storage tubs)
Fruits and vegetables (cricket food)
Paper towels
Cardboard egg cartons
Adult crickets (sourced from a local pet store or online)
Household dishwashing detergent + brush/sponge (for cleaning cricket enclosure)
Egg laying substrate (sand, soil etc)

Getting set up:

Providing the crickets a place to live is simple. Starting with the container, I like to use plastic storage containers found at my local department store or hardware store. This is because they are cheap and crickets cant climb the plastic walls. I wouldn’t go with anything under 50 litres especially if you have a lot of crickets (100+). The more space the crickets have, the less often you will have to clean their habitat.

Next, there are a few solutions to provide the crickets with airflow. If you’re game, and buy a deep enough container, you could just leave the lid off. However, do this at your own risk! If you are like me, and you don’t want to risk chasing crickets around your house, you can cut a hole out of the lid of your container and seal it one of two ways. For those who aren’t super concerned with aesthetics, we sell precut sheets of fiberglass mesh here. You can buy fiberglass mesh at your local hardware store, but you will have to buy a full roll. Mark and cut a hole out of the lid of your plastic container a little smaller than the dimensions of the sheet of your choosing. Then simply duct tape the fiberglass mesh onto the lid to cover the hole, done! Now your crickets can breathe, and they won’t escape. See full installation instructions here. However, for those wanting a nicer looking breather cutout, we also sell screw mountable framed screen mesh kits here. Please refer to our "how to" page here, for a more in-depth installation guide.

Now that our crickets can breathe, we need to lay some paper towels down to absorb their excrement.

Next crickets need shelter. If crickets don’t have a place to hide, they'll become stressed and die. Cardboard Egg cartons work well. Put one or two in depending on how big your container is. Just make sure there isn’t any egg on the cartons, because that would make the crickets sick.

Now, food and water. I give my crickets a healthy number of fruits and vegetables (carrots, cucumber, lettuce, beans, spinach, berries, apple, pear, peach etc). Generally, whatever vegetables we are chopping up for dinner, or whatever fruits I put on my breakfast, I'll put a couple aside to give to the crickets.

As for water, I like to use water crystals. These are small crystals that when submerged, absorb the surrounding water and turn into a jelly like substance. The benefit of this is that the crickets can walk on the water crystals, and therefore don’t drown. To learn more about them, click here. If you go the tap water route, just make sure it is in a very shallow dish, a clean bottle cap or jar lid will suffice.

Next fill the water bottle, then lastly, choose a substrate to fill the egg laying container. This is what the female crickets are going to lay their eggs in. Personally, I prefer to use sand as it is easily accessible. However, soil works well too.

Fill the container with your desired substrate, ensuring the substrate is flush with the surface of the slots in the container. This makes it easier for the crickets to discover the new places to lay their eggs. Using the water bottle, gently apply water to dampen the substrate. Remembering, waterlogged is bad, but dry is bad too.

Now everything is ready, you can put in your crickets and let them do their thing! Once the crickets discover the sand you will see the females sitting on the container while they lay their eggs. Keep the substrate topped up with water as it slowly dries out over time.

Whilst waiting for the crickets to lay their eggs, we can go over maintenance. Give the crickets fresh food every 1-2 days, and while you’re changing the food, if you see any dead ones make sure to pick them out. Replace the paper towels and egg cartons once per week. When changing the paper towels and egg cartons, I like to have another plastic tub handy. Transfer the crickets into the secondary tub, then remove the paper towels and egg cartons. Whilst all the crickets are out, wash the tub with some mild detergents (I use regular dishwashing detergent) and hot water.

When it comes to cricket survival, hygiene is the name of the game. Poor hygiene will lead to disease and crickets dying (and bad smells too). Furthermore, irregular supply of fresh food will lead to the crickets becoming cannibalistic, further spreading disease.

Additionally, if you live in a cold climate, you may want to leave your crickets in a warmer part of the house. House crickets don’t like the cold, if it gets too cold their growth and activity can slow. If an additional heat source is required, you can use the heat pad to heat the enclosure whilst not in use for incubating eggs.

After around 7 days, the crickets will have laid enough eggs to start the incubation process. Simply remove the soil container and plug in the new heat pad to the wall power point. Place the soil container on the heat pad and let it do its thing! The incubation process takes a further 7-9 days. Due to the heat, water will dry out quicker, so it is very important to add a generous amount of water to the substrate once per day (twice if you can). If it gets too dry, the crickets won't hatch.

Now would be a good time to set up your second cricket container for your soon to come baby crickets. It isn't necessary to place paper towel down in this container as the crickets are so small. Just use a wet tissue to clean their habitat until they are old enough to be removed to give it a proper clean. They also don't need water (tap or crystals) until they are a few weeks old, otherwise they will drown. To compensate, provide extra juicy fruits and vegetables until they are big enough.

7 days later, congratulations! Your first batch of little pinhead crickets! Raising them is the same routine as looking after your adult crickets, they need food, shelter, warmth and hygiene. If you do all those things, your crickets will grow up just fine. Open the lid of the egg laying container to let the baby crickets out into their new habitat. Keep the container on the heat pad for at least 2-3 more days as the eggs continue to hatch. Once all the eggs are hatched, simply repeat the procedure. Crickets usually take 2 months to fully mature where they can then be used to breed again.

If you are ready to give cricket breeding a shot, and see how much you can save, have a look at our cricket breeding kit to get you started.