I just set-up an adult cricket tank last night. I watched them lay their eggs. Now this morning I took out the bedding and put it under a heat lamp and misted it again. However I have heard that you can see the eggs but I can't. Am I doing the right thing? (I gave them a second dish of eco earth, while the first one is out)
How many adult crickets did you have? I usually leave my dozen adult crickets in with the dirt pan for about two weeks. Usually after a couple days, I start seeing some eggs on top of the soil. Then, I try to keep the soil warm and damp (90). The babies start hatching out after two weeks at these warm temps. I try to remove the adults and clean out the mess they made in the tank a day or two before I expect the babies to start hatching. I just let them hatch for a couple weeks, and make triple sure that there is plenty of water for them to drink. When they grow big enough to start making a real mess, they are usually big enough to handle me cleaning the tank up without me accidentally squishing them by the hundred. I've killed more baby crickets from lack of moisture than anything else! Both in the egg and those that are just a few weeks old. Winter seems to be a particularly tough time for me to get crickets to reproduce. Now that I have a good heat source for them, I'll have to see how this winter does.
its goign to depend on how many adult crickets you put in there... usually i put a 1000 or so adults in a bin for eggs.. it doesnt take long and you have TONS of eggs.. if you leave the "egg laying bin" in their too long.. the crickets will start to eat the eggs... less than 12 hrs would work great. a heat lamp can dry out the eggs VERY fast... just remove the egg bin.. place it in another bin where you can maintain a decent temp and humidity and be patient... before you know it you will have more crickets than you will ever need. then you will most likely kill most of them.. but with experience you will work it all out and then you will be able to grow them.
lol yep, that was my experience. Never had a thousand adults though. I wouldn't know what to do with that many. Anyhow, heat tape underneath the tank they are in is getting much better results (heating the hatching dirt up to 90) then I ever had with a lamp. I dried them out and killed them off with a lamp too many times to count! And I was trying to spray them every day or two back then. Now, I'm spraying them once a week.
Thanks this helps a lot. Sadly I am on my third attempt; The first was too dry, and the second their was no food. So third try is lucky. Thanks
