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Has anyone here raised crickets? I use them alot for gill fishing and some times for crappie. I spend around $1 a dozen and buy around 3-4 dozen for just me or 5-6 dozen for me and a buddy at a time. I buy cricket atleast 3 times a month durring the spring/summer/fall time.
I've been doing my research online and have found several websites with info but was wanting someone who actually has done it to give me their two cents.
Sorry. I have not done that.
A dollar a dozen is high....we get 150 of them here for three dollars.
Better let G-3 be your middle man,lol.
Tell me about it G3, but I don't think I'll be raising crickets any time soon. The wife hates bugs and wasn't too thrilled about the idea of being a cricket farmer :D.
Well if you ever decide to do it:
Get as large a container as possible, the larger the better but try to stay under 2 feet deep. I used a 20 gallon Rubbermaid container.
Cut out the depression in the lid and line it with metal window screen, do not use foberglass, they will eat through it.
Get some egg crates from the market with your eggs. Make sure they are clean as possible. If you can find the large ones they are better, stand them up so you have almost the entire container full of them. On one end, stack them up the right way for strength or put in a stronger shelf type structure. this is where you willl feed them, give them water and collect their eggs.
To give them water, use those water gems that they use for plants. They expand and are great for giving them a water source without getting anything wet. Feed them greens, apples, carrots, cukes, zukes and a lot of other things as well as grain, baby cereal, oatmeal and many other things. I think I fed them pretty much everything including dog food.
One key, keep it dry! Any collected moisture can and will cause mold and will kill them all. I don't know why but any mold is deadly to them.
The egg tray should be filled with peat moss or coconut coir fiber. The coir fiber works great, is sterile and pH neutral. I actualy used plays and my first time and it worked great.
Take the egg trays and cover them with metal window screen to keep the adults from eating the eggs. Every week, take it out and put in another smaller container with some sort of dry bedding in the bottom. the baby crickets are TINY when they hatch. I used corn cob bedding from the pet store. Don;t mess with the cob until the babies are large nough to make sure oyu don't smash them accidentaly.
I will try to find the exact way I did it and provide more detail. I raised about 15,000 of the them from 200 in a year or so.
If you don't decide to raise them, which it seems it might be out of the question, order them in bulk online.
1000 crickets run about $25 delivered. wormman is usualy a good site but closer to you is better usualy. At that price you could sell them for a lot less than the store and make your money back while still having plenty to fish with.
I have a cricket cage that I bought off a bait shop that was going out of business. I bought a create of crickets which I think their was 1000 in one put them in cage with egg cartons had water jar with sponge and put potoes out for them and even bought cricket feed also have a light thats made with cage . They only lasted for about 3 weeks is this normal or should they live longer than this Thanks Guys.
3 weeks for an adult is normal depending on a few factors but even in colder temps they don't live much longer.
wormman.com/breeding_crickets this may help u good luck
worms a whole lot easier to cultivate and will compare within the fishery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!