Silent Brown Cricket
Acheta domesticus
General Information
Quick Facts
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Brown crickets live around 8 weeks
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Female crickets lay around 100 eggs over 2 weeks
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Crickets can jump up to 3 feet!
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Optimal temperature is 26oc-32oc
Crickets can be kept and bred in plastic tubs as they cannot climb plastic .
They do best at 26 to 32°degrees Celsius and live for around 3 months from pin head cricket to adult.
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Crickets are considered a complete protein high in omega 3 and 6.
Young crickets are called nymphs and look like adults but are wingless. They have wings but cannot fly the wings are used to attract mates in other cricket spices, brown crickets are bred to be silent.
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Female crickets have a omniposter for laying eggs, the omniposter looks like a stinger but they are harmless and the omniposter is fragile.
Diet
The diet of a cricket is wide and varied and they are not fussy eaters requiring a specific diet. insect diet can be broken down in to 3 sections. Carbohydrates protein and moisture.
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Carbohydrates- Bread oats and nuts are recommended as the main source of carbs for the insects. Also feed cucumber, carrots,cabbage and lettuce.
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Protein- The most overlooked part of any insect diet is protein. Many insect keepers make the mistake of giving no protein source whatsoever, this mistake leads to cannibalism and egg eating as well as less egg production and laying.
I would recommend dry or wet cat or dog food. If the food is dry it will need to be crushed first. You can also use nuts, soybeans and or egg powder.
Moisture- crickets can get most of there moisture from vegetables. I would recommend cucumber as the best source for this but almost every vegetable can be used but you should avoid citrus and acidic fruits. You should also mist to keep the insects more healthy. Bug gel could also be used but can be expensive. Bug gel will eliminate food molding. you can spray there enclosure so they can drink drops of water.
Life Cycle
Brown Crickets will live for around 3 months at 26-32oc and shed there exoskeleton 5 times before becoming adults able to breed.
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Tiny crickets called pinheads hatch from eggs after around 10 days depending on temperature. They will grow very fast and eat alot if the temperature is not lower than 22oc.
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Female crickets lay around 100 eggs over a 7-14 day period after mating by pushing there ominposter into soil so the eggs are buried.
Breeding Info
Adult crickets will breed very fast with females using there omnipostor to deposit eggs in soil or similar substrate like cocoa fibre.
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Crickets do best if kept at a temperature between 26 and 32 degrees Celsius.
Eggs hatch after 7 to 10 days with the cricket then taking around 3 months to complete there life cycle.
You can feed oats bread cereal etc as there main diet but they will also need moisture from fruit or vegetables.
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If you add pots of the coca fibre provided the adult females will lay eggs in the pots. You can the remove the pot and hatch in a different container or leave to hatch after 10 days in the main tub.
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