Raising Crickets - 3000+ per week

How to breed and raise Brown House Crickets in your home or school

The intent of this web site is to share my experience in learning how to raise Brown House Crickets. These are raised in my home but this could be done in a classroom or laboratory just as well. Using this method up to 3,000 or more crickets can be produced per week. If your needs are much less, use only a type 3 cage as listed in the article, fewer breeders, and allow multiple sizes to be in the same cage. You certainly do not need to do all that I do, but if you have doubts or other issues (on raising crickets) , the following pages should be of assistance.

Two things I read about crickets early on were they need warmth and baby crickets (aka pinheads) are excellent climbers. Keep these in mind. Some goals in raising them are to:

keep the crickets contained
keep the odor from the crickets as low as possible
perfect ways to cultivate them
keep the cost low while still raising a fair number of crickets.

Most of what I do is from intuition, trial and error or success. People who receive my crickets (almost all are non-profits or government agencies) tell me my crickets are livelier and live much longer than those purchased at a pet store or via mail order. Probably from the TLC they receive.

Raising this many crickets is not difficult to do, but there is a time commitment. Some days all they need is food and water checked, maybe 10 minutes. Other days they need a few hours- transferring into a new cage, mixing food, cleaning equipment.... This article goes into great depth in explaining how I easily accomplish this.

Some background on why am I raising crickets-

This project started around the year 2000 when my son purchased a frog from a pet store. Crickets were not cheap, but I am. We purchased a few dozen crickets, added flake fish food, and they went wild over it. They were starving to the point where they were eating a defenseless cricket that was molting. I thought why not try to raise them? So I experimented and was raising enough to supply a Metro Park with the crickets needed for their captive animals. At that time I had multiple sizes living in the same cage and needed to separate out the smaller ones before delivering them. Then one day I asked a friend who had contacts with the Ohio Wildlife Center Hospital if they would want crickets. She said I would never raise enough for them. Ah, a challenge. At that time they wanted 500 crickets a week. Once they started using them regularly (perfect food for wild animals that would be eventually released) they now use between 3000 and 5000 per week in their peak time in late June, when they have an abundance of baby birds to feed. Using my method, raising the numbers they need is not a problem and no need to separate them as each container has crickets within a few days of age therefore most are about the same size.

NOTE- In August of 2021, I decided to curtail production on a mass scale. I kept a simple colony to keep the bloodline going in case of a failure with the people I was giving them to who now were raising their own. I intend to cease any raising of cricked in November of 2022.

In order to raise them, I tried to get into their little heads and make them happy and healty. This means well fed with a variety of foods to choose from, have open water (not an expensive gel), places to hide, and proper warmth. Crickets are very social when in a confined place and love to cling to the ceiling of their “caves” (egg cartons). The lack of elbow room does not seem to bother them, to a point.

Being frugal where possible, my wife and I are constantly on the lookout for reusing items that normally would be trashed or recycled. My son secured used egg cartons from the cafeteria at work, my neighbors save the fast food beverage trays for me. Except for the initial cage cost, egg laying medium, and dry foods (mentioned below), almost nothing else is purchased. Together with my imagination and a wood/plastic shop in my basement, I am able to create the items I dream up to aid in raising crickets. The search to improve on implements and techniques is never ending.

Quick Overview-

Adults lay eggs in a medium
Egg infused Medium is transferred to a hatching box (before they start hatching)
After 3-5 days, hatching box is restarted and pinheads (baby crickets) are transferred to a rearing box.
After 14 days crickets are transferred to a clean box and given a different food (cost reasons).
Typically between 24 and 30 days from hatching, adult or sub-imago crickets are donated. Time is heat dependant.

Life as a Cricket - An Autobiography from the perspective of a cricket raised in this fashion

When I entered this world I was but an egg, carefully place about 1/3rd of an inch under the ground surface for safe keeping. Being placed here by my mother prevented predators and the drying rays of the sun from making my life a short one, if I was in the wild. Read More...

Some Background Concerning Heat

The crickets are raised in Columbus, Ohio where the ground temperature is 55 ° F. This means basements, where my crickets are, stay cooler than this specie of crickets needs in order to grow. Someone living in a much warmer climate (i.e. Florida) may have issues with escapees (it happens). They cannot withstand cold and seem to need above 80° F to breed successfully. They are very slow to grow at room temperature (if not on a heated base), if they grow at all. None of the escapees have ever bred and the eggs hatch and grew.

I have discovered how heat affects the ability for crickets to hatch and grow by trial and error. Pay close attention to the heat suggestions mentioned in each of the sections about cage types. Different temperatures have a major impact in the incubation time and how quickly the pinheads grow to adulthood (Imago stage for you entomologist). Ambient air (room temperature) affects this as the heat supply from the base loses more heat the cooler the ambient air is. When the ambient air is in the mid 70's, the crickets mature in 3 weeks from hatching date, versus 4+ weeks when the temperature is closer to 65° f. The heat from each base remain consistent but varies from base to base.

About the measurement systems used in this article- In my operations, I use a mix of English and Metric units. I prefer Metric as it is much easier to work with. But since I am in the USA, some things are better understood using English units and the fractional standards.

If a word is underlined (and often blue) in this article, this indicated a hyper-link to more information

To move around the web site, either use the pull down menu at the top of the page or the quick links below.

Basic Cricket Information

Food Ideas

Cages Used

Keeping Things Clean

Supplies Used in Cages

Supply Details

Transferring Crickets Between Cages

Breeder Select and Preparation

Special Tools Used (including the water supply devices)

Pest Issues