History of the Project
Evolution of the heated base
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The original cage for keeping crickets was an all-glass aquarium. They were relatively cheap in the day, around $6.00. An idea I came up with was to put a candelabra light under the tank as a heat source, which was the sole heat source used for a few years. The sockets were available at Lowes and the lamps themselves were not expensive. I would clip the fixture thru the end of a metal “handy” electrical box to prevent the lamp from touching anything, the lamp being inside the 5 sided box. I could use stand-offs to keep the handy box away from the sides. The lamp had to be either a 25W or 15W because a 45W would char the wood box I used as a base. I stumbled on a fantastic price for thermostats that would turn off when a temperature was reached so this kept the base at the temperature I wanted. Unfortunately, the really low price shot up on the thermostats, making them too expensive. The other issue is incandescent lamps burn out. I owned a ”clip on” aquarium heater that I experimented with. I added a cross partition in the base with a piece removed so I could attach the heater and keep the hot end suspended. I knew if the aquarium and base form an enclosed area the heater would cycle as if it was in water. The system is still in use under the breeders.
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The base I made with my table saw and pneumatic nail gun. Using a 1x3 piece of wood I would build a frame. The first frame was a finger joint. Worked great, looked great, but too much work. I started using particle board and a simple butt joint glued and stapled. The bottom side of the frame had a groove cut out to accept a piece of High-Density Masonite or other thin board. The top also had a groove that was cut to allow the 10-gallon aquarium to sit firmly and snugly into the groove and seal. The height of the base was determined by the width of the electrical box, adding ¼” spacing above and below. In pre-thermostat days I inserted a short piece of acrylic dowel rod thru the side to see if the light was on. If it glowed, I knew the light was not burnt out.
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In my never ending search to make this even better, I had an idea. Why not use a submersible aquarium heater in a plastic container with another container that nested in it? Think of a double boiler used in cooking. Initially, I found a 30-quart container and a 6” deep container that nested into the 30-quart container. Sterilite and Rubbermaid make these. This gave me gallons of water for the submersible heater. The upper container would work for a few weeks to contain the young crickets. Crickets cannot climb polypropylene plastic. They could jump out after several molts so they have to be moved to a larger cage after 14 days. I still use 2 of these setups.
One day at Walmart I was looking to see what they carried and found Sterilite 58 and 50- quart containers. I quickly realized this would make an excellent system for rearing the crickets. And the price was good, both pieces together were under $10. Adding a 2nd 50- quart to the system made changing cages a breeze. Glass aquariums were jumping in price and are harder to clean. Plus they are heavy and break. With this new setup, I would not need to manufacture any more bases. The old bases are not going to waste. Adding a wood frame to support the Sterilite container, plus a 4x4 ceramic tile over the incandescent light as a heat diffuser, the wood base fills in as a temporary heat source. All that is needed is a single 50-quart container and the crickets could be kept warm.
What to use on the bottom of the tanks?
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Crickets have trouble walking over glass and plastic. No traction and I felt sorry for them. The initial cages used clay-based cat litter (no additives) and it was relatively cheap. Being clay I knew it would absorb odors. Disposal was not a big deal because it could go into the garden or in the trash. This was used for several years when the operation was a few fish tanks. One day while removing crickets from an ELB, I was simply amazed at how many crickets were hatching yet I was raising just enough for my use and Darby Creek Metro Park to feed their captive animals. What was happening? I realized the water absorbing property of the cat litter was probably desiccating the crickets when they molted. So I started thinking about this issue when one day I opened my newspaper and saw something. Newspaper itself is not that good. Wrapped around the advertisement section was a thicker single advertisement sheet. This is probably recycled paper and is more rigid than the normal newsprint and is good at absorbing liquids, like cricket poop. Plus it was FREE ( remember I am cheap). It is a perfect base for the cricket containers. I contacted my neighbors about keeping theirs and they are more than happy to help especially since I am donating all the crickets I raise. If this is not available, Brown Craft Paper works just as well, only it is not free. See notes in Supplies. Plus it's cheaper than cat litter.
ELB evolution
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Female crickets have a very strong drive to lay their eggs into something. If not given a suitable place they will lay their eggs in the water supply, especially if there is cotton in there.
I settled on the plastic container that 8 oz. of mushrooms are sold in at major grocery stores. I tried Styrofoam once but found the crickets quickly chewed holes through it. Next was to find a suitable substrate. I knew crickets would normally lay their eggs in soil so why not potting soil? Various suppliers of soil have a wide range of additives. Some have vermiculite, some perlite, some chunks of bark, and some Osmocote (fertilizer). Foreign substances (Osmocote) had to be removed and a kitchen sieve came into play. Sifting was very time consuming and then the remaining soil had to be sterilized in the oven. I tried sand, but it has problems of its own. Potting soil was my medium of choice until I discovered ground coconut husks (coir) used in reptile and amphibian cages. It came sterile, compressed, and is cheap. The only processing is to add water to expand the brick, let it dry out a little, and pass it thru a coarse sieve to break up the chunks. Much easier than sifting soil. A courtesy sterilization is accomplished in a microwave as needed and the crickets love it. Very easy to insert their ovipositors into and when the eggs hatched (they can be an inch under the surface) there was little resistance for the pinheads to climb thru. It holds a lot of moisture without becoming soggy and is slow to lose moisture.
Alternative Heat Sources
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The first article I read on crickets mentioned they needed heat. Their solution was to set them on top of the home stereo. Obviously, this has many drawbacks so I experimented with some items that put out heat, like a fluorescent light ballast, which failed totally. They only get hot in the fixture.
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As mentioned above, an idea I hit on and developed early was to use an 110V incandescent candelabra lamp in a metal box as the heat source. The metal box was used to avoid overheating the wood it was near and provided a way to safely mount the lamp. I manufactured a wood base for the glass bottom aquariums to sit on that was deep enough to hold a metal handy box (aka box used for 110V outlets) and form a seal to reduce air flow and heat loss (VERY important feature). The handy box was mounted using standoffs to provide a ¾” gap between the box and the wood base. I happened to have a hole punch for knocking out a hole to mount a socket for a vacuum tube* and the hole was the correct size for the mounting a clip on a candelabra lamp socket, available at Lowes for $5. The lamps were not hard to find at that time and could be purchased relatively cheaply. One requirement was to use a 15W or 25W lamp, never a 40W. At that time the lamp was always on and it would get too hot. Years later, I found a thermostat that I could program to shut off at a certain temperature (used in greenhouses). This method was used for several years until I hit upon the double boiler idea. Since then incandescent lamps are being phased out in favor of cooler running LED lamps.
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The bases are still in use. The breeding cage for a heat supply uses a clamp-on aquarium heater that is mounted in such a way that it stays suspended and the heater element does not touch anything. As a precaution, I put some surplus ceramic tiles from a bathroom floor remodel under the element to disperse the heat and not concentrate it on a small spot. The fact that the base and aquarium fit firmly (no air loss) is important to allow the heater to warm up the cavity and cycle so it does not run continuously.
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Sometimes I run out of double boiler setups and put the lamp bases back into service. I made an insert to fit into the base where the aquarium would go and set a 50-quart Sterilite container on that. Above the lamp, in the box, I set a 4x4 or larger ceramic tile resting on the metal box to disperse the heat from the lamp. These have the thermostats so overheating is not a problem. This setup works well for the middle age and older crickets as the heat is not as critical on them.
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* For you people born after 1980, vacuum tubes were the technology before the days of transistors and ICs. The home stereo suggested above may have had them. They produced a lot of heat and some audiophiles say a better sound.
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Status of Operations as of January 2017-
I have a breeding colony of 35 females and 10 males. Cage wise, I have 1 breeding cage, one incubation cage and 10 setups for rearing over their normal 30 day growing period, plus a couple of cages that sit off the heat source to slow down their becoming adults. Each cage of sub-adults can contain over 500 grams (640 is my record) of nearly adult crickets. There are approximately 3 crickets of this size per gram which means 1500 crickets in the cage, typically 2+ cages are produced each week. So if some were not harvested earlier as smaller crickets (food for small amphibians) there are over 15,000 crickets living in my basement. No one visiting my house knows this unless they are in the room with them. I have asked visitors and there is no noticeable smell, and chirping is not heard except in the basement.