Supply description and possible sources
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Note: Any price or availability was accurate at the time of writing. Prices change and availability comes and goes.
Sterilite® Boxes. Many stores carry the brand, but the boxes I like are made exclusively for Walmart. They are a very simple plastic box, no bells or whistles or latches, made of durable polypropylene plastic.
58 quart box #1847 Always available at WalMart, custom made for WalMart.
50 quart box #1848 This size may only be available in late summer and early fall.
28 quart box #1849 This is a shallow box good for pinheads. Not sure if worth having another box. If use be sure to lightly roughen the edges of the groove in the bottom with 150 grit sandpaper else the pinheads get trapped.
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These boxes, although impact resistant, can break or crack if struck hard enough or dropped too hard. The are not UV resistant (keep out of direct sunlight). They resist most household chemicals. Their temperature range is 15 to 180° f. They are still an ideal container for crickets and hold up well for me.
Submersible Aquarium Heater, adjustable temperature- SEE DISCLAIMER
Source: Pet Mountain. Most aquarium supplier have it so Google it for the best price.
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50 Watt Eheim Jager Adjustable Submersible Heater Model 3612
75 Watt Eheim Jager Adjustable Submersible Heater Model 3613
25 Watt is undersized but 2 will work in a pinch. Limit the heat loss by using inverted empty ELB cases.
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As of May 2019- Eheim is my GoTo heater. Worth the couple of extra dollars per heater. The round power cord did not make an impact in water loss, which is still minimal. They are just better built.
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Hang on Aquarium Heater, Adjustable temperature- Most pet stores. Used for breeders only under a glass aquarium.
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50 Watt, turn up as high as it will go (90°). Use for a waterless system only
Suspend it horizontally in an enclosed base under the glass aquarium. The heating end must not touch anything. I have used mine for years without incident. The glass will get hot so do not touch it or allow anything to come in contact with it,
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Disclaimer: This use of heaters is not as described on the packaging. Use at your own risk.
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Coconut Husk PetMountain.com
Zoo Med Eco Earth Compressed Coconut Fiber Substrate Model:EE-20
See Below for preparation.
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1/8" Hardware cloth
This is not easy to obtain in small quantities. It is used by beekeepers to screen off vent holes in their hives. I have only found it commercially online. I tried local home improvement stores and they do not carry it. The fiberglas screening I did find would be chewed quickly and is not rigid enough to keep crickets from finding a way to crawl beneath it. Suggestion- Make friends with a beekeeper.
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Flake fish Food WWW.PetMountain.com
TertaFin® Goldfish Flakes Model:16621M for “Bulk” at PetMountain ($106 for over 12 lbs)
Meijer Department Stores will put the food on sale for 20% off. Petmountain in bulk is still a better value, plus you get a handy reusable bucket.
I find Tetra to have a higher fat and protein analysis that other brands of flake fish foods.
Oatmeal- Instant Oats Sam’s club. $9 for 10 lbs. for Quaker® brand. This is sterile already.
Aldi has its own label instant oatmeal at a similar price.
Bulk food store (Amish usually) have it for less, but it should be sterilized before use.
NOTE: Old fashioned oats, while the identical food, are larger flakes and the crickets will ignore it.
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Dry Cat Food-
The type of dry cat food keeps evolving. Price increases and analysis reformation have caused me to switch to a dry cat food from Aldi Grocery stores. 16 lb for less than $9. They like it and grow fine with it. The first ingredient is a protein, not corn which is a filler. They will eat the corn if nothing else left to eat. Any good brand of cat food should work, but watch the price.
The main point on dry cat food is that crickets will eat it much better when softened by adding water. Do not add too much water because crickets can easily drown.
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Calcium Carbonate
Cricket skins contain a lot of calcium. Some cricket foods are fortified with this, so I thought it made sense to include it. I found it online. Powdered and relatively cheap. I mix 50 grams per 1000 grams of flake fish food when the food mixture is created. When starting a new raising box using pure fish food, sprinkle a teaspoon or so on the food. The jury is out if this is of benefit or not.
Egg Cartons Check with any restaurant that serves fresh eggs. You want a 30 count tray. McDonalds. Bob Evans. I found a kitchen in a local retirement home who was more than happy to keep used egg trays for me. Make friends.....
Styrofoam cartons are quickly destroyed by crickets so only use paper based cartons or trays.
Paper on for the bottom of the cage
If available, the piece of paper around the newspaper advertisement section of my local paper. If not available, Brown Craft Paper. Example- Lowes item# 154752 Model # 12612FF
More info below.
Sublimed Sulfur aka Flowers of Sulfur.
This is a very fine sulfur powder. Some drug stores carry it or can order it. It is also available on-line. A little goes a long way. This is only used to dust the immature crickets selected to become breeders. This seem to keep mites at bay.
Stain Solver®
Stain Solver (SS) is a dry oxygen bleach made from the same basic ingredient found in OxyClean® but without any perfumes and is more potent. It is environmentally safe and is only available from WWW.Stainsolver.com as far as I know. SS is my cleaner of choice to soak the water dispensing equipment which tends to get stained by the cricket frass and food. Being a bleach it should remove any harmful diseases from the equipment. Should there be a residue after rinsing, it becomes harmless soda ash and will not harm the crickets. SS has many uses around the house. Water Bottles used in the cricket cage will develop a film inside the bottle. Adding a little SS and filling up the bottle to the very top you will see bubbles and the scum rise to the top due to the oxygen action. A couple of rinses and the bottle is clean again.
Simple Green® Cleaner Available in many stores.
Sam’s Club has a club pack at a good price. Item #: 165779
Simple Green is a biodegradable surfactant (all purpose cleaner). It does a very good job a dissolving anything left on the plastic boxes and has a light sassafras scent. No odor or residue is detected after the bin has been rinsed out. Should something be left behind it will not harm the crickets.
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Notes on Supplies
Ground Coconut Husk (source above) This is sold as a bedding for reptiles and amphibians. One if its properties is the ability to hold water. The medium under the surface stays moist well after the surface is dry. Purchased as a brick, add a lot of water and let it expand. Dry it out a little and pass it thru a coarse screen (1/8”) to break up any remaining clumps and reduce the threads from the husks. What comes out is a light weight medium the crickets love to insert their ovipositors into. Some of both sexes also like to bury themselves in it, why I do not know. This medium is sterile in the brick form. After it sits out in the open to partially dry and be sifted, some pests could find it. Place it in a covered microwavable container, add some water so it is barely moist and microwave on high long enough to achieve 180° f. Allow it to cool to room temperature at a natural rate. This kills most undesirables. Keep it enclosed until ready to use. No mold will form. I use an old 2 quart glass casserole dish.
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The Coconut Husk (coir) can be recycled. Crickets only use the top centimeter or so, the rest is needed to maintain moisture. After the hatching is completed, freeze the ELB for a few days or more to kill any insects or mites. Then the used ELB is allowed to dry out until a fair number are collected. Dump the coir into sufficient water and boil for 10 minutes. This should break down any organism and frass. Drain the coir and allow to dry out somewhat. At some point the recycled medium can be put into a hot oven until the internal temp raised to 180°f . Let it cool in the oven and store in an enclosed container for re-use. When I reused it I top it off with a centimeter thick layer if new coir. I do not know how many times it can be reused. Is the cost of new worth the effort to recycle it for cricket use? An observation- I reduced the number of breeders as the seasonal demand was down, yet the numbers that made it to adulthood was barely detectable. Could the recycled ELB medium have made a difference or some other factor.
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Hiding places Crickets usually will hang out in an enclosed area. An inverted egg carton has been the most economical (free) and practical. The crickets love to hang from the inside. Boxes like cereal boxes with access holes added will work. The packing ends found in fluorescent tube cases will also work. About anything they can grip to and forms a cave will work. A 4x beverage holder from fast food places also works if made of paper. Use your imagination, crickets are not picky. They want someplace to hide from you. The trays avocados ship on make a good place to hang.
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Paper on the bottom What I used is not ordinary newspaper. My local paper uses a heavier sheet to wrap around the advertisement sections and the Sunday comics. This sheet absorbs cricket excrement and it gives them something to grasp as they move about on the cage floor. Crickets poop a lot and what is wet is absorbed by the paper which seems to reduce odors. Removing the soiled paper is very easy and then it is composted. I checked, the inks used today are not a problem in the garden. (June 2021- the paper stopped using this type of paper, but I have a stockpile. )
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An alternate item nationally available is brown craft paper, found at home improvement stores. They sell it in a roll for use on floors (Lowes- Item# 154752 Model # 12612FF). This is sold in 12” and 18” widths which may be a little tight in the Sterilite box. It is easily trimmed with a paper cutter. The advertising wrapper page averages 10.5 “ wide and are trimmed at 16” long to fit the box. I do not know about composting the kraft paper, it could be treated, maybe not.
Open Water Source Ideas While there are gels to provide water to crickets, this can become very expensive. Water is almost free. Crickets like to drink from available water, as in a puddle. If the puddle is too deep many will drown. They do not have a fear of water and some will to try to swim and often fail. Supplying them with water they can drink while not drowning has been a challenge. Another part of supplying them with open water is crickets will carry their food into the water and defecate on their water supply. A very early attempt to deal with this was an idea from the internet. Take a shallow container, add some cotton balls. Drill a small hole in a 16 - 20 oz. soda bottle cap and invert this over the cotton. A holder is needed to keep the bottle upright. Initially I used a plastic dish that held icing from refrigerated cinnamon rolls as the shallow container. I made a"Y" support from acrylic to keep the bottle from crushing the cotton and sealing off the hole in the cap. I made a holder to keep the bottle upright out of acrylic. This did supply water but has the major problem of the cotton needing to be replaced frequently (every 3rd day) else it emitted a very foul odor and was a potential source of diseases for the crickets. I played with various ideas and now have a system that the itty bitty pinheads drink from without drowning (.001% drown) while not becoming putrefied for over 2 weeks (usually). I watch the pinheads come and drink from the "watering hole" and leave unharmed. The same system also works with adult crickets. Click here for how to make a better water delivery device.
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