How to Setup Cricket Brooder? Tutorial 3

How to setup Cricket Brooder or the environment the crickets are going to be living.

Things that you need: 30 gallon totes, paper rolls or egg cartons, chick water feeder, aluminium screen mesh, cardboard, 8×8 Cake Foil Pans, peat moss.

• So the first thing you need is the actual physical container. For cricket farming both commercially or in the backyard, you can use a 30-gallon plastic tote. These plastic totes are taller and little bit more difficult for the crickets to jump up and escape. These are not going to break, crickets can’t bite through these and easy to clean. You can find these at pretty much any retailer or hardware store for anywhere from $8 to $20. 30 gallons should be the smallest size that you want to have. You could go smaller but you need space for food and water. Also when it’s smaller and lower it’s easier for the crickets to jump up and escape.

• Cleaning: You’re gonna have to be cleaning these frequently after every life cycle. If you fail to do so, there may be some sort of viruses or bacteria left behind that can get your new generation of the crickets sick.
• Ventilation: It’s very important that the crickets get ventilation. You need to have some kind of holes otherwise they will die. What you can do is, cut a square on the lid and staple aluminium screening mesh onto the back to provide some air and ventilation. Make sure you use the aluminium screening, so crickets can’t eat through them. It’s also important to make sure that the screen is pretty closely knitted together because if the holes are too big, the crickets will get through it when they’re really young.

• You need something for the crickets to live in, something with surface area, that gives them some shading, that they can hide. Around your house, there’s probably plenty of things you can do, but another thing that people like to use is just your old paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls. Another thing you could use is egg cartons. Egg cartons are nice and fibrous and they create a lot of surface area and a lot of room for the crickets.
• Water Container: Inside your bin, you’re going to need something for the crickets to drink the water. You need a container that has a wide base, so it won’t tip over. Chick water feeder is a good option.

• Food Container: For food, you need any sort of dish that you want to put your food in. You can buy 8×8 Cake Foil Pans that people bake with for couple of cents each.

• Crickets are great climbers. However, when they’re little it’s really difficult for them to get into food and water dishes. The solution is to cut up shreds of cardboard and use the cardboard as little rows or ladders to the food and water. Make sure crickets can climb all surfaces and reach food and water easily.
• Another thing that we could have would be a substrate for crickets to lay eggs. Use 8×8 Cake Foil Pans with peat moss in it and put on top of egg cartons.

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