h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey Mr Inertia, you wanted questions? Ive got one for you, do you know how to breed crickets?? I have two geckos and regularly buy crickets on the web. However life would be so much easier if I could just breed them myself. Please help.

In a word.........no.
I would imagine if you get a male and a female, or several of each, you should be able to breed them yourself. I can't remember just off hand what they eat (leaves I think), but the pet shop people should be able to tell you.
Good luck

nah, the pet shops keep thier secrets closley guarded, in fact everyone does, Ive been trying to find out for months with no luck. cheers Mr I Ill let you know if I find out then you can help some other poor sod if they need to know.

Have you tried checking on the internet. I'd do it, but I'm restricted to the BBC website while I'm at work, and I haven't got a computer at home.

Ive had a good couple of searches but havent managed to find anything about breeding them. The brown cricket population in the whole of europe was devestated last year by a virus which stopped them shedding as they grew so now, the crickets you buy are usually silent or black crickets. Maybe breeders are loath to share their secrets and have become even more protective since last year.

I suppose you could torture a pet-shop owner into giving up their secrets!
Either that or buy a load of live ones and give them various things to eat and see what they eat most of....

Well i am an assasin, I suppose a tiny bit of torturing wouldn't go amiss. Its amazing what you can achieve by pulling a few finger nails.
Crickets eat a special mix of food, plus apple, and bran to keep them going. I think they need special conditions to breed, like a certain temperature and certain substances to lay thier eggs in. I dont know, maybe ill just keep buying them, Ive got enough animals in my flat without breeding crickets too. You just sounded confident that you would know the answer to anything i thought i'd make a last ditch attempt to find out.

It's a cunning ploy to get people to talk to me!

Well it seems to have worked
By the way, whats the deal with the number 42??

42 is the answer to the answer of life the universe and everything!
Didn't you watch the series?

I didnt watch it, I read the books though. So you just make up a sum that equals 42? I could do that.

Yes, but it has to use the digits in your researcher number!

Oh, i see.
Okay, ((3*5)*2)+7+4+1=42
cool

Not quite - you have to use digits in the correct order!
Try - (2*(3*5))+7+4+1=42

Excellent!

Glad to be of service!
::bows::

Hi there. I keep black crickets for feeding to my tarantula, and I can't get the beggars to *stop* breeding! Perhaps I can be of help--though I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing right.

Here's how I keep them, anyway. They're in a glass tank on a warm (but not sunny) windowsill. There's vermiculite covering the bottom of the tank; there's stuff for them to climb on and hide in (wood, plastic leaves, eggboxes); just below the windowsill is a radiator, which is often on, and the crickets sit as close as they can to it; they have a shallow dish of water and I feed them mostly on Rice Krispies, porridge oats and lettuce.

They lay their eggs in the vermiculite, close to the radiator and in the damp bit under the water dish. So I guess warmth and dampness are good laying conditions. I've heard that some people give their crickets damp sand to lay in, but sand dries out much faster than vermiculite.

The eggs are too small to see, when they're first laid. Newborn crickets are small and numerous enough to be mistaken for ants. And they have a habit of drowning themselves in the water dish . Oh yes, and I've caught some females digging up and eating eggs laid by others.

In case you don't know about it, here's a source of cheap, healthy crickets by post.

http://www.livefoodsdirect.co.uk/main.htm