OK. since I learned that pinhead crickets are a bit expensive and grow up to fast I am thinking of growing my own cricket colony.

Now I know there are plenty of websites with any of this, but I am looking for personal views, especially downfalls.

I rather learn from other peoples mistakes

I have a glass tank with one side covered with substrate and the egg containers on the other side so they don't get wet. Then I wet the substrate every second day. Get the Adult crickets into the tank - but inspect them first to ensure you don't have phorid flies or mites. Then let them do their thing. After about two weeks I put a thin piece of cardboard on one side of the substrate and wet this as well. You will start seeing what at first look like mites as they are tiny and white but they jump. Then put the wet cardboard with the tiny pins into another container and put another piece of wet cardboard back onto the substrate in the tank. and so on and so on etc. Always make sure you have an area to put food and always remove old food before adding new. They eat almost any veg and love apples.

Hmmm that makes sense.

Do you leave the adult crickets in the same tank, or always take them out?

and how fast do crickets grow up/lay eggs.

So lets say I get crickets now, and they mate and lay eggs.


How long would it take for them to lay their eggs, them hatching, and then being big enough to be fed to cm T?

Sorry about all the questions, but I am trying to decide if it is worth all the trouble or if going to the pet shop might be easier in the end.

The Adult crickets die once they have mated and laid their eggs so they need to be removed from the tank and then you get new adults to carry on. It usually takes about two weeks for my eggs to hatch and be big enough to see. Once they have been put into their own container it takes only a few days - about 5-7 days, for them to be big enough for 1cm T. As long as you keep feeding them and cleaning up the old food they carry on growing. I haven't timed how long it takes to become adult as I buy new adults every three weeks to a month.

The adults normally start mating as soon as you have them in the tank that is set up. You can even watch the females - the ones with the long ovipositor at the back - laying their eggs. Usually they start laying within a few days of being put in the tank. I always take the dead adults out as soon as I see them otherwise the toxins from their bodies starts killing off the other adults faster.

You should have pinheads within a month of putting the first batch of adults in the tank - I use glass so they cannot climb out.

No problem I am happy to help

I say stay away from cricket breeding, they smell really bad and are painful, id suggest you breed Roaches, easier and way less smelly and they got more nutrients for your spider. They the best feeder around. Turkistan Roaches - Blatta lateralis, or B.dubia roaches- orange spotted roaches.

Breeding crickets is really easy, but need constant attention to clean out dead crickets all the other mess they make. An unattended colony will die very quickly, I once opened a tub with over 50 crickets all dead due to a powerful smell of ammonia from all their mess and rotting dead crickets. Ants also pose a great threat if they get in to your breeding colony.

Oxyhaloa Deusta roaches are great to breed when you have smaller T's and slings, because they breed really fast, and their young are born live at a very small size, about 3mm, which is about the size of a decent pin head, but has more flesh. The best part is that they climb ALL over the place, and inevitably find your T and get munched, especially great if you have arboreal slings, because these roaches climb glass easily.

Once the T's are bigger, Blaptica Dubia and Blatta Lateralis, and Blaberus Fusca roaches make very meaty meals.

HS