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What Do Crickets Eat?

December 2nd, 2008 Posted in Ornamental & Lawn Pests

Having crickets as pets has been a hobby since the T’ang Dynasty (618-907 AD) in which Aristocratic women kept large crickets in cages so that they could listen to their singing. People began breeding crickets, rather than catching them, as the Ming dynasty ended (1700 AD).

If you’re thinking about raising crickets, you either love them or you really love your pet frog, either way, you’ll need to know a thing or two about crickets, specifically the house cricket. But if you don’t want crickets in your house, try EcoSMART products, as they will aid in your mission of getting rid of crickets.

This article will answer:

• What is a house cricket?
• How do I keep a Jiminy Cricket?
• What do crickets eat?
• How long do crickets live?

What is a House Cricket?

House crickets are known to sneak into people’s homes and eat wools and silks. They are the most suited cricket to keep as pets, since they like living indoors.

Description:

• Light yellowish-brown in color
• 3 dark bands on head and prothorax (bears first set of legs)
• 3/4-1″ long
• Breed indoors

Where are they found?

• Basements
• Crawlspaces
• Kitchens
• Fireplaces
• Behind appliances and baseboards
• In cracks, crevices and wall voids

How Do I Keep a Jiminy Cricket?

Before you decide to keep one Jiminy Cricket or a thousand of them, keep the following in mind:

1. They chirp. You may want to keep them in a place far from your bedroom so you can get a good night’s sleep.
2. They smell. Keep the odor down by ventilating their habitat and keeping it as dry as possible.
3. They escape. They could become a nuisance in your house.

If you’re sure you want to keep them, you need to create a comfortable cricket habitat.

Heat

Keep any habitat warm (between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit) with a small lamp.

Keep crickets out of direct sunlight. Crickets need about 16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness.

Jar

You can keep a single cricket in a jar with fine wire mesh as a lid, but the more space the better.

Aquarium

You can keep crickets in an aquarium with fine wire mesh as a lid. Line the bottom with sand, rocks and twigs to create an environment with hiding places.

Breeding habitat

If you plan to breed crickets and raise a colony, then a different type of habitat is needed. You will need multiple containers, too…

You will need:

• 2 large “Rubbermaid” or comparable containers
• 2 smaller containers, such as a sour cream container
• Scissors
• Aluminum window screening (crickets can chew through nylon screen)
• Egg carton flats
• Loose soil or peat (if store-bought, make sure it does not contain bug-killing chemicals)
• Heating pad

To build:

1. Cut two 4″ X 4″ holes in the lid of one large container and cover with window screening sealed with duct tape.
2. Glue egg carton flats in sets of 4 or 5 so that they may be placed in this large container vertically.
3. Line egg carton sets vertically in this container leaving space at one end for a water dispenser.
4. Place smaller containers at top of the egg cartons: one as food dish, the other as egg laying medium (see “Breeding” below).
5. Lay a heating pad on top of habitat’s lid.

Cleaning:

1. Replace egg carton flats as they get dirty.
2. Switch the colony and egg cartons over to a clean large container every 2 months so you may clean the other for the next switch.
3. Clean any sponges which will have accumulated eggs and fecal matter.

What Do Crickets Eat?

Water

Crickets need a drinking water source, but will drown in standing water. So, either put a damp sponge or moistened cotton wool into the habitat, or you can put a small container of water with marbles and rocks in the water so a cricket can stand in the water without a fatal accident.

Pregnant females may lay eggs on a damp sponge or moistened cotton wool, so if you want to breed them, be sure to provide an additional water source. You can try the water dish with marbles and rocks, or a baby chick water dispenser with marbles and rocks, in addition to the damp sponge.

Cricket food

In their natural habitat, omnivorous crickets scavenge on organic materials like decaying plant material, fungi and seedling plants.

For cricket pets, a healthy diet is important so crickets breed and so that if they are food for another pet, they give nutrients to that pet.

Plus, if crickets get too hungry, they eat each other, so keep your crickets happy and cannibal-free by feeding them (in little bits):

• Carrot
• Potato
• Lettuce
• Apple
• Other fruits and vegetables
• Fruit skin (no citrus)
• Rolled oats
• Pieces of bread
• Ground up dry dog food

Cricket breeders, feed shops, and bait and pet shops sell cricket chow, but commercial cricket food can get pricey.

You can also try this cricket food recipe as a cheaper option since it can last for several months (depending on how many crickets you raise):

1. Mix 10 parts skim milk powder to 1 part calcium supplement (intended for reptiles and amphibians).
2. Coat dry cat food with mixture by shaking it into the mix.

Be sure to clean out old food and their black excrement to keep things sanitary.

How Long Do Crickets Live?

Crickets live for about 8 weeks, so if you plan on keeping crickets for longer than that, plan on breeding crickets by doing the following:

Breeding

As long as you keep them healthy, crickets will breed. Make a nesting container for the crickets to lay eggs in by placing moist nesting material in a container 2-3″ deep, like a sour cream container. Place one or a few of these containers on top of egg carton flats. Some crickets will still lay eggs around the water source and will not hatch.

Keep nesting material, such as peat moss, sand, dirt or turf moist. Turf is similar to coarse bonsai soil and does not mold as easily as peat moss.

After 4-7 days, the nesting material will be packed about 1″ below the surface with eggs that look like tiny rice grains; remove the container to be incubated and replace with a new, clean nesting container.

Incubating

Place the original lid on the nesting container and put container on top of heating pad for about 7-10 days; once nesting container is overrun with baby crickets, place container into rearing container.

Rearing

A rearing container can be another tub with another heating pad, or a sweater box with tiny holes in the lid and placed on the same heating pad as used for the breeding habitat. Leave a few pieces of egg carton, a jar lid of food and a water source in the container.

Keep nesting container lid lightly set on top of container to protect unhatched eggs while allowing hatched offspring to escape through cracks. Crickets will leave from the nesting container into the rearing container on their own.

In the first 72 hours, crickets undergo their first molt, keep the rearing container warm and humid by placing a damp, crumpled piece of paper towel in it.

Move 50-75 crickets into breeding container when crickets have reached 1/4″ in size to keep cycle going.

If you don’t want crickets as pets, however, try EcoSMART organic control. They are safe and effective organic insecticides and will make sure Jiminy doesn’t live in your home uninvited!