Basic rules for breeding crickets at home

Breeding crickets at home as a business could be a very interesting startup. Let us describe the nuances and features that entrepreneurs have already encountered in this direction. After all, such a product remains exotic for our people, and before starting to organize a small farm, you should think through all the details and establish distribution channels for the products.

Our country does not have a regulatory framework for many insects that can be raised for sale. If we are talking about consuming them for food or producing them for medical purposes, then the obstacles become even greater. But with the right established process, you can overcome any difficulties and enter the world market, receiving a solid profit in return.

Keeping crickets at home

Crickets are grown in two cases - as “singers” and as live food for other pets.
It is quite easy to keep warblers in a container made of any material. The most convenient dimensions are 60x40 cm with a height of 30 cm. The bottom is covered with sawdust. There must be sticks, twigs and any other objects on which insects will climb and where they will hide.

If crickets are grown for food, then you can increase the usable area by filling the container 2/3 with empty cardboard egg boxes. Even sheets of crumpled paper will work as shelters.

Caring for insects consists of:

• maintaining the microclimate in the insectarium,
• cleaning it,
• and feeding pets.

The temperature range for keeping crickets is 28-37 0C. The higher the temperature, the more succulent food should be included in the diet of insects. Daylight should be about 16 hours, so additional lighting is required!

Many insect owners are faced with the question: what do crickets eat in their natural habitat? Let’s find out.

In an insectarium, as in nature, they eat everything - leftover fruits, vegetables, bread crumbs, oatmeal, various whiskeys, dry baby food will do. You can even give sweet corn sticks.

Lettuce leaves, burdock leaves, and tops of garden plants are very suitable as a source of plant fiber. In the summer you can put grass in the insectarium - crickets readily eat it.

Important! To raise sexually mature individuals suitable for reproduction, animal proteins must be present in the diet! Only a plant-based diet will result in the laying of dead eggs. To enrich the diet with proteins, you can use dry gammarus, egg white, fish meal

But you can’t overfeed with such food! This undermines the health of insects, complicates molting, and causes soft chitinous covers

To enrich the diet with proteins, you can use dry gammarus, egg white, and fish meal. But you can’t overfeed with such food! This undermines the health of insects, complicates molting, and causes softness of the chitinous covers.

Feed objects

We will divide food items (abbreviated as KO) into 2 types - main and additional (delicacies).

The main food, the most complete and best digestible (and often the most accessible) are crickets - house, banana and two-spotted (also known as black). In second place are cockroaches. You can feed live crickets, you can use frozen insects

If you decide to feed your pets with live food, pay special attention to ensure that the insects are well fed beforehand. You can't buy a couple dozen live crickets in an empty jar at a pet store and just gradually feed them to your leopard geckos. If you feed your leopard gecko an “empty cricket”, you can assume that you haven’t fed them at all. Study the conditions for keeping and feeding crickets, follow them and your leopard gecko will be fed and healthy

If you feed your leopard gecko an “empty cricket”, you can assume that you haven’t fed them at all. Study the conditions for keeping and feeding crickets, follow them and your leopard gecko will be well-fed and healthy.

Feeding frozen crickets.

If you choose freezing as food, make sure that frozen crickets do not melt during transportation, store them in the freezer, and do not refreeze them. To feed leopard geckos, first defrost approximately the number of crickets that you plan to feed to your pets. Feed immediately, do not store the defrosted cricket, after 2 hours just throw it away, it is no longer suitable for food.

If you haven’t found frozen ones on sale at the moment, and it’s not convenient for you to feed them live, buy live ones, give them the maximum variety of food for a day, the crickets will fill their stomachs and then you can simply pour them into a bag and put them in the freezer. You can do the same thing if you took a KO and doubt its quality from an unfamiliar supplier, for example. Providing nutritious food for leopard geckos, and therefore their health and the peace and joy of communicating with their pets, is our direct responsibility.

For up to six months, feed young leopard geckos only basic KOs, with the obligatory presence of vitamin and mineral supplements. Giving heavier and fattier foods to babies is inappropriate and harmful to health.

Hawkmoth caterpillars are a delicacy for the leopard gecko.

To diversify the diet and provide more nutritious nutrition, you can occasionally give additional KOs to adult individuals - tormentor, zofobos, moth larvae, hawk moth, locusts, in some cases, if necessary, for example, females who are exhausted after long layings are given newborn baby mice.

Cricket breeding

Each cricket’s territory is home to several females, who come to its burrow attracted by its song. A courtship dance and mating takes place, a few days after which the female lays eggs. They have a long ovipositor; the female uses it to pierce the soil to lay eggs there.

Lays 50-150 eggs per season. But if the conditions are favorable, the air temperature is about 30Cº, then the female lays up to 700 eggs. The eggs are white and shaped like a banana. House crickets can lay one egg at a time or in groups in different crevices.

Then, depending on the temperature, after 1-12 weeks, larvae - nymphs - are born. These larvae will go through 9-11 stages of development. At first, young individuals try to stay together, hiding from enemies under stones and in earthen burrows. After the third molt, the crickets become older and spread around the area in order to dig their own burrows. When cold weather sets in, the mink is made deeper to survive the winter.

Usually the temperature underground is not lower than +0Cº, and if minus happens, the cricket goes into hibernation. With the onset of warm May days, the insects come out and molt for the last time. After molting, they look very funny, with their white wings not straightened and not dried out. Adults live for about 1.5 months. Tropical species live 6-7 months.

In the summer, when day turns into evening, a characteristic chirping sound begins to be heard in the grass. This sound cannot be confused with anything else; it can only be produced by one insect - the cricket.

In warm weather, they live in nature and eat what they find, mainly plant foods. But in addition to plants, they happily eat small representatives of the class of invertebrates, which, unfortunately, come across in the path of crickets.

Also, crickets do not shy away from carrion. Like many insects, crickets exhibit cannibalism.

Mostly adults eat their fellows; they not only destroy young animals, but also devour clutches.

Crickets love the warm season; they cannot tolerate even a little cold. In cold weather, these insects often crawl into residential or industrial premises that are heated for the winter. Therefore, in the house in winter you can hear the singing of this insect.

Living in close proximity to people, this “bakery singer” (that’s what they were called because they used to live behind stoves) has no problems with food. Almost anything suits him: waste from fruits and vegetables, bread crumbs, that is, any small pieces of food.

Crickets have a particular preference for a variety of liquids. Those owners who have food left on the table have a real paradise for crickets. Warm air and a large amount of food are favorable conditions for the life of crickets.

Unfortunately, these baked musicians are becoming less and less common in homes today. Crickets, unlike cockroaches, avoid concrete multi-story buildings because it is impossible to dig a hole for shelter there. Therefore, you can only hear a cricket in a private house. But how long will this situation continue? Maybe soon there will be no more of them left in city houses.

In the old days, not all insects were valued, but individual insects were considered the true guardians of the hearth, a favorable sign for the future. Of course, the cricket, whose song personified peace and family well-being, also fell into the “pet” category.

Life cycle

Sexual differences in insects are manifested in the presence of a chirping apparatus in males and an ovipositor in females. The dimensions of the appendage are 10-15 mm; with its help, females lay eggs in the ground. The cricket is a type of insect with incomplete metamorphosis. This means that its development takes place in three stages:

• egg;
• larva;
• imago.

Larvae of species with incomplete metamorphosis have much in common with adults. For their appearance, a sufficient amount of moisture and high temperature are required. The female mates several times and lays eggs from 2 to 4 weeks, one at a time or in groups of 2-4 pieces. In total, up to 500 of them are buried. The number of surviving masonry depends on natural factors. Having emerged from the egg, the larva molts for the first time. During subsequent moults, the number of facets in the eyes and the length of the antennae increase, and wing primordia develop. It will take them 1-1.5 months to transform into an adult. How long do crickets live? The life cycle of most species takes only 3 months.

Cricket nutrition

Crickets feed on different “products”, depending on their habitat. In nature, they eat plant foods, and if they live near a person, they feed on leftovers from his table.

Especially liquids. In addition, the house cricket can eat invertebrates, corpse tissue and can be classified as cannibals - adult individuals can eat clutches and young larvae.

Sometimes crickets are specially raised at home, for the sake of their songs or as food for certain types of animals (amphibians, and other reptiles, as well as birds). Then they are fed with leftover fruits, vegetables, cat food, dry baby food, oatmeal, bread crumbs, and corn sticks.

Be sure to give plant food: burdock leaves, lettuce and tops of garden plants. Crickets also need protein, which they can get from fish meal and egg white. But such food should be given in moderation; insects should not be overfed, otherwise their chitinous coverings may become limp and molting will become more difficult.

Carrots, apples, cabbage are given grated on a coarse grater, little by little. Water is also necessary for insects, and if you breed crickets, you need to provide them with liquid. It is better not to place the drinking bowl in the insectarium, but to put a sponge soaked in water there. One of the large insectariums is located on the territory of the Moscow Zoo, where crickets are bred to feed various animals.

Relationships with a person

Cricket
A very difficult topic for cricket. In Japan, it was customary to keep these insects at home in miniature cages. In Asia they are specially bred for food; in North America they are used as bait. In Russia today, many exotic animal lovers keep reptiles that eat crickets. Owners of these cold-blooded animals, along with reptiles, usually breed crickets as food for their pets.

If a cricket suddenly appears in a multi-storey building in the city center, you can be sure that it has escaped from a pet reptile lover. Much less often such escapes occur from insect lovers due to the fact that they also prefer to keep exotic crickets.

Features of keeping crickets

Container

Option for arranging a container for crickets

If you decide to have such an original and noisy pet in your home (crickets make characteristic sounds, so immediately ask yourself if you are ready for this), make sure to purchase a fairly spacious container. Its size will depend on the number of pets and how comfortable conditions you are going to create for them. You can keep a whole thousand crickets in a container 450 by 425 and 500 centimeters, or even several. The difference will be in the level of comfort.

If the walls of the container are high, you don’t have to cover it, however, in order to avoid all sorts of troubles associated with finding a cricket under the bed or in the bathroom, it is better to take care of a special mesh lid.

The walls of the container should be smooth - it can be glass or plastic. This is necessary in order to prevent the pet from escaping vertically. Do not forget that crickets move very well and quickly on flat vertical surfaces.

If you are going to keep a cricket in a wooden box, then it is better to cover its inside walls with thin glass so that it is not so easy for the cricket to climb up them.

House

Even if you have taken care of a spacious container, do not forget about a special house. You can use egg cartons for this. Place it vertically with small pieces of cardboard between the sides. This will prevent the egg combs from sticking together and there will be good ventilation in the house. Crickets love to hide in such houses.

Substrate selection

At the bottom of the container you will need to pour... not substrate, but dry food. It could be oatmeal, dry baby food, gammarus... Some people add dry food for cats or dogs. True, there is a lot of debate regarding the usefulness of the latter, whether it is worth doing this. So, it's up to you to decide. You will need to place a feeder on top of the food layer. Its role can be played by a board or plywood - on it you will put a portion of wet food every day - carrot salad with apple, lettuce, burdocks, dandelions...

By the way, its appearance depends on the cricket’s diet. The more varied its diet, the more beautiful the cricket looks.

Temperature regime for keeping crickets

Egg tray houses

Crickets are heat-loving creatures and keeping them in a container where the temperature is below +26 degrees is not recommended. If the temperature column of the thermometer shows lower numbers, take care of artificially heating the air using a spot heating lamp.

In addition, additional ultraviolet light will promote the synthesis of vitamin D3 in crickets, which is also good for them.

Necessary equipment

To keep two-spotted crickets, use tall aquariums or plastic containers with smooth walls. The size of the containers must be no less than 60 x 40 cm, height - no less than 30 cm. The inside of the container wall is coated with petroleum jelly 15 cm from the top. Crickets can jump quite high, so if the height of the container is not sufficient, it should be covered with a metal mesh on top. Crickets can chew plastic.

When breeding, several containers may be needed to keep young and grown individuals separately. To avoid fights, place egg trays in the container. This will give the crickets plenty of hiding places.

If the room temperature is low, crickets may need heating. You can arrange it using a thermal cord or a thermal mat. The terrarium should have bowls for dry and wet food. As a primer, you can use a mixture of sand, bran, oatmeal and fish food. Cleaning should be done at least once a week. Severe pollution can lead to the death of the colony. Crickets require 16 hours of daylight. For lighting, you can use incandescent lamps, which will serve as additional heating.

“Where should we sell them, in the passage?”

While the oven warms up to 170 degrees, Sergei shares the intricacies of doing business in Belarus:

— Initially we took 16 thousand dollars. Our team consisted of three people: me, manager and breeding specialist Andrey, as well as our financial partner. Of course, the original plans differed from the outcome. I imagined that everything would be like in Russian companies: work with pet stores, beautiful packaging, barcodes, everything is official. As a result, it turned out that this was not in our budget at all. We built a farm, put up shelving, and that's when we ran out of money. What to do? They told us: “Sell crickets.” Okay, but where to implement it, in the transition?

And then we were faced with moving from one farm to another, after which winter came and the crickets froze. It cost us a pretty penny - we ended up spending 26 thousand dollars. Even when you lose 70% of your cricket and it takes 2-3 months to restore it, you still have to pay rent, salaries to your employees, taxes.

The legislative framework

To avoid unnecessary questions and problems, it is advisable to legalize any type of business. But with the breeding of crickets, nuances often arise at the level of unpreparedness of the laws for this type of activity. Thus, nowhere in Russian legislation can one find the creation of a cricket farm, like many others for breeding insects or exotic animals.

You can try to organize a personal subsidiary plot or register as an individual entrepreneur (individual entrepreneur). Then your activity will be legal. Of the OKVED codes, 01.49 is the most suitable - breeding of other animals, since this section provides for the cultivation of insects.

The remaining documents required to run a legal business will depend on the purpose for which you are raising crickets and to whom you are selling them. This may require a veterinary certificate or registration of dietary supplements, etc.

What to feed house crickets

You can feed crickets with a variety of vegetable crops and herbaceous plants. Carrots, beets, lettuce, and clover heads are perfect. It is also very advisable to add pork or chicken feed to the diet. It is worth feeding not in large portions, but often - at least several times a day.

• Since ancient times, crickets have been especially revered in China and Japan, in these countries they even organized special competitions for singing domestic crickets, and the rich people there were ready to give entire fortunes for the winners.
• Since ancient times, it was believed that having a cricket in the house brings good luck, prosperity, and well-being.
• According to recent research by scientists, the trills of crickets have a beneficial, calming effect on the human psyche. Only the purring of a domestic animal has a similar positive effect on a person.

Causes of chirping

The main reason why you can hear crickets chirping is due to their breeding habits.
In this way, a sexually mature male tries to attract a female. Its rubbing can continue from dawn to dusk until the cry is heard. The success of the process will largely depend on the strength of the male’s sound; the more energetic, melodic and sonorous he is, the greater the chance of attracting a female. You can hear a cricket sing not only if it wants to reproduce. Insects lead an isolated lifestyle and occupy several square centimeters. The site is carefully guarded by its owner and does not allow guests except the female. He walks around his property several times a day and checks the integrity of the territory.

The chirping is intended to scare away uninvited guests and warn about the belligerent attitude of the owner of the site.

A person enjoys listening to crickets, regardless of the reason for these sounds. Their trill is as melodious as the singing of birds, so some even prefer to breed Orthoptera representatives at home. This is not difficult to do, and optimism is fueled by the fact that in captivity singers can chirp not only at night, but also during the day.

How often to clean the cricket container

To prevent bacteria and germs from multiplying in the container, it is recommended to clean your pet’s house at least 1-2 times a week. During this time, he should be placed in a temporary house. But if you notice that its abdomen is swollen, and an unpleasant odor emanates from the container itself, you should not limit yourself to cleaning alone. Your pet could become infected with microsporidia and you will need to disinfect its home.

Unsanitary conditions for keeping crickets encourage the development of mites, and this can lead to the death of your unusual creature. Therefore, do not ignore cleaning, and if you have already got a cricket, keep it not only comfortable, but also clean.

General information

Two-spotted crickets are one of the most popular forage crops. These are large black insects. Their body length can reach 3 cm. Two-spotted crickets grow faster than other species of crickets. In addition, they are more tolerant of low temperatures. They naturally live in the Mediterranean.

Two-spotted crickets are considered more aggressive than banana and house crickets. They can bite strongly, and therefore there have been cases when they injured the reptiles they were fed with their mandibles. In addition, almost all types of crickets are cannibals. In the absence of water, sufficient food, or improper maintenance conditions, crickets begin to actively eat young animals and kill each other. In addition, they are very sensitive to sudden changes in living conditions. If the microclimate changes, pestilence begins. Crickets often make very loud noises at night. Two-tailed crickets are considered one of the loudest species, and therefore at night their trills can disturb sleep. This is why many exotic pet owners prefer to keep less demanding and more tenacious cockroaches as an alternative to crickets.

A photo of two-spotted crickets will be presented below.

However, crickets also have their own advantages. Unlike cockroaches, they have virtually no unpleasant odor. Many exotic pets consume them with greater appetite than cockroaches, which they may even refuse.

About project cost and profitability

Recently, my investor and I completed a business plan and studied sales markets.

Costs and payback. It turned out that the threshold for entering this market with all costs (purchase of necessary equipment, renting premises, purchasing inventory, repairs, etc.) is no more than $25,000, and the payback period (even if you divide the profit figures by two) is not more than a year. Even according to minimal estimates, the farm's income is about $100,000 per year. This already takes into account the minimum fixed prices for products, inflated prices for the implementation of the project and the purchase of everything necessary.

Our cost is very low. One kilogram of cricket, with all costs, costs no more than $2.

After monitoring the world market, according to preliminary estimates, we will be able to set the following prices for our products:

• Frozen crickets for food - at least $20
• In flour - now a 120 g bag. costs $10 (based on ebay). But, of course, we will do it cheaper - for popularization

One kilogram of cricket flour is no more than 8000 pieces. This means that in one box (crickets are kept in special boxes) about 2-3 kg of flour grows. There will be about 200 such boxes at launch.

Sales markets. The main thing for us is the sales market. But there are no problems with him. As long as we are given permission to start the food industry, we will sell crickets for feed, and the Russians will even take such a small volume, 800-1000 kg per month at $20 per kg, from us in bulk. The demand is real, we studied it. And there is also the Ukrainian market, where our products are also in demand. And our poultry farmers, hedgehog keepers and other lovers of exotic animals are now ordering frozen food from Russia.

Photo: Daria Buryakina, TUT.BY

In China, 27,000 tons of dried cockroaches are required per year for pharmacology and cosmetics production. Of these, only 21,000 tons are provided in full. One pound (about 0.5 kg) of dry cockroaches costs around $89 - a very good income. So you can open a cockroach farm right in China. This is also real - my companion studied the topic.

We already have a specific proposal from Canada: to build a farm there, organize work and train a management team. And we are seriously discussing this.

The legislation is much simpler for them; there are no barriers. They are now raising private businesses. The most expensive thing there are salaries, but if you consider that a farm of 250 m² requires only 3 workers, and the output is a ton of crickets per month, then this arrangement is quite suitable for them. There is only one difficulty there. There are cricket farms, but they only produce crickets for fishing and food. And the guys who contacted us want to breed them for food. And these are different conditions of detention and feeding. We know this and can implement it. I’m afraid that it will really turn out that our farm will appear in Canada earlier than in Belarus.

During this year, more than 49 farms were built in the world. And that's just crickets. So we are at the forefront.

And now the main thing is that we do not sit out this peak while waiting for our legislators. In Russia, too, legislation in this area has not yet been finalized; there are no sanitary requirements. But there are already farms there (albeit illegal ones) that employ 40 people - you can imagine the volume there.

Once we push through legislation, we will have very little time to fill the market. I think the country will be hit by a wave of legal insect farms.

Because it is many times more profitable and environmentally friendly than raising cows, pigs and chickens.

Relevance of the topic

Keeping pets has always been popular in most families. But more and more often people want to stand out among their friends and have some kind of exotic pet. And while finding a suitable specimen is not difficult, establishing a constant supply of food can be problematic. Often, owners have to raise insects themselves to feed their pets.

There are also those who prefer to listen to the trills of crickets. They are also not averse to keeping several of these fauna representatives at home, which would create a special atmosphere right in a city apartment.

Asian cuisine is very popular around the world, and its dishes often include fried grasshoppers, crickets and other small animals. According to statistics, about 2 billion people on the planet eat insects at least periodically. And so you can breed such a product for them, since the exotic always turns out to be in price.

The advantage of this type of business is:

• Lack of competition; in our country and many neighboring countries (Ukraine, Belarus) there are still no serious cricket farms.
• Growing demand due to Asian cuisine and keeping exotic animals among hobbyists.
• Small investment at the start.
• Crickets are omnivorous and easy to feed.
• They are characterized by rapid reproduction and good fertility.
• It is not difficult to create conditions for maintenance; this does not require any technology, equipment, or equipment.
• Caring for insects is simple; even a large farm will need no more than 2-3 people to keep order.

The only difficulties that stand out are bureaucratic shortcomings, since our legislation does not yet have such an object for breeding or sale as crickets, cockroaches and other specific animals. But this can also be a plus, since practically no one controls or limits the owner of the farm.

You will have to take a more careful approach to this issue if you want to create specialized products, dietary supplements, based on protein flour. This product will be of interest to athletes and people who need a chitin diet, because it contains a huge amount of protein of natural origin. And scientists have already proven that it is very easily absorbed by the human body.

In this case, the difficulty lies in the fact that you will have to find investors for expensive research or engage in close cooperation with scientists and some university, on the basis of which relevant research can be carried out. Only after the issuance of a certain certificate can such products be distributed legally.

My team

At the same time, I was looking for a team. I decided on an investor (after all, he was the person who “asked a lot of questions”). There was also a partner ready to start selling. But I understood that to create a full-fledged farm, I needed specialists in a specific field. I contacted the guy I bought my first crickets from. It turned out that he had been doing them for more than 15 years. And for the last 10 years he has been breeding exotic animals and spiders. The question regarding the candidacy of a technologist was removed. I don’t need a novice scientist who only knows from books what and how - I needed a specialist who has practical experience and understands the topic.

For example, with the help of my work and that of Andrey (technologist), we were able to develop our own “secret” compound feed for crickets. And this is a very important point. Crickets are polyphagous: they eat both insects and plant foods. And the lack of a protein component gives rise to cannibalism - it is very unprofitable for us for them to eat each other. We solved this issue with the help of compound feed that contains protein. And also secret ingredients, without which mass breeding of crickets is hardly possible.

It's like Coca-Cola - no one knows the recipe. Until ours is “deciphered”, we have some time to spare in case of an invasion of people who want to open similar farms - and I’m sure this will happen.

So, I have a team: me, an investor, a sales specialist and a technologist. And this is the best team I could ever imagine. The technologist immediately began to develop conditions for the mass keeping of crickets and other inhabitants of the farm (and we plan to breed also zofobas beetles and mealworms). I started working on a business plan and, together with the investor, we began to push through legislation.

We immediately decided that all team members would have a share in the business - in my opinion, this is the best motivation. And the main thing that unites us all: we all want not just to open a farm, but to create a brand called Crickets.by. By the way, I completely wrote the site a year ago and made it myself. While it is purely informative, I will popularize the topic through it.

Photo from the personal archive of Sergei Makarov

Legends and beliefs about crickets

So, the cricket family belongs to the order Orthoptera, and in nature there are about 2,300 species. These insects consider a moderate humid climate to be a favorable habitat, and their historical homeland is the island of Madagascar and India. However, today these night “singers” are widespread throughout the world; moreover, numerous legends and beliefs are often associated with them.

Many crickets fly into the house and settle in secluded places, and some species are considered exotic and turn into real human pets. This is not surprising, because there is an opinion that such insects appear only in those homes where there is a feeling of kindness, comfort and coziness. So this is a positive symbol for the future, and you should not kick the cricket out of your abode.

The domestic cricket gets along well in the same territory with humans, does not cause any difficulties and, moreover, does not harm in its own habitat. He only sings, and there is no doubt that he is the strongest male of all competitors. Females prefer to remain silent in the presence of the leader, and weak males are simply expelled from the home. So it’s the same melody, which very soon becomes familiar and even positive.

Does the type of insect affect its diet?

Yes. These three species have slightly different diets. House crickets usually feed on human food scraps, clothing and paper. Since field species live outside, they usually feed on fruits (pears, apples), mushrooms and plants. Cave crickets typically feed on dead insects and fungi because they choose dark, damp places to live.

Insect nutrition

In their natural environment, crickets feed on fresh grass shoots and bush leaves. Having settled on the site and significantly increased the population, they will begin to harm garden crops. Adults prefer to nibble on seedlings rather than weeds. Their diet is not limited to plant foods; insects require protein for development. Its source is small insects, corpses or their own offspring.

What does a cricket eat when it finds itself at home? In this case, he shows omnivorousness, eating crumbs of bread, droplets of liquid dishes and drinks, pieces of vegetables and fruits with equal pleasure. Meat or fish that falls on the floor will also be eaten by the little neighbors. Showing the instincts of a hunter, they can catch flies or small invertebrates that end up in the house.

Many seemingly harmless insects turn out to be a source of danger, so the question often arises: do crickets bite? You can rest assured about night singers, they don’t bite people. The jaws of the gnawing type are not adapted for attacking large objects; moreover, aggressiveness is shown only towards males in foreign territory.

Marble cockroach

You can usually find large and medium-sized cockroaches in pet stores. But they are well suited for large birds. For example, a small robin can hardly cope with its prey. As a result, instead of pleasantly absorbing food, she gets stress and extreme fatigue. Therefore, home breeding has its advantages - you can easily grow cockroaches of the required size.

The insect is unpretentious and reproduces quickly. Therefore, it is worth purchasing a large container in advance. However, you should be aware of their excessive activity and buy a container with high sides. To make them feel as comfortable as possible, you need to put an egg patch in the container. This will allow you to get the necessary area to display your activity.

Usually the container is left open, after placing gauze on top or smearing the edges of the box with Vaseline.

Filler

As a storage device, you need to take a well-absorbing base - sawdust, flour, crackers. It will not only be a place to live, but also food that cockroaches will happily consume.

However, you should immediately prepare for frequent changes of their home. The reason for this is the rather unpleasant smell from their experiments. Therefore, if you feel it, you should immediately begin changing the litter. Egg cells should also be replaced, which also quickly become unusable due to excess moisture.

These creatures are omnivores; there will definitely be no problems with feeding them. They can be given any leftover food from parrots, vegetables, fruits, cat food and meat - they also need protein food.

Conditions of detention

With cockroaches, everything is incredibly simple; there is simply no need to create special conditions for them. The only exception is temperature. It should not be below 20 degrees. This indicator directly depends on the speed of their reproduction. As for humidity, there are no restrictions.

Marbled cockroaches have several stages of development, which makes them easier to breed. The owner, depending on the size of his bird, selects the ideal age. After all, if the bird is small, there is no need to raise the insect to adulthood.

They can be kept together with mealworms. Both of these species get along well with each other.

Also, thanks to the presence of wings, they are able to jump well, this is always worth remembering. At one time, a female is capable of giving birth to up to 30 babies; her pregnancy lasts about a month. Therefore, if there are several females, it is possible to breed a large amount of food in a short period of time.

House cricket (house cricket) - description, appearance, characteristics.

House crickets are fairly small insects. The size of the slender, slightly flattened body, covered with a hard chitinous shell, in adult individuals ranges from 16 to 26 mm in length. The color of the domestic cricket can be grayish-yellow, straw-fawn or various shades of brown with streaks, specks or spots of indeterminate shape.

On the head of the cricket, which resembles a flattened egg in shape, 3 dark arcuate stripes are clearly visible. The small eyes located on its sides have a complex facet structure. The mouthparts of crickets are of the gnawing type in structure. The antennae, consisting of several segments, are an organ of touch. Often their size is slightly greater than the length of the cricket's body.

The rear pair of well-developed membranous wings helps house crickets easily fly from place to place. At rest, the cricket's wings lie along the abdomen and resemble long, sharp tails. If necessary, house crickets can travel quite long distances. When the insect is on the ground, its wings are reliably protected from damage by dense elytra that lie flat on the back, with the right one slightly overlapping the left.

Like all orthoptera, the house cricket has 3 pairs of legs. The hind legs have thickened thighs and are designed to perform fairly long jumps. It is noteworthy that the hearing organs of these insects are located on the shins of the front pair of legs. The paired appendages located on the last segment of the abdomen are quite long and resemble peculiar antennae sticking out in different directions.

Sexual dimorphism is expressed in the presence of a special sound apparatus in male crickets, which is similar in structure to the sound apparatus, but differs from it in greater complexity and a different arrangement of components. The stridulatory vein, which functions as a closure, is located on the right elytra, and the vein against which it rubs is located on the left elytra. When they rub against each other, the familiar trill of a cricket appears. In crickets, the sound apparatus is more developed and occupies a larger area than in grasshoppers.

Female crickets have an ovipositor at the very end of their abdomen, shaped like a spear. Its length ranges from 11 to 15 mm. With the help of this organ, females dig holes in the soil into which fertilized eggs are laid.

The average lifespan of a house cricket rarely exceeds 3 months.

Description and area of ​​residence

The true cricket is a typical representative of the family of Orthoptera jumping insects. Its close relatives are grasshoppers and locusts. The insect has an elongated body, a large head, and a gnawing type mouthparts. The antennae are long, thread-like, and vision is well developed. The hind legs with thickened thighs allow them to push off when jumping.

The elytra are dense, leathery, the wings are fan-shaped with veins. Females have an ovipositor, which they use to cut through stems to lay eggs. Few people know what a cricket looks like, but they have heard its chirping at dusk. It creates its trills by rubbing the elytra. The faster the vibration, the higher the sound. The special structure of the elytra makes it possible to produce sounds in a wide range.

The insects are widespread in Asia, Europe, North Africa and America. In Australia they are found only in Adelaide, where they were introduced from other countries. They find cracks for housing, dig holes or hide under stones. Activity falls in the summer months, because at temperatures below +21 0 insects become lethargic and stop feeding. The love of warmth forced crickets to seek refuge in human habitation. With the onset of autumn, they move into houses, heated warehouses and industrial buildings.

Breeding crickets

Crickets can also be bred at home - important for those who consider them as food. The main thing is to create the right and comfortable living conditions for them, and to have a small colony where there will be males and females. There should be more females than males. For 1 male there are 4-5 females. Otherwise, you will witness crickets fighting and they will sing very loudly. So that your neighbors will definitely ring your doorbell.

A small container 4-5 centimeters deep filled with a damp substrate is placed in a container with adult crickets - this time the substrate is earth, sand, or peat. It could even be wet food. Female crickets are not very fussy when laying eggs.

It is better to cover the top of the container with a fine mesh with cells, so that later, when the female lays eggs, adult crickets will not eat them.

Female crickets lay eggs in portions of 2-5 pieces. One clutch can contain from 350 to 900 eggs. So your population will increase rapidly. Depending on the temperature conditions, after 1-2 weeks, cricket dust will appear - babies 1-2 millimeters in size. Over the course of several months, they will grow and molt until they reach sexual maturity. Then they will be ready to reproduce.

In the summer, when day turns into evening, a characteristic chirping sound begins to be heard in the grass. This sound cannot be confused with anything else; it can only be produced by one insect - the cricket.

In warm weather, they live in nature and eat what they find, mainly plant foods. But in addition to plants, they happily eat small representatives of the class of invertebrates, which, unfortunately, come across in the path of crickets.

Also, crickets do not shy away from carrion. Like many insects, crickets exhibit cannibalism.

Mostly adults eat their fellows; they not only destroy young animals, but also devour clutches.

Crickets love the warm season; they cannot tolerate even a little cold. In cold weather, these insects often crawl into residential or industrial premises that are heated for the winter. Therefore, in the house in winter you can hear the singing of this insect.

Living in close proximity to people, this “bakery singer” (that’s what they were called because they used to live behind stoves) has no problems with food. Almost anything suits him: waste from fruits and vegetables, bread crumbs, that is, any small pieces of food.

Crickets have a particular preference for a variety of liquids. Those owners who have food left on the table have a real paradise for crickets. Warm air and a large amount of food are favorable conditions for the life of crickets.

Unfortunately, these baked musicians are becoming less and less common in homes today. Crickets, unlike cockroaches, avoid concrete multi-story buildings because it is impossible to dig a hole for shelter there. Therefore, you can only hear a cricket in a private house. But how long will this situation continue? Maybe soon there will be no more of them left in city houses.

Farm at home

There is also the opposite side of the coin. Fishermen and reptile lovers are often forced to independently breed these insects at home in terrariums. Not every reptile agrees to eat frozen dead food, and the cost of such food in a pet store can ruin lovers of rare animals.

The optimal combination of insects is 1 male to 5 females. When there is an overabundance of males, fierce fights arise between them, which leads to injuries among the breeders. A male that has lost its elytra is unable to produce mating trills and becomes unsuitable for breeding.

Females are provided with a moist substrate for laying eggs. Containers with the substrate are covered with a mesh with a mesh size of 2 mm. The net is needed to prevent insects from digging up and eating the eggs. In favorable home conditions, the female lays 200-500 eggs, shaped like a banana.

The humidity of the substrate must be carefully monitored. When dry, the white eggs dry out and become transparent. This means the death of the masonry. In the case of a dry substrate, the female may try to lay eggs in the drinker. In this case, the masonry will also die.

The house cricket is an insect with an incomplete metamorphosis cycle. There are only three stages in its development:

• egg;
• nymph;
• imago.

The pupal stage is eliminated. The nymph is very similar to the adult, but lacks wings. The nymph has 9-11 stages of development. That is, young domestic crickets will molt 9-11 times.

At home, egg development lasts 10 days, so containers with substrate must be replaced every decade. The fry that emerge from the eggs must be fed with soft protein food, placing the food in a container with low sides. You also need to provide young domestic crickets with water. Wick drinkers are suitable for this.

Depending on the room temperature, the development of house crickets lasts 40-60 days or more. After completing the development cycle, they are suitable for feeding domestic reptiles.

This material tells about what a cricket eats, where it lives and how it can serve humans. Perhaps it will help those who decide to keep these insects at home in an insectarium.

breeding crickets at home.

Features of insect reproduction in insectarium

In order for the Turkmenistan cockroach to develop normally, the bottom of the terrarium is filled with substrate and moss. The soil is selected with special care for growing at home.

In order for the number of individuals in the population to constantly increase, an acceptable temperature regime is maintained. If women in labor are placed in a container in which the temperature is below 27 degrees, the maturation of the ootheca takes longer.

Before breeding insects, holes are formed in the container. Through them, air enters the container, which is required for normal life. After this, you can transplant the selected cockroaches.

Turkmen cockroaches are not classified as viviparous species. After the mating process has passed, the female representative walks around with ootheca for 2–4 days. After a set interval it is placed in the soil. After 28–30 days, 16 to 18 larvae emerge from the capsule. As the larvae mature, they change color. The period of maturation is about 140 days.

Insects that emerge from larvae do not eat food for 2–4 days. They need this time period to adapt. After this, the young animals are transferred to a terrarium with adults.

After the reproduction process has been studied and debugged, both nymphs and adult Turkmens are used for feeding. For catching, nets are used, which are sold in zoological stores.

Turkmen cockroaches are popular among lovers of exotic insects. They are often grown to be used as food. In both the first and second cases, the description, features of the conditions of detention, and other aspects are taken into account. Whether the population will increase depends on the correct preparation of the terrarium.

Video about keeping and breeding the Turkmen cockroach

The Turkmen cockroach (lat. Shelfordella tartara) is a medium-sized representative of the order Cockroaches. It is best known for being bred at home as future food for other pets: farts, scorpions, hedgehogs. This is an unpretentious and easy-to-breed species, called “tartar” in breeders’ slang.

Nutritional Features

Today, modern man has been able to tame even such a small insect as a cricket. The purpose of his breeding was melodic tunes, which he produces with particular regularity. In order to raise a full-fledged individual at home and count on offspring, you need to know the rules of nutrition and tirelessly follow the recommendations below.

So, crickets are omnivores, so it is quite acceptable to experiment with the menu, adding or removing new dishes each time. Leftover fruit is considered a favorite delicacy, and you can give food that is not the freshest. Crickets will definitely be grateful for such vitamins, especially since they are not particularly selective in their food consumption.

In addition, you can pamper the insect with oatmeal and crackers, which they will happily eat. Any crumbs will be welcome, and the cricket doesn’t need much to feel full and start singing its catchy trill again. The diet may also contain coarse fiber in the form of a bunch of dry grass to normalize intestinal function.

So it is important to observe all these subtleties and not deviate from the diet suggested above

If you decide to grow crickets at home, you can use an old aquarium as a house, with an even layer of soil and substrate placed on the bottom. The presence of branches and dry grass is also necessary, otherwise the trill of the insect will not be heard.

Soft caterpillars and pupae can also make up the cricket's daily menu, but it is advisable to offer such ingredients in strictly limited quantities for the normal functionality of the digestive system. Insects also love leaves of all plants, dandelions, unripe grass seeds and clover leaves.

If it is crickets that are bred at home, then the adults feed well from the feeder, while it is advisable for the young to distribute food over the entire surface of the soil

Over time and as individuals grow older, the need for this disappears, but at first it is important to control so that the inexperienced insect does not starve

Now on the free market, special plant-based foods predominate, which provide a full range of minerals, vitamins and microelements

The presence of protein as the main organic compound is very important, since a deficiency of this element leads to the non-viability of laid eggs. Moreover, the female quickly eats them, so it is best to use boiled chicken protein in the diet

Many crickets, accustomed to living at home, eat synthetic food from fish, dogs and cats, and such an unusual diet in no way affects their viability or reproductive function. Milk can be offered as a drink, but this is at the choice of the breeder himself.

Life forms of crickets and their place in the biocenosis

The most important characteristic of a life form is the habitus (external appearance) of the organism. A life form should be considered as the result of the action of natural selection under certain environmental conditions, expressed in the external appearance of an animal or plant. Each group of life forms is characterized primarily by a general habitus, which is conveniently described using morphometric indicators.

To characterize the habitus of crickets, three main groups of morphometric indicators are proposed. I. Indicators expressing the degree of impact on the substrate (soil): the degree of expansion of the tibia of the front legs and the degree of change in the forefoot. II. Indicators showing the nature of contact with the substrate: the degree of flattening of the body and the degree of bending of the oral part of the head. III. Indicators related to movement on the substrate: the degree of elongation of the thighs of the hind legs and the degree of compactness.

In crickets, all signs characterizing habit can be divided into basic and additional. The first include characteristics characteristic of all representatives of a particular group of life forms. The second includes characteristics that are not always present in all representatives of a given group of life forms, but appear as a tendency to develop similar adaptations

An equally important characteristic of the life form is the way of life of organisms, which in crickets is characterized by the following characteristics: the connection of the insect with stations and natural tiers, behavioral features, rates of life cycles

First of all, crickets are divided into geophiles, which are inhabitants of soil layers and the soil surface, and phytophiles, which inhabit the above-ground layer, that is, plants. But the line between phytophiles and geophiles is often very difficult to draw. Therefore, when determining membership in a particular group, great importance is attached to morphological differences. Phytophiles include crickets - obligate plant inhabitants. Their main characteristics are: a long, thin body, laterally compressed, and very long, thin climbing-type limbs. Insects are usually colored in greenish or yellowish tones. Additional characters: tendency to full development of all wings and to increased flexibility of all hind limbs due to dismemberment of the first segment.

Geophiles are characterized by compression from top to bottom (in the dorsoventral direction), the absence of pulvillas on the tarsi, which serve to hold insects on vertical and smooth surfaces. Most terrestrial forms are black or soil-colored, often with spots and stripes. The drawing in most cases imitates the substrate or is dismembering in nature. Geophiles include five groups of life forms: shrews, burrowers, fissurobionts, bothrobionts and myrmecophiles. Different groups of geophiles differ from each other, primarily in the nature of their connection with the soil. The group of fissurobionts unites most crickets, including the crickets Gryllus bimaculatus and Gryllus assimilis. The general appearance of fissurobionts is developed as a result of adaptation to a facultative habitat on the soil surface and in the soil, where they penetrate through cracks and crevices, without a clear impact on it. They are characterized by the following signs of habit: the body is compact, widest in the region of the posterior edge of the pronotum, and they have developed jumping organs. Additional characters: a tendency towards reduction of not only the hind wings, but also the elytra, a tendency towards the development of a more or less long ovipositor. Most representatives have developed wing polymorphism.

Bothrobionts live in the soil layer, often settling in the burrows of other animals; all the life processes of these animals are closely related to their habitat. Acheta domesticus is a synanthropic form, apparently developed from bothrobionts. This may be due to the transition of some rodents to living in human dwellings.

The connection between the life forms of crickets and natural layers can change at different moments in life. For most crickets, which have almost no direct adaptations to dry climates (an indirect adaptation is a hidden nocturnal lifestyle), the main distribution factors are moisture and temperature. On the stationary distribution cricket

They are also influenced by the structure of the substrate, its chemical composition (salinity) and vegetation.

Cricket lifestyle

All crickets require warmth to live. They rarely settle in apartments, since in the spring and autumn the heating is turned off, and the apartment becomes cold for these insects. Therefore, they prefer to choose their home in stores, at heating units, in bakeries, and boiler rooms.

It is almost impossible to see a cricket during the day, since its activity occurs at night. During daylight hours, they sit in crevices and secluded dark corners, and only at night can they be detected by sound.

There is a sign that if a cricket appears at home, it is good

Adult males control their territory, making daily rounds and checking it for the presence of rivals. If a stranger gets in the way, the crickets will inevitably fight. During a fight, they try to bite off each other's paws and antennae, and hit their thick heads. The winner may even eat the loser.

This spectacle is quite exciting to watch, so in some countries they even organize cricket fights. They have developed a special diet for fighting insects, cold medicines, and provide them with meetings with females to maintain morale.

Features of cricket

The main feature of this insect is its ability to chirp. Only males who use their vocal abilities in the interests of procreation are capable of this.

The familiar sound of a cricket is a kind of “serenade” for the female

First, the cricket lures the female, indicating its readiness to mate. Then he sings serenades to her, this is the period of courtship. Well, with the third type of signal, male crickets drive away competitors.

The sound is produced by rubbing the teeth of one elytra against the chirping cord of the other. The elytra rise and by their trembling form sharp vibrating movements, which are the source of sound.

Externally, crickets are similar to, but larger. The largest species living in our country is the field cricket, 2-2.6 cm in size, black with orange spots on the elytra and orange thighs.

The entire body of the insect is covered with a chitinous shell, which protects it from damage and reduces moisture loss. There are domestic, field and tree crickets, which differ in appearance. But everyone's songs are equally good.

Description of the Turkmen cockroach (Shelfordella tartara)

(6 – number of voters)

Posted in Invertebrates – Cockroaches

Turkmen cockroach (Shelfordella tartara) - this species is not large and it is very good because it does not climb on glass and other smooth vertical surfaces, it is soft and mobile.

The Turkestan cockroach inhabits the southern part of Central Asia, including the Fergana Valley east to Bazar Kurgan and Andijan and the western part of Uzbekistan north to Samarkand and Bukhara, the lower reaches of the Amu Darya, Turkmenistan to Krasnovodsk, but from the interior of the Karakum Desert.

Also inhabits Kashmir, all of Iran, Iraq, Arabia, Egypt and Sudan to Khartoum and Kerenaica. As a rule, it is found under stones, in parks, and can live next to people in dwellings with clay floors.

The species reaches a size of approximately 2.5 - 3 cm. The female is brown in color and has short, scale-like elytra, the wings are short and slightly protrude from under the elytra. In females, the wings are reduced, which makes sex determination easier.

You won’t need much time to set up a breeding colony of these animals.

You will need a small plastic container or an old aquarium, where you must make holes for ventilation. The substrate is optional, but it can be a mixture of large shavings and birch leaves, but cockroaches need shelter in the form of cardboard egg trays or pieces of bark.

You will also need plates for food and water, which cockroaches often drink a lot. The temperature should be about 27-30° C. If it is lower, then the cockroaches will not reproduce as quickly as you would like.

Turkestan cockroaches are usually fed with various fruits; you can give dandelions and plantain. They also love animal food and can even eat their relatives.

To prevent this from happening, you need to add chicken meat and dry gammarus to the diet of Turkestan cockroaches.

Dry dog, cat and fish food (it is best to give small and soft granules), dry oak leaves or oatmeal are also suitable.

Adults live from 3 to 5 months and reproduce continuously.

You need to keep in mind that a caught cockroach can secrete a sticky, unpleasant-smelling substance.

You do not have sufficient rights to comment. In order to comment, you need to register on the site!

Feeding frequency

Dry food should be present to insectaries at all times.

To avoid rotting, it is better to give succulent food (carrots, apples, cabbage, rutabaga) 1-2 times a day, after grating it on a coarse grater. A small portion, placed on a bowl, is left in the insectarium for an hour to an hour and a half, and then removed. At the next feeding, a new batch of grated feed is prepared. The same goes for pieces of meat.

Recommendation: water should always be freely available to insects. However, you should not put a drinking bowl in the insectarium - young crickets can drown in it. It is much more convenient to use a foam sponge soaked in water. You need to make sure it doesn't dry out!

Cricket Reproduction

Crickets have polygamous relationships, each male is the owner of a certain territory, which is inhabited by several females who are part of a kind of harem of this male. If another male encroaches on the territory of this male, fierce fights occur between them.

An obligatory attribute of the mating games of these insects is the famous trills of crickets, performing their musical serenades, the male attracts the female for mating.

Crickets breed throughout the year, but their peak sexual activity occurs in the summer. A fertilized female cricket prepares holes in the ground where she lays her eggs, somewhat similar to bananas. During one oviposition, a female cricket can lay from 40 to 179 eggs.

After one to two months (depending on the temperature and the environment in general), larvae begin to emerge from the eggs. The larva in its appearance resembles an adult cricket, but in order to become one, it will have to go through 10 molts, occurring over 7 weeks, during which the body undergoes restructuring. After the last molt, the larva produces a normal, mature cricket.