Do you know that eating bugs is healthy? To be more precise, crickets are incredibly beneficial to your
health.
I am aware that eating crickets can be thought to be rather “taboo” in many cultures, and I’m not sure
even I could bring myself to start putting them on my dinner table.
But it’s made me think that if they’re good for me, they might be good for my animals as well.
Additionally, raising them takes almost any room at all and is really simple.
As a result, after reading this post, you might reconsider becoming a cricket farmer if you’ve never given
it any thought.
Cricketfarming – what is it?
You can raise crickets using the technique known as “cricket farming.” If you have a place for them that
you can keep them warm enough, you can raise them outside.
If not, though, you may always raise them covertly indoors as well since they need such little room.
How can a cricket farm be started?
1. Prepare their residence
Crickets flourish in conditions that are warm, wet, and shaded. Anywhere that you can keep temps
between 60 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit (the closer to 90, the faster they’ll breed) and high humidity will
work to raise them, whether it be a closet, barn, shed, or backyard patio. It is important to keep them
away from wind and bright sunlight to prevent drying out.
In addition, For your crickets, you’ll also require a source of fresh water. This can be as easy as a water
pad or a shallow dish with water in it. Just make sure the crickets won’t get trapped in the water and
drown.
Lastly, be certain that their house has excellent ventilation. The crickets won’t survive if they can’t
breathe, of course. Therefore, keep it in mind as well.
2. Purchase the Crickets.
You’ll need to buy your crickets once the crickets’ habitat is ready to depart. They typically sell for
around a penny each.
So, to start, you’ll need roughly 500 crickets. The crucial thing is to maintain a steady 86 degrees
Fahrenheit in the crickets’ bin.
3. Provide cricket food.
You will need to experiment a bit with this phase if you are raising them for human food. The
explanation is that the flavour of crickets depends on what they eat. In order to offer them the best
flavour, you’ll need to decide what to feed them.
On the other hand,, if you are raising them for animal food, you are free to feed them whatever proves
to be the most affordable option for you.
Feeding your crickets with plants like cucumbers, pumpkin plants, and other plant-based foods will be
necessary.
4. Establish a Maternity Room
Crickets lay eggs, therefore you’ll need to choose a location for them to do so. It only requires adding
topsoil to a tiny tray to do this. After that, you must put the tray inside the trash can.
To maintain the tray moist and appealing for the crickets to lay their eggs in, you’ll need to spritz it with
water each day. You’ll know your crickets have set their eggs when you start noticing items in the dirt
that are like tiny grains of rice poking up.
You must take the tray out and get ready for the following action once you start to notice this.
5. Care for young crickets.
Male crickets will start chirping when the temperature and humidity are ideal, signalling that mating has
started. The potting soil should be filled with eggs after 7 to 10 days (they look like miniature grains of
rice). Place the container in the second tote and maintain a warm, humid environment there without
the screen. Nymphs, the crickets’ young, will start to hatch in a week. The baby crickets will require the
same set-up as the adults, including a perlite substrate and containers for food, water, and sponges, as
well as the same daily maintenance procedures.
6. Harvest
Within two months, adult crickets achieve their full size. Transferring them to a freezer, where they
painfully enter a state of hibernation and never awakening, is what is meant by “harvesting” them.
Place the entire tote inside a chest freezer if you have one large enough. You can return a few hours
later and collect all the dead crickets into plastic bags. Alternately, store the plastic-wrapped egg cartons
in the fridge after covering them with crickets. Even though they won’t perish, after a few hours they
won’t be able to move around, and you may scrape them off into smaller bags to store in your freezer.
You can roast, season, and consume whole frozen crickets. You may also dehydrate them and make
flour from them.
7. The Cycle of Cricket Farming
Dispose of the perlite and potting soil after each harvest, and clean the tote. When the baby crickets in
your tote begins to chirp, put some potting soil inside so they can lay eggs and continue the cycle.
