cricket breeding....

[disklutz1]

First of, hi.
well, as my project for a class, we were told to raise crickets, breed them, and observe their behaviors or whatnot. Then, we were told to design some kind of experiment involving the crickets, and have a formal lab written about the experiment.
so, is anyone willing to share any ideas for the experiment? I'm already having a difficult time finding out how to raise them and cope with them..

thank you!~

[david23]

Try and see what effects some drugs in your medicine cabinet have on them. Crickets are different from humans so some drugs might not work that well, but who cares, lets play around with it. Then measure the rate, jumping distance and stuff. Very simple right?

[disklutz1]

^ so you mean try testing for how the different variables(in this case, the medicinal drugs) affect cricket behaviour?...I kind of get what you're saying, like to try testing for both areas: chirping rates and jumping distances. right? But what kind of drugs? You mean like by feeding the crickets Tylenol and Nyquill, per say?

[david23]

The chirping, jumping, those are parameters u want to test. As to why u are testing them, u are using drugs on one group, and nothing on another. Your goal is to find out whether drugs that affect humans would affect insects. As for the results, u can say that it didnt work or worked because or maybe humans share the same so so that the drugs target.

[February Beetle]

I have a CD about insect songs and it mentions the effects of temperature on chirping rate, that might be interesting.

[sachin]

In addition you can study growth rate under diff. conditions as high tempareture, acidity, dif. food etc.

[disklutz1]

any setups for the experiment?

[Darby]

Crickets can be very temperamental in terms of reproduction and survival - you could test the effects of different environments.

You'll probably wind up testing groups rather than individuals, but even that isn't an easy task.

[disklutz1]

^ what kind of different enviornments? light is easy, but what about for temperature?

[Darby]

Crickets are pretty sensitive to humidity changes. Temperature could be varied with hot rocks. You can change the substrate - they prefer sand for reproduction, but will they use other surfaces? What would a salty, or peaty, or rocky surface do for/to them?

[ninetails]

I got something on my mind, as I had attempted growing them once. Will post a detailed post tomorrow with as much detail as possible.

[ninetails]

Hi ok this is based on my rough idea. Too bad I had only 1 semester alloted for entomology

Setup:

To get them to breed, you have make them happy, so focus on giving them a good shelter.

A glass or acrylic tank with dimensions; 2 feet*1feet*1.5feet (l * b * h).
Large glass containers are expensive, but worth it, because you can observe the specimen well. If you are ready for it don't hesitate to get a larger tank. You can later use it to study more really kewl insect species or fishes. You can use a wodden, plastic or whatever container you have, your choice.

Fill up the base with clay like soil, and get some grass growing on it. The soil layer has to be about 5 cms deep. To improve the fertility of the soil, mix a small amout of vermicompost (earthworm manure) to the soil.

Once the grass has started to grow well, you can introduce your Crickets. Don't release them when the grass is young, they will destroy the growing tips. Not more than 4 or 5 Crickets. Atleast 4.

FOOD:
Take a few fallen brown leaves and drop them in water that is already boiling nicely. Two minutes of boiling will do.
Make this mixture: table spoon of sugar or jaggery + 1/2 cup of coconut water + 1/2 spoon of common salt + 1/2 cup water. Mix well and soak the boiled leaves in this mixture.
This mixture is a deadly cocktail for microorganisms (fungi,bacteria,actinomycetes) (SALT+SUGAR+MINERALS from coconut water)
After soaking leave it buried in soil for a day or two. You can see nice fungal growth even if you can't see it, its all there.

You can place a suitable amount of this food source in the tank.

WATER: a flat bowl can be placed inside, insects love water.

Cover the tank with a dark paper or cloth and leave it.

Observe and see if our friends are doing fine in their new home. Place a few rocks and a piece of dead wood to provide extra cover for them.

Let them settle down for a while, I will run through some books to see what to do next