Published October 26, 2026 · The Cricket Depot, San Antonio, Texas
Raising your own house crickets (Acheta domesticus) is a fun project, and it can take a bit of pressure off a feeding budget if you keep one or two hungry reptiles. It's also a good way to learn how much work goes into a box of healthy feeders. This guide covers a simple home setup, the numbers that matter and the mistakes that cause most colonies to crash. Expect a learning curve: the first cycle is rarely perfect, and a small home colony is a hobby, not a business.
What you need
- Two or three plastic tubs with smooth sides, around 15–30 gallons for the adults. Smooth walls stop crickets climbing out.
- A lid with a large cut-out covered in fine metal or fiberglass screen. Pinheads can slip through window screen gaps, so the finer the better for hatchling tubs.
- Egg carton or egg crate flats, stood on end.
- A heat source with a thermostat: a heat mat or heat cable on the side of the tub, or a warm room. Add a thermometer you can read at a glance.
- Shallow plastic containers (deli cups or food tubs) for egg-laying, filled with a moist, chemical-free medium.
- Food, a safe water source and a spray bottle.
- A starting group of adults, or large nymphs that will mature in a week or two.
Ventilation comes first
More home colonies are lost to stale, damp air than to anything else. Waste builds up ammonia and moisture, mold follows, and crickets start dying. Give the lid as much screen as you can and keep the main tub dry. The only damp spots should be the water source and the laying dish. If the tub smells sharp or you see condensation on the walls, you need more airflow, fewer crickets or more cleaning.
Temperature and humidity
House crickets breed and grow best warm. Aim for about 80–90°F in the tub. On our life cycle page you'll see that house crickets reach adulthood in about 57 days at 86–90°F. Cooler than about 75°F and everything slows down: adults lay fewer eggs, eggs take longer to hatch and nymphs grow slowly. Much hotter than the low 90s and you risk losses, so use a thermostat rather than guessing. Keep the tubs out of direct sun, which can overheat a closed box in minutes, especially in a Texas summer.
Keep the air in the adult tub fairly dry and give moisture only where it's needed: in the egg-laying dish and the incubation tub.
Setting up the adult tub
Stand egg carton on end so crickets can spread out vertically. Crowding is the number one killer of crickets, and it's also what drives cannibalism. Put dry food in a shallow lid on one side and a water source on the other. Never use an open water dish: crickets drown in standing water. Water crystals, a damp sponge or slices of potato, carrot or orange all work. Our care guide covers the basics of keeping crickets healthy, and they apply here too.
Males, females and the sex ratio
Adult females have a long, needle-like tube at the rear called an ovipositor, which they use to push eggs into soil. Males don't have one, and they're the ones that chirp. You don't need many males: a group with more females than males, roughly two or three females per male, is a common choice. Too many males means more fighting and noise without more eggs.
The egg-laying dish
Fill a shallow container an inch or two deep with a moist medium. Peat moss, coconut coir, topsoil without fertilizer or additives, or clean play sand all work. Keep it damp like a wrung-out sponge, never soggy. Females push eggs a little way under the surface. A piece of screen or mesh over the top lets them lay but stops adults digging up and eating the eggs.
Leave the dish in with the adults for about a week, then lift it out and put in a fresh one. That gives you batches of nymphs that are all about the same age, which makes sizing and feeding much easier.
Incubating the eggs
Put each laying dish in its own warm tub, ideally around 85–90°F. The eggs are tiny, yellowish-white and rice-shaped. Lightly mist the surface every day or two so it never dries out; dry eggs die. Watch for mold and remove any patches you see. At the warm end of the range, house cricket eggs hatch in roughly 8–14 days. Cooler temperatures stretch that out.
Caring for pinheads
Newly hatched pinheads are smaller than 1/8 inch and very delicate. Give them:
- Moisture they can't drown in. Water gel or crystals are the safest choice; a cotton ball or paper towel works in a pinch.
- Finely ground food, such as cricket food or oats ground to a powder.
- Lots of crumpled egg carton for surface area.
- Warmth and a fine-mesh lid.
Once nymphs are a couple of weeks old you can move them on to the same food and water you give adults. Our size chart shows what size you'll have at each age.
Food and water
A simple dry base works well: commercial cricket food, chick starter, oats or fish flakes, plus fresh vegetables for moisture and nutrition. Carrot, sweet potato, squash and leafy greens are all good. Remove fresh food before it molds, usually within a day or two. The better you feed your crickets, the better they feed your animals, which is what gut-loading is about.
Crowding and cannibalism
Crickets will eat each other when they're short on protein, short on water or packed too tightly. Freshly molted crickets are soft and especially vulnerable. To keep losses down:
- Give plenty of egg carton so there's surface area for everyone.
- Keep food and water topped up at all times.
- Include some protein in the dry food.
- Keep different ages in separate tubs. Big crickets eat small ones.
- Don't overstock. If you see lots of missing legs and bodies, thin the tub out.
Odor control
A healthy colony has a mild smell. A strong or sour smell means waste, dead crickets or spoiled food are building up. Remove dead crickets and leftover fresh food every day, keep the bin dry, and add ventilation. Every few weeks, move the crickets into a clean tub and wash the old one with hot water. Skip harsh cleaners and scented products, and rinse and dry the tub well before reuse.
Signs of problems
- Lots of deaths at once: often heat, ammonia, wet bedding or a chemical exposure such as bug spray or air freshener nearby.
- Mold or a wet, sticky floor: too much moisture or uneaten food. Clean and improve airflow.
- No eggs hatching: the medium dried out, adults dug up the eggs or the incubator is too cool.
- Slow growth: usually too cool or underfed.
- Tiny mites, flies or gnats: often from damp food or a soggy laying dish. Clean, dry out and replace the medium.
The harvest cycle
Because you swap the laying dish about once a week, you end up with a row of tubs at different ages: one hatching, one at small, one at medium and so on. Feed from the tub that matches your animal, and keep a few dozen of each new generation back to grow into breeders. Adults only live a few weeks once mature, so start a new breeding group before the old one fades. Plan on roughly two months from egg to egg-laying adult in a warm setup; see the cricket life cycle for the stages.
How to start
Start small. One adult tub, one incubation tub and a few hundred adults or large nymphs is plenty for a first try. Run one full cycle, take notes on temperature and hatch timing, then scale up only if it's working. Keep your crickets contained, and never release them outdoors.
And if a cycle crashes, or you need more than your colony can make, we've got you covered. Our house crickets come in five sizes, pinhead to adult, from San Antonio. A minimum order of 1,000 is $45, then $20 per extra 1,000, with free shipping in Texas and a live arrival guarantee.