Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Rickeezee]

Hi all, please help. Just started to breed crickets. Keeping the eggs in moist silver sand in plastic tubs with perforated lids. Temp about 80. Trouble is after a couple of days all the tubs have started to hatch tiny little white things, mites? They don't look like crickets to me! Might be the sand is to moist or the temp is wrong? The adult cricket tanks have no mites in at all, it is only happening when I transfer the sand tubs to the heated area. Adults have a 20w halogen for heat and seem OK on this. I must be doing something wrong, any help / adivce much appreciated. Thanks. Rick

[gargoyle]

They are the crickets. They go brown in a few days.

[Rickeezee]

AHA, I was worried they were mites as they seem way smaller then the eggs and are very small white and rounded. Cheers.
Rick
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[Cornuta]

i started microwaving all the soil i use for crickets laying material... that sorted out any problems with mites.

at 75 deg f my cricket eggs take about 3 weeks to hatch

[Rickeezee]

Hi
I have looked on the net at mites it seems thats what are in the crix egg tubs, their just to small and nothing like the pix on the net of hatchling crix's. I will microwave the soil in future, cheers.
Rick

[phate]

I use vermiculite for hatching cricket eggs. Never had any mite problems while using it. It's less messy than soil and holds moisture well. You could try using it if you keep getting mites.

[Rickeezee]

Since microwaving the silver sand no more mites. Vermiculite seems worth trying, the silver sand crusts up very quickly and is hard to keep moist in my homemade egg incubator temp 80 degrees.
cheers Rick

[Rickeezee]

All sorted now. Not a mite in site; microwaving the sand did the trick. Crickets now hatching in second batch , destroyed the first batch due to the mites.
Rick