How to Grow Crickets for Profit in 6 Steps

Do you want to start growing crickets for profit? If YES, here are 6 steps on how to grow crickets for profit with no money or experience. Cricket farming is a method where you can raise crickets. You can raise them outdoors if you have a setting for them that you can keep warm enough. However, if not, you can always raise them discretely indoors because they require such small amounts of space. Here are detailed steps to achieve this goal.

Growing Crickets for profit requires little space, especially since this business can be set up in your basement or a small room. Note that to make money in this line of business, you have to grow and sell them in large quantities. Since each female cricket lays between 5 and 10 eggs per day, it doesn’t take long to produce a sizable number of the insects.

You can gather supplies such as containers to house the crickets while they grow. You will also need metal screening with small holes that you attach to the top of the containers to stop the crickets from escaping while still giving them enough air to breathe.

Crickets lay their eggs in soil, peat moss or bedding material you place in the container. You also need to start with a few dozen crickets, including an equal number of female and males so they can breed and multiply. Since crickets need heat to grow, find space near your furnace, or use a reptile heating element to keep the container warm.

If you are an entrepreneur or a homesteader that is looking for more ways to add a little extra cash to your wallet, then you might want to consider selling crickets. It is inexpensive to start this business and obviously has many different markets available to sell to. So if you are looking for a new business to start, then you might want to really consider cricket farming.

Figure out who wants to buy crickets in your area, such as bait shops, fishermen or pet shops that need to feed their reptiles. Find out how many crickets they need and how often. Urge them to buy from you by mentioning the benefits of buying local, such as not needing to pay shipping costs to get their supply of crickets.

You should also consider talking to chain pet stores to see if they need a distributor in your region to supply the local stores with crickets. Another option is to approach local zoos to find out their needs for the insects. You can definitely start a cricket farming business and do well with it if you know how to market correctly and raise a quality product.

6 Steps to Grow Crickets for Profit

1. Get Their Home Ready

To start this farming business, you will need a 14-gallon bin that has high and smooth sides. You need the high sides to keep the crickets from being able to easily jump out of the bin. However, if you have a bin with indentions in the side, the crickets can easily use them as a ladder to climb up on and then jump over the edges of the bin.

Howbeit, you have to make sure your bin is well designed for the project. You’ll also need a fresh water source for your crickets. This can be as simple as a shallow dish with water in it, or a water pad. Just be sure that the crickets won’t drown in the water. Finally, ensure your bin is very well ventilated. If the crickets can’t breathe, they obviously won’t make it. So take that into consideration as well.

2. Buy the Crickets

Once you have the crickets’ home all ready to go, you’ll then have to purchase your crickets. They usually go for about a dime apiece. So you’ll need about 500 crickets to get started. The key is to keep the crickets’ bin at a consistent 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Feed the Crickets

Have it in mind that feeding the cricket is where it can get interesting depending upon their purpose. If you are raising them for human consumption, then you’ll need to play around with this step a little bit. The reason is that crickets’ taste will vary depending what they eat. So you’ll need to figure out what to feed them in order to give them the best flavour.

Howbeit, if you intend to raise them for consumption by animals, then you can feed them whatever ends up being the most cost-effective for you. However, you will need to feed your crickets’ plants such as cucumbers, pumpkin plants, and other plant-based items.

4. Create a Maternity Area

Note that Crickets lay eggs which mean you have to come up with an area for them to lay their eggs. This is as simple as filling a small tray with top soil. You’ll then need to place the tray inside the bin. Also note that you have to spray the tray daily with water to keep it moist and desirable for the crickets to lay their eggs in.

When you begin seeing things within the soil that look like tiny grains of rice sticking up, then you’ll know that your crickets have laid their eggs. Once you begin to see this, you’ll need to remove the tray and prepare for the next step.

5. Incubate the Eggs

Cricket eggs have to be incubated. They require a warm climate with around a 90% humidity level. You could try using a regular incubator to do this or place the tray under a heat lamp or on a heating pad to provide the warmth. However, an incubator would be the easiest route so you could control the humidity levels. They’ll need to remain incubated until they hatch within 7-10 days from the start of incubation. However, be sure that you are spraying the soil in the tray daily during incubation. This is important to make sure that the crickets hatch.

5. Raise the Babies

After your baby crickets must have hatched, you will need to have a separate area to raise them until they grow large enough to be integrated with the other crickets on the farm. In addition, you’ll need to feed the baby crickets large amounts of protein while they are at this stage. You can feed them things like small bites of tofu and chicken to give them the protein they need. They’ll spend about a month in the ‘cricket baby centre’ growing and maturing.

6. Add Them Back to the Cycle

Once the first month has passed and the baby crickets have gained enough size to be integrated with the other crickets, you can switch them over. Then in a few weeks after integration, they’ll be ready for breeding and joining the cycle of the cricket farm. Note that when you get this whole process down to a science, you’ll have crickets rotating regularly and your cricket farm will begin to grow.

Why Would You Raise Crickets?

You might be wondering why you would even raise crickets to begin with. There are indeed lots of reasons to raise crickets. They are:

1. Human Protein

Gradually, people are getting past the idea of eating a cricket, and it might surprise you to learn just how good they actually are for our health. Crickets contain a ton of protein without a lot of fat or calories. Indeed, they contain more protein per bite (per density) than beef or chicken can provide per bite. For example, in a 100-gram cricket there is 16-21 grams of protein.

Also, there are only 5 grams of fat and 121 calories per 100 grams of crickets. Beef can contain up to 300 calories per 100 grams. In addition, the fat that crickets have is actually the good kind that will not raise your cholesterol.

2. Bird Feeds

Just as Crickets provide good proteins for humans, they also provide the exact same amount to birds or chickens. Note that crickets can be an inexpensive way to up their protein intake and ultimately help the health of any flock. In this age, farmers are beginning to consider cricket farming when looking for low budget ways to feed their poultry.

3. For Bait

Crickets are more or less used as bait when fishing. Considering how inexpensive raising crickets can be, it could potentially save fishers a good amount of money in the long run.

4. Reptile Meals

Reptiles love crickets. For individuals who rear reptiles, crickets can serve as protein meal or snack for the reptiles. Purchasing crickets are not super expensive, and they cost much less to raise.

Conclusion

Indeed you can start a cricket farming business and do well with it if you know how to market correctly and raise a quality product, but remember that birthing a business takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. Also, begin by advertising locally. You can pitch your points on sites like Facebook, Craig’s List, and local yard sale pages. If you are selling them from the approach of good health, you might want to consider speaking to some people that are in the holistic field because they might be able to put you in touch with clients in that market.