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Jerusalem cricket lifespan?


Hisserdude

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I might get some of these next year, they apparently have been seen in ID, near me. Does anybody know how long the adult lifespan is?

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Why not?

To my knowledge people have not figured out how to get them to live long term in captivity. Much like the solpugids they often die after a short time. I base this on reading lots of online reports and my knowledge of many people I know that have tried and have had them die anywhere from a month to six months after bringing them in to captivity. If someone is reading this and they have had success please let up know. I have had some success with U.S. indigenous solpugids but this was based on simply making their enclosure only slightly larger than their body size and feeding them minimal food. I had no success with incubating their eggs.

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To my knowledge people have not figured out how to get them to live long term in captivity. Much like the solpugids they often die after a short time. I base this on reading lots of online reports and my knowledge of many people I know that have tried and have had them die anywhere from a month to six months after bringing them in to captivity. If someone is reading this and they have had success please let up know. I have had some success with U.S. indigenous solpugids but this was based on simply making their enclosure only slightly larger than their body size and feeding them minimal food. I had no success with incubating their eggs.

I've kept one of mine for roughly 2 years.

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Wow! What species? Please tell us what you are doing. :)

It was an unidentified Stenopelmatus sp. from CA. I purchased 4 individuals from a friend of mine. When I first got them, I didn't know how to keep them so I kept them in sand, which turned out to be the worst choice ever as all four got sick and started loosing tarsi and antennae. Just few months after I received them, I ended up with a single "sickly looking" specimen. At that time, I was pretty much giving up hope on this guy and dumped him into the Nauphoeta cinera enclosure and forgot about it until about 5 months later. I saw a huge figure moving in the Nauphoeta enclosure so I dug up the eco earth in the cage and checked what was inside. To my surprise, a gigantic adult male Stenopelmatus was sitting in there. So, I left him in the enclosure and took out all the lobster roaches inside, and I fed him some live crickets and dog chows occasionally. This guy guy continued to live for another year until it started loosing antennae and became sluggish, and one day I found sitting on the substrate, dead. :(

On a side note, I received 4 Stenopelmatus sp. (one died recently :( )two CA people so I'm hoping to have some luck with these guys.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Many premature captive deaths are the result of horsehair worms. The Insect Zoo has yet to get a JC which hasn't had a worm... there's no way to tell until a day or two before the stupid thing emerges.

Good story, Cariblatta! I'm sure he enjoyed living with so much potential food!

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  • 6 months later...

Finally acquired some of these, 3 immatures, to be exact. Here are some pics of the largest one.

JC%25231.JPG

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Hopefully I can rear them to adulthood, and then maybe try and breed them. :rolleyes: Aren't they so cute? :P

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Hey Cariblatta,

Was the sand you used by any chance calcium sand? Calcium sand is apparently very bad for invertebrates, and makes them sick. Maybe that is why yours died when kept on sand? Because these guys often live in dunes, so I would think they would love sand.

Just curious.

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Hey Cariblatta,

Was the sand you used by any chance calcium sand? Calcium sand is apparently very bad for invertebrates, and makes them sick. Maybe that is why yours died when kept on sand? Because these guys often live in dunes, so I would think they would love sand.

Just curious.

I used the sand I collected from Florida near a lake, which may have contained calcium

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Ah ok. Weird, that should have been just fine for them. Oh well.

Just got another shipment of these guys, I'm up to 8 Jerusalem crickets! Can't wait to try to breed them! :)

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  • 8 months later...

So my 8 nymphs have been doing very well, a protien rich diet seems to be the key to keeping these. One male nymph does looks pretty sickly at the moment, but the rest are great. One of my males seems to have matured and my largest female just molted to maturity a couple of days ago, man is she big! Now that I have an adult pair I'm going to fatten the female up and attempt to mate them, which I may or may not tape. Hopefully I will be successful, if my male kills her I will be pretty upset...

Here are some pictures of the adult female, (Her name is Swirl, pretty sure you can guess why):

JC%252326.JPG

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JC%252328.JPG

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