Tropical House Cricket - Roach Crossing

Gryllodes sigillatus “Florida Man”

Starter colony (15 mixed nymphs): $20
60 mixed nymphs: $70

Detailed Species Stats -Click-

Adult Size: 25 mm.
Care Level: Easy.
Temperature Requirements: 70-90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Air Humidity: Dry.
Substrate Humidity: Moist.
Favorite Foods: Not picky.
Locality: None.

This useful cricket has been mass-produced in recent years to replace/supplement the “common” house cricket (Acheta domesticus) as a popular feeder insect. The latter species is susceptible to a presumably viral pathogen that devastated captive breeding stock, while the former species is apparently resistant. However, despite numerous attempts at starting colonies from store bought crickets, I always had die-offs and no success. I decided to start anew with wild stock collected during the 2021 Roach Crossing Florida trip. Despite their prevalence in the wild (males can be heard everywhere even in winter in tropical parts of Florida), our group was only able to find two adult females from locations hundreds of miles apart. Fortunately with hardy, disease-free wild stock this was more than enough to propagate and I quickly grew a monstrous colony. I have dubbed this strain “Florida Man” in honor of the collecting trip/location as well as the zeitgeist of the phenomenon. Given a few inches of substrate kept half dry and half moist with excellent air column ventilation, this is one of the easiest cricket strains to propagate as the eggs do not need to be cupped, moved around, removed, or otherwise hassled with.