Armstrong Crickets announces the retirement of Bill Armstrong, owner of Armstrong’s Cricket Farm.  Bill inherited the company from his father, Tal, and continued in his footsteps to keep Armstrong Cricket Farm as one of the largest cricket growers in the United States.

Known for his attention to detail and knowledge of crickets, Bill leaves the company in the hands of his sons Jack, Jimmy, and Jeff Armstrong. The new owners are not “new” to cricket farming at all. The brothers have worked with their father Bill most all their lives and will continue the Armstrong legacy of healthy cricket and worm farming.

Armstrong Cricket Farms continues to grow the original cricket that started the cricket farming industry – the Acheta domestica. This cricket is brown in color, has a soft shell, and is preferred by most predators for its scent. Armstrong has farms in 2 locations in the south. Multiple locations allow Armstrong Cricket Farm to keep healthy amounts of crickets and worms and provide customers with fast and reliable service.

Since the 1990s, Louisiana farm owner, Jack Armstrong, has thrown an annual Mardi Gras party in West Monroe to coincide with the Krewe of Janus parade. The parade begins directly in front of one of Armstrong's cricket breeding buildings and travels through the downtown areas of West Monroe and Monroe. Jack celebrates with employees, their families, and the community by cooking Louisiana favorites gumbo and red beans and rice. This year, Miss Louisiana, Hope Anderson, stopped by Armstrong's farm to say hello to Jack's guests and warm up from the cold weather.

Laissez les bon temps roulet!

The optimum temperature for keeping live mealworms is between 42-50 degrees. You can store the mealworms in the refrigerator in their original shipping container from Armstrong’s Crickets. Each week, remove the live mealworms from the refrigerator and allow them to warm up so that they will emerge from their state of hibernation and eat and drink. Feed them byplacing oatmeal or wheat bran in the container with the mealworms along with a water source. We at Armstrong’s like to use our total water bites or small bits of potatoes, carrots or apples as a water source for mealworms.  Leave the mealworms at room temperature for24 hours to ensure they have emerged from their state of hibernation and have gotten the proper nutrition before returning them to the refrigerator.

If you purchase bulk mealworms from Armstrong Crickets, it is highly likely that many will continue to grow and shed their skin. Remember to remove the excess shells before feeding mealworms to yourreptile or bird. It is a good idea to clean out their bedding by removing excess vegetables and shed skins before returning them to the refrigerator. It is not necessary to remove the oatmeal, as it can be used for mealworm bedding as well.

This method of caring for mealworms is very effective and will ensure you have a supply of live reptile food for weeks. One more tip: when feeding mealworms to bluebirds it is important you place them outdoors in a shallow, smooth sided dish (like a dog food bowl). This will ensure the mealworms don’t crawl away before the birds can enjoy them!

Worm composting, or vermiculture, is the use of worms to recycle food scraps and other organic material into rich, valuable soil. Worms eat scraps of food, which then become compost as they pass through the worm’s body. The compost departs the worm and can be used to aid the growth of plants. Why is vermicompost good for plants? Worms eat nutrient-rich fruit and vegetable scraps. The food they eat is then turned into nutrient-rich compost.

You can use worms to help your lawn, flowers, or vegetable garden. Here’s how to set up a worm bin:

Materials needed:
• Raw fruit and vegetable scraps
• Box (5-10 gallon, not too deep)
• Moist newspaper strips
• Worms (typically red worms or red wigglers)

Worms need:
• Moisture
• Air
• Food
• Darkness
• Warm, not hot, temperatures

First, you need to choose a box. A 5-10 gallon generally works best. Make sure you pick a shallow box, as red wigglers prefer to live close to the surface (in the top 6” of the soil). Once you get your box, you will need to rinse it out.

Worms need air, darkness, moisture, and warm (not hot) temperatures. Use moist newspaper strips or leaves to line the box. The strips or leaves will hold moisture and contain air spaces that the worms need.

After three to five months, your box will be filled with compost and very little bedding. It is now time to harvest your bin! After several months, your worms will need to be removed from their castings. High concentrations of vermicastings can create an unhealthy environment for the worms. To prepare for harvesting, do not add new food to your compost bin for two weeks.

To harvest, move all of the contents in the bin to one side. Remove any large pieces of undecomposed newspaper or food. On the empty side, put fresh bedding and food scraps. Continue burying food scraps only in the newly bedded half.

Over the next couple of weeks, the worms will move to the freshly laid bedding (where the food is), and leave their compost behind in the other half of your bin. Once this has happened, remove the compost and replace it with fresh bedding. In order to facilitate worm migration, cover the new side of the bin only, causing things to dry out on the old side.

It is very important to have water available to your crickets at all times. One of the quickest ways to kill crickets is to take them away from their water source, but also know that crickets drown very easily. This is why we do not recommend you have an open pool of water near your crickets. Your watering device can be as simple as a damp sponge, but check it daily to make sure it is damp! Armstrong sells watering devices that keep a constant moisture on the sponges without subjecting the crickets to pools of water. Check our feeding and watering devices when deciding what option fits your schedule and the crickets' needs best.

Depending on the final destination of the crickets, during shipping we choose from among three types of food: water bites, total bites, and potatoes. Potatoes serve as both a water and a food source, so we usually include a potato with each cricket shipment. Even though potatoes are an acceptable food source for crickets, we do not recommend feeding potatoes to your crickets. Potatoes can cause a damp environment that if left for more than 3 days can be harmful to our species of cricket. Please see the product information for more about the water bites and total bites.

Crickets can endure heat, but are sensitive to colder temperatures. Winter shipments of crickets that appear lifeless are usually in a state of hibernation. Allow your crickets to warm up to room temperature for two or three hours before passing judgment on their condition. The cold temperatures can cause the crickets to become dormant, but after a few hours at room temperature they usually perk right up!

Crickets should be kept in temperatures between 70° - 75° F; this ideal range of temperature is key for proper function of crickets’ metabolism and immune system. Crickets should not be exposed to direct sunlight, high humidity, or drafts of cold air.

Cricket containers should be cleaned often, to ensure a healthier, longer life for your crickets. When cleaning your container, remove all dead crickets and waste material. Rinse the container out with hot water or a mild bleach solution. Pesticides or cleaning solutions, other than a mild bleach solution, should NEVER be used to clean your cricket container. Make sure your container is dry before adding more crickets as crickets do not do well around water. Once you have the basics, you should have a great lasting supply of live feed for your pet.