The effects of temperature, moisture content, and cricket frass on gas emissions and survival rates in cricket farming at Honghee Village, Kalasin Province, Thailand
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Abstract
Cricket frass accumulation in ponds presents a waste management challenge that can impact cricket farming productivity and quality. This study examines the effects of temperature, moisture content, and cricket frass on emissions of ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and on cricket survival. This study used a fractional factorial design with treatments repeated three times and was conducted in a temperature-controlled box (0.40 m × 0.60 m × 0.37 m). Freshly prepared and cleaned cricket frass, with adjusted moisture levels, was used. Gas production was monitored daily for 42 days. After replacing the frass with new samples corresponding to the 15 treatments, the environmental impacts on adult crickets were assessed over 7 days, during which the crickets showed a notably high survival rate. The findings indicated that temperature, moisture content, and cricket frass significantly influenced gas emissions and cricket survival rates. A higher moisture content increased the degradation of cricket frass, leading to increased microbial activity and heightened gas production. NH3 was predominantly detected at the lower positions of the test box. Elevated levels of NH3 (91.5 ppm) and CO2 (1395 ppm) were observed at 40 ℃ temperature, 30% w.b. moisture content, and 12.86 kg/m² cricket frass. Despite environmental variations, cricket survival rates remained consistently high, ranging from 95% to 99%, particularly with low moisture content (20% w.b.) and minimal cricket frass accumulation (4.17 kg/m²). This research can assist the environmental management of low-level factors to achieve high cricket productivity. The future application for cricket farms involves managing the environment appropriately, such as cleaning cricket ponds weekly to prevent cricket frass accumulation, controlling the moisture content of food, particularly fresh plant-based food, and using watering methods that do not increase the humidity inside the cricket pond. Additionally, commercial cricket farming could be conducted in controlled temperature rooms.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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