Case Study: How One Cricket Farm Eliminated Overnight Die-Offs

The farm reduced overnight die-offs by 72% within 30 days of adding automated night-time alerts. Before that change, they'd been losing 200–400 crickets every Monday morning for six weeks and couldn't explain why.

This is what they found, what they changed, and what the numbers looked like on the other side.

TL;DR

• The farm reduced overnight die-offs by 72% within 30 days of adding automated night-time alerts.
• Before that change, they'd been losing 200–400 crickets every Monday morning for six weeks and couldn't explain why.
• FCR was averaging 2.1, which they knew was above benchmark but couldn't isolate.
• Counts ranged from 180 to 420 dead per bin per event.
• Most of the dead were late juvenile and pre-adult stage crickets (Instars 6–8).
• The wall thermometer never showed it because it was reading warm air at 5 feet up.
• The first alert fired at 1:47 a.m. on the following Saturday night.

Background: A 30-Bin Operation With a Monday Morning Problem

The farm was running 30 bins of Acheta domesticus in a converted garage in a northern climate. Setup was reasonable, electric heaters, egg flats, water gel hydration, commercial feed. FCR was averaging 2.1, which they knew was above benchmark but couldn't isolate.

The die-off pattern: elevated mortality discovered on Monday mornings in bins on the north-facing wall, particularly bins at floor level. Counts ranged from 180 to 420 dead per bin per event. Most of the dead were late juvenile and pre-adult stage crickets (Instars 6–8).

Their hypothesis: disease. They'd been deep-cleaning affected bins and replacing batches, but the pattern kept repeating.

Step 1: Install Temperature Monitoring at Bin Level

The farm's existing setup had a single wall-mounted digital thermometer at about 5 feet high on the south wall. It consistently read 87°F during the day.

After installing four WiFi temperature sensors at bin height, two on the north wall, two in the center of the room, a different picture emerged:

• Center of room, bin height: 86–89°F consistently
• North wall, bin height (upper shelf): 84–87°F
• North wall, bin height (lower shelf): 72–78°F on cold nights
• During the Sunday night into Monday period: north wall floor-level temp dropped to 66°F between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.

The garage had a concrete slab floor and an uninsulated north wall. On cold nights, radiant cold from the slab and wall created a cold zone at floor level that the ceiling-mounted heater couldn't reach. The wall thermometer never showed it because it was reading warm air at 5 feet up.

The "Monday morning problem" was a weekend problem, specifically a Sunday night problem. The operator wasn't present on Sunday nights to run a final temperature check.

Step 2: Configure Overnight Alerts

With sensors in place and the cold zone identified, the farm configured low-temperature alerts at 78°F for the north wall sensors and 80°F for all sensors.

The first alert fired at 1:47 a.m. on the following Saturday night. The sensor on the north wall lower shelf read 76°F. The operator received a push notification, drove to the facility (15 minutes), and found the primary heater had been running at reduced output due to a thermostat issue. They added a portable ceramic heater aimed at the north wall floor zone.

Temperature was back to 83°F by 3 a.m. Monday morning: zero die-offs in the north wall bins for the first time in seven weeks.

Step 3: Address the Root Cause

The alert solved the immediate problem. The root cause needed a physical fix.

They added:

• Rigid foam insulation board (R-10) on the interior of the north wall
• Heat tape under the bins on the lower north wall shelf, connected to a separate thermostat set to 82°F minimum
• Repositioned the primary heater to direct warm air toward the north wall rather than the center of the room

After these changes, the north wall floor temperature held at 82–86°F overnight without the alert firing once in the following three weeks.

Step 4: Add Mortality Cause Tracking

With the temperature issue resolved, they added formal mortality cause tracking in CricketOps. Each die-off event, even minor ones, logged with bin ID, count, and cause category.

Within 30 days, this data revealed a second, smaller pattern: elevated drowning mortality in the same north wall bins, specifically during high-humidity summer periods. The water gel containers in those bins were condensing more moisture from the cooler wall temperature. They switched the north wall bins from water gel to fresh vegetable hydration in summer. Drowning mortality dropped 60% in those bins over the next two weeks.

The 30-Day Results

| Metric | Before | After 30 Days |

|---|---|---|

| Avg. overnight mortality events per week | 4.2 | 1.2 |

| Avg. crickets lost per event | 280 | 85 |

| Total monthly die-off loss (crickets) | ~4,700 | ~1,320 |

| Die-off reduction |, | 72% |

| FCR (farm average) | 2.1 | 1.85 |

| Monthly feed cost savings |, | ~$45 |

The FCR improvement was partly from die-off reduction (fewer dead crickets = more efficient use of feed) and partly from better temperature consistency improving growth rates in the affected bins.

What This Case Study Demonstrates

The overnight die-off problem had been misdiagnosed as disease for six weeks. The actual cause was temperature, and specifically a localized cold zone that was invisible without bin-level sensor placement.

The sequence that led to resolution:

1. Sensors at bin level (not wall-mounted) revealed the cold zone
2. Automated alerts caught the next event in real time before it became a full die-off
3. Insulation and heat tape addressed the physical cause
4. Mortality cause tracking revealed a secondary issue (drowning) that the temperature focus had masked

Without sensors at bin level, this farm would have kept deep-cleaning bins and replacing batches, treating a temperature problem as a disease problem indefinitely.

FAQ

What caused the overnight die-offs in this case study?

Cold air pooling near the floor on the north wall of a converted garage, dropping temperatures to 66–76°F during cold nights. The existing wall-mounted thermometer at 5 feet height never showed this, reading 87°F while floor-level bins experienced lethal temperatures. The problem was misidentified as disease for six weeks before temperature monitoring at bin level revealed the actual cause.

How quickly can temperature monitoring reduce cricket farm die-offs?

In this case, the first automated alert fired within a week of sensor installation and prevented a die-off that would have occurred without intervention. Full reduction of the chronic die-off pattern happened within 30 days of installing sensors, configuring alerts, and implementing the physical fix (insulation and heat tape). The 72% reduction in die-off events was achieved within the first month.

What changes did the farm make to eliminate the problem?

Three changes: (1) WiFi temperature sensors placed at bin level on all four walls, revealing a cold zone invisible to the existing wall thermometer; (2) automated overnight alerts that caught temperature drops before they reached the mortality threshold; (3) physical fixes, rigid foam insulation on the north wall interior and heat tape under floor-level bins on the north wall. Mortality cause tracking added afterward revealed a secondary drowning issue specific to the same bins.

How does CricketOps help track the metrics described in this article?

CricketOps provides bin-level logging for the variables that drive production outcomes -- feed inputs, environmental conditions, mortality events, and harvest results. Rather than maintaining these records in separate spreadsheets, you can view performance trends across bins and over time to identify which operational variables correlate with better outcomes in your specific facility.

Where can I find industry benchmarks to compare my operation's performance?

The North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture (NACIA) publishes periodic industry reports with production benchmarks. University extension programs in agricultural states, including the University of Georgia and University of Florida IFAS, occasionally publish insect farming production data. Industry conferences hosted by the Entomological Society of America and the Insects to Feed the World symposium series are additional sources of peer benchmarking data.

What is the biggest operational mistake cricket farmers make in their first year?

Expanding bin count before achieving consistent FCR and mortality targets in existing bins is the most common and costly first-year mistake. At 5-10 bins, problems are manageable. At 30-50 bins, the same proportional problems represent much larger financial losses. Most experienced cricket farmers recommend holding expansion until you have three consecutive production cycles hitting your FCR and mortality targets.

Sources

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) -- Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security
• North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture (NACIA)
• Entomological Society of America
• University of Georgia Cooperative Extension
• Journal of Insects as Food and Feed (Wageningen Academic Publishers)

Get Started with CricketOps

The practices covered in this article are easier to apply consistently when they are supported by organized production data. CricketOps gives cricket farmers the tools to track what matters -- by bin, by batch, and over time. Start your next production cycle in CricketOps and see how organized data changes the way you manage your operation.