(Sounds of crickets in the “breeders tent”)
I’m not in a forest. I’m not in a park. I’m not even outside. I’m here in an old rundown warehouse in Youngstown Ohio—the perfect place, says Kevin Bachhuber, to grow crickets. “So these are our babies. They’re actually hardening up right now,” said Bachhuber.
Bachhuber’s a proud father. He’s the owner of Big Cricket Farms which operates out of this warehouse. The crickets live in big black square tents that sit right on the warehouse floor. Inside the tents are bright lights, an interior like tin foil and stacks of Rubbermaid tubs.
Crack a lid on one of those tubs and you’ll find cricket city. “There are little cricket high-rises made out of egg carton. If you look here, the little tiny grains of rice things—wow, there’s a lot of them—are the eggs,” said Bachhuber.