does it smell when you breed locusts? 100 locusts doesnt even feed all of my geckos for 1 day so was thinking of breeding them but if they smell then im not sure.

id breed roaches but i live in a flat and if even one got out im sure id get evicted

do you NEED a lamp for locusts to breed either, iv been looking at some guides and they say use a heat mat and a lamp but will a heat mat do just fine on its own?

then if i can get them breeding i wont have to spend so much on locusts as its expensive with the amount i get through!

No, its rather odour free as you have to keep cleaning them out otherwise they tend to die off. A heat mat works well, they don't really like light anyway. I only use a heat mat and mine have bred quite a few times before I forgot about them.

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cool, so what can i house them in cheaply? dont want to buy a specialist locust setup. and to clean them out, can i just liek sweep the bottom into a dustpan and brush or something and then replace it with more substrate?

ye thats the easiest way to clean the substrate. Just house them in a medium faunarium or somethin similar, ya dont need anythin specific, i just house mine in a old small fish tank with a viv lid, does the job fine. Just clean it often or it will start to smell.

I only have one animal in my house that eats them, but I have plenty of plants that eat them too. . Therefore I didn't need a lot, but I used one of those plastic goldfish tanks with metal screen under the top. I didn't use alot of substrate, only about a 2mm layer of sawdust. To clean them out I quickly (You have to be quite quick but they don't hop away like crix. if they escape they stay still) put them in a transparent clother box and they're live in that for 1` week, then i'd transfer them into the goldfish thingy again and clean out the clother box for that week ect.

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i just know that with crickets, you have to keep that water clean or it will stink in no time. never seen locusts before, just grasshoppers.

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ok, thats cool, now, if i pick them up with feeding tongs, and they spit out that black goo, does that mean i just killed them or is that ok?

nar thats just a defence mechanism, dont let it get on ya cloths or anythin tho, its a bastard to get off!!

cool, ill buy a second faunarium then and try and breed the little buggers, can i use argos play sand for them to lay in or does it have to be this mystical silver sharp sand?

Not sure bout argos sand, i dont use any sand. I use newspaper for main base sustrate, then cover that with oats and weetabix, Then use leaves and greenary, tomoates, potatoe etc for food an then I use egg crates for them to lay the eggs in.