How to breed Locusts

[supernaturalfan]

Originally Posted by Eddie H

I was successful a couple of years ago (down to beginners luck), not sure what the incubation temperature was! I am now using a bigger setup and have plenty eggs. It's coming up to two weeks and still no hatchlings from the first batch. The floor temperature is ranging from 27degrees to 33degrees. I wonder if I am cooking the eggs, hence no babies?

Also, if the substrate is too damp, could I be drowning the eggs?

Eddie

Hi Eddie, I doubt you're cooking the eggs, in fact it sounds like it might not be hot enough. Information below is taken from the Locust handbook; 10-14 days is in the hottest temperatures with cooler climates and seasons taking 25 days and even up to 70 days in cold weather.

It's also the soil temperature that's important so 27 to 33 degrees floor temperatures probably means a soil temperature much lower than that. So it sounds like not enough heat is the problem.

As for drowning I'm not sure, some locusts lay eggs during monsoon seasons and that doesn't seem to affect the eggs. They need some moisture which the eggs absorb during their development. If there is no water they become dormant until rewetted.

I keep my soil moist rather than wet and have had no problem with hatchlings. Lots of heat and some moisture seems to work for me.

2.1. 3. INCUBATION PERIOD AND HATCHING
The rate at which eggs develop varies according to the soil temperature. The period of egg development, between laying and hatching, is called the INCUBATION PERIOD.
The lengths of this period recorded for different areas and seasons are as follows:-

Summer breeding in Sudan, Ethiopia and West Africa............................................10 to 14 days

Summer breeding in lowlands of India .................................................. ...................10 to 14 days

Summer and winter in Somali Peninsula......................................... .......................... 10 to 14 days

Summer and winter on Red Sea Coast............................................. ....................... 10 to 14 days

Spring breeding in central Arabia, southern Iran,
Pakistan and North Africa............................................ ........................................... 25 to 30 days

Winter/spring breeding elsewhere in Middle East
and in North Africa, in exceptionally cold weather........................................... ......... 60 to 70 days

In warmer weather .................................................. ................................................20 to 30 days

[Eddie H]

Thanks for the info. I appreciate your prompt reply.

Eddie

Originally Posted by supernaturalfan

Hi Eddie, I doubt you're cooking the eggs, in fact it sounds like it might not be hot enough. Information below is taken from the Locust handbook; 10-14 days is in the hottest temperatures with cooler climates and seasons taking 25 days and even up to 70 days in cold weather.

It's also the soil temperature that's important so 27 to 33 degrees floor temperatures probably means a soil temperature much lower than that. So it sounds like not enough heat is the problem.

As for drowning I'm not sure, some locusts lay eggs during monsoon seasons and that doesn't seem to affect the eggs. They need some moisture which the eggs absorb during their development. If there is no water they become dormant until rewetted.

I keep my soil moist rather than wet and have had no problem with hatchlings. Lots of heat and some moisture seems to work for me.

2.1. 3. INCUBATION PERIOD AND HATCHING
The rate at which eggs develop varies according to the soil temperature. The period of egg development, between laying and hatching, is called the INCUBATION PERIOD.
The lengths of this period recorded for different areas and seasons are as follows:-

Summer breeding in Sudan, Ethiopia and West Africa............................................10 to 14 days

Summer breeding in lowlands of India .................................................. ...................10 to 14 days

Summer and winter in Somali Peninsula......................................... .......................... 10 to 14 days

Summer and winter on Red Sea Coast............................................. ....................... 10 to 14 days

Spring breeding in central Arabia, southern Iran,
Pakistan and North Africa............................................ ........................................... 25 to 30 days

Winter/spring breeding elsewhere in Middle East
and in North Africa, in exceptionally cold weather........................................... ......... 60 to 70 days

In warmer weather .................................................. ................................................20 to 30 days

[simon31uk]

hey guys
need advice
i just caught 2 locusts mating and the female sticking her end in the sand
but she covered the hole up
why has this happend i thought there supposed to leave the holes open

[Dubia82]

I wouldn't worry Simon... she was either testing or she's plugged the hole.

I get both in mine and wouldn't worry, they'll do their thing... if she's doing anything with the sand it's a good sign. If this is the first time you've spotted this behaviour it could be that they are starting to get there. She could even have laid. Ideally, they deposit the eggs then plug up the hole with a white gel like substance to seal it; the hatchlings can get through it no prob.

Just keep conditions correct and they should be fine, patience is the key with locusts.

If you are using clear containers for them to lay in, you will often see evidence of laying through the sides (at least once things have got going properly).

[beccaj91]

Me and my partner have just started trying to breed our livefood. seen what i thought was a hole in the sand he disagreed but then today i noticed it has the white spiderweb like stuff on so exciting hopefully will have some babies soon :-D

[simon31uk]

hey guys
thanks for info dubia
but today ive found my female as laid her eggs on a branch
is this normal and will they survive i have bulb on 12h a day
hope some1 can reply fairly quick as ive 7 couples mating like rabbits here lol

[Dubia82]

It's not a good thing and the egss wont survive there...

...the locust must have felt that was a better place to lay/dump them than the laying pot, so the laying pot needs to be more suitable. It could be temperture, humidity, density and makeup of the laying sand or even just that they need better access to the sand.

[AOTP]

I had never tried locusts before and wasnt going to do a massive amount of work to try it, i thought id be pretty varied like nature and just experiement. this is what happened.

I feed my locusts on the leaves off plants in my back garden, use two 60 watt bulbs and a small heatmat under the centre of a glass viv.

Ambient temps peak at around 40 near the bulbs 35ish everywhere else and 30 at the bottom.

My xl locusts moulted into adults within 4 days of having them, the adults then took about a week to begin to breed, by 2 weeks they were all at it and probing holes in my lay boxes.

Sand lay boxes are crappy, I used a 40/40/20 sand soil vermiculite mix and had the entire tub filled with holes in hours no joke, some went right up against the plastic so i could see all the eggs.

About 12 days went by with me giving the tubs a good spray every day, and then pow, i had 50 or so hatch out during the night.

My lay boxes are kept in the viv with the adults and babies as i wanted to keep it as simple as i could. Just when they had many many holes in i covered each tub with mesh to stop any more being laid.

From 50 locust adults I must have had 40 or so holes in a week long period and they are now hatching every day,

My setup isnt what id like to call perfect i wasnt that regular with the spraying and had no real decent way to tell how the temp or the boxes or moisture was doing but from the egg cases i can see against the plastic, the ones on the very bottom dry too fast as its too hot and the ones middle to top seem to swell fast and hatch so in future i will use deeper boxes up to 10inches deep. And sand is crap dont use it it compacts too much and i have had no hatchlings from the sand box.


My wall of txt hope it helps.

[ryan05]

Ive been looking into breeding locust for a while now and this is a really helpful thread

Im going to get a couple of vivs set up in the next couple of days ready to start breeding.

Cheers guys

[Yemen]

Originally Posted by markhill

There's been a load of threads recently about how to breed Locusts, so I thought I'd tell people how I do it.

Housing
I use two large tanks (24x15x20", WDH), one for adults and one for grown on locusts that are near adults.
Once the Locusts have turned to adults they get moved into the adult tank to replace any that have died off.
Both tanks have full vented lids and egg cartons inside for extra ground space and to hang from during moulting.

Temperature/Humidity
I use a reflector bulb pointing down at one end of the tank to simulate sunshine and heat mats underneath and around the edges of the same end of the tank, the bulb is on from 6am to 8pm and during the night the heat mats do the work.
This holds the temperature at about 28c-30c 24 hours a day with a day/night cycle.
Keep the humidity as low as possible, which the full mesh top will help with.

Food/water
I feed my Locusts on bran and veg, any veg that I feed my BD's on is good,I make sure they they never run out of food.
I don't provide my Locusts with a water bowl, I've found that they drown and are perfectly OK with water obtained from their veg.
Started my own colony today
Breeding
Providing the temperatures aren't too cold I have found that adults will mate without any help.
Provide a few tubs with 10cm (4 inches) of soil for egg laying,ice-cream tubs are good for this, position these tubs over the heat mats and keep the soil moist but not soaking.
You can remove the tubs to separate incubating tanks if you want to (incubate at 28c) but I don't have the room so I leave them in with the adults and they do fine.
You should be able to see that eggs have been layed because there will be holes in the soil where the Locust has pushed the entire rear end if its body into the soil to lay the eggs, you may also see "spiderweb" looking white stuff on the surface of the soil, this comes out with the eggs and is normal.
Once the eggs have been layed it usually takes around 10 days for the baby Locusts to start digging their way out of the soil, I then collect them and keep them in cricket tubs with a piece of egg carton and feed them the same as adults.
Once the babies have got bigger they are either fed off to my animals or put back into the tub to become adults and lay their own eggs.

These are only my own methods which I have found to work well and may or may not work for others.

Started my own colony today