How to breed Locusts

[shane.tucker.royal08]

Just bought 100 Adult locusts and gonna give this a go. Got a 64l insulated rub with heatmats, egg cartons, branches etc. Couple of things i'm not sure about:

substrate to lay in. Some say sand and some soil. Would Childs play sand work? or what have people been most sucessful with?

Day/night light. Would normal daylight be enough to simulate the cycle? I've decided not to use a heatlight out of ease if not, the heatmats i;ve got runnin are enough to hold temps.

appreciate any help.

Cheers

[markhill]

I used sharp sand that I had laying around in a bag in my shed, I suppose playsand would be ok but you have to keep it moist, and they will breed with no light what-so-ever which I ound surprising given where they're naturally from

[shane.tucker.royal08]

Cheers Mark.

I've had this set up for a week now, temps seem good. got a light on 12 hours a day and mats at night. I've got a big area of easily deep enough sand in there, kept moist but.....still no laying. The playsand seems to be ok, i can quite easily push a twig into it and it stays as a hole (doesnt collapse).

Any advice? i know a week isnt too long but got 100 of em in there so thought some should have layed by now.

How good are they at pushing their abdomen into the sand? i'm wondering if its a bit too compact?

[shane.tucker.royal08]

Pictures of the setup.... 64l rub with meshed lid. 2x heatmats and 40w bulb. about 1/3d area is sand. lots of egg carton and a few twigs.

[shane.tucker.royal08]

Any thoughts anyone? Still not laying. I'm starting to think its the sand - might try somet different.

Starting to loose my patients, these adults are gonna slowly get fed to my beardies if they don't perform!!!

[Seansmegghead]

Well failing Barry White music....

Picky females probs want a something less compact and loose to bury there arse in.

[Jim2109]

just because you havent seem them laying, doesnt mean they havent been laying!! i made this mistake once, emptied the sand out and found hundreds of unhatched eggs, which never hatched after that. the sand falls back in after they lay, it doesnt hinder the eggs hatching. just be patient and keep the sand moist. it can take several weeks before they hatch out, sometimes months.

personally i found a mixture of sand and soil to be better. it holds its consistency more so you can usually still see the laying holes for a day or 2 after. once a few locusts walk across the soil they fill the hole back in though.

patience is the key with locusts. ive eventually lost mine and given up, but i did have a couple of strong yields of hoppers, but lots of them died because i kept them in a seperate tank (and learnt from that mistake).

ive got plans for a much improved RUB setup that should be much more successful, but ive decided to give snails a try for now instead.

[AaronNI]

Great thread! Alot of interesting insights on this!

Going to get my own breeding program for locust's set up this weekend, I'll keep everyone posted Your reps will obviously benefit from this as you can gutload them with what ever nutrients etc your reps need.

"Save your money, Breed Your Locusts"

Also, For people who breed them atm, How much roughly is it costing for you's to do this ? Like with heat mat etc

[Whosthedaddy]

Certainly food for thought as my Bosc does like a tub of locusts, 10-12 per tub doesn't last long and isn't cheap.

Get Christmas out of the way and I'll give it a bash.

[Whosthedaddy]

First attempt at allowing the locusts to breed started today:



Small RUB
Overhead bulb as heater.
Twigs and a few egg cartons
Weetabix / porridge oat substrate with a dash of fish food sprinkled in too.
Old feeder container filled with top soil and lightly packed down.
A bag of 50+ 5th instar locusts.

I left a few in some old containers for the next few days as to not disturb them too much and we will see.

If it works then alls well and good, if not I have a bigger storage area for them before they get eaten.