Breeding Locust as Feeders

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(By Stephen Horrocks)

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Housing your Locust

Ideally you will need two containers which are approximately 24x12x15in. This should be considered as minimums, the larger the enclosure the larger the colony it will support, which in turn means more live food for your reptiles.

Of your two enclosures, you will have one which contains your breeding adults, and another which contains your offspring and growing individuals or feeders. Depending upon your demand and the size of the colony, you may find you need multiple locust offspring enclosures. Doing this also allows you to cycle so you have a container of adults (Breeding colony), a container of medium-large locusts, and a container of baby/juvenile locusts for example. This also makes sorting out your locusts for feeding much easier although not essential.

The more space you have in the enclosure the more locusts you can have in there. You should maximize space as much as you can, the use of sticks, branches and egg carton work well. Personally I use cardboard egg crates and bamboo canes (from the garden centre). The bamboo canes are easily cleaned and reusable and you can stack egg crates if you wish, they provide loads of surface area in an enclosure. The babies and youngsters can squeeze in to the crevices in between the stacked egg crates and feel secure.

Locusts temperature and humidity

Temperature is very important when breeding locusts, as they are a desert species they like it hot. Within reason, the hotter the better is true when breeding locusts. This means if your colony is being too productive you could always reduce the temperatures, or if you’d like to see your locust colony grow faster you need to increase temperatures.

As a general rule, you should keep your locusts at about 30-35c – however 25c is ok if you wish a slower colony growth, and up to 40c is good if you wish to maximize productivity.

There are a few different ways of providing this heat which can be dependent on the type of container you opt for; there is everything from standing the container on top of your vivarium(s), ceramic heaters, basking bulbs or heat mats, even a small room with an oil filled heater to increase the ambient temperature to the desired range, a couple of points though, firstly, Locust are day time creatures and require daylight, secondly, select an appropriate heat source based on the container you use, for example a basking bulb is great in a vivarium or glass tank but maybe unsafe in a plastic container as the direct bulb temperature could melt the plastic or even worse start a fire. My personal choice, I use heat mats with an on/off stat placed on the underside of the plastic container, I also add feet at each corner to allow free flowing circulation round the mat, the mat covers approximately 50% of the base to give a heat gradient, in an evening the locust can usually be found huddled over the heat mat.

It is very important that you keep your locusts as dry as possible; humidity will very quickly destroy a colony. With this in mind the more ventilation you can add the better; so long as you maintain a high degree of ventilation the high temperatures of the set up will ensure that humidity does not become a problem.

Feeding Locust General

Breeding locusts eat a lot and should never be allowed to run out of food. They will eat nearly any type of green produce or grass, along with wheat bran; you should always wash the food thoroughly before feeding to the locusts.

Locusts don’t seem to need a water bowl, they appear to get all of their moisture from the food they eat and from personal experience water bowls or gel raise the humidity unnecessarily.

Feeding Locust Gut Loading

Ideally, you should separate your feeders a good 24 hours before feeding to your reptile; this is so that the separated locust can have the added benefit of being gut loaded, basically the addition of calcium and vitamins etc and keep the food intake down to food products that your reptile is allowed on a daily basis. For this container a cricket keeper is perfect and could be stored on top of your vivarium to keep warm.

Breeding Locusts

Within your adult breeding enclosure you should place at least 1 egg laying site. There are a number of options here; cheap plastic tubs are your best bet or empty ice cream cartons. These should be filled with damp sand damp not soaked! The sand should be at least 3inches deep as the female locust will bury the eggs rather deep. Take care to periodically top the moisture up as these egg laying sites will dry out quickly in the heat.

In a thriving colony you will want to transfer these tubs from the adult locust breeding enclosure to the juvenile enclosure once a week in order for the youngsters to hatch in the appropriate enclosure. Locusts take about 10 days to hatch (at the higher temperature), hence cycling the tubs every seven days to ensure none hatch in the adult enclosure. Upon moving the egg laying tubs you will want