My Locust Setup

Discussion in 'Feeder Forum' started by xdtdx, Jul 26, 2009.

  1. xdtdx

    xdtdx Embryo

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    Ok so I got an old fish tank from my girlfriend yesterday and I set to work making it into a breeding tank for my locusts. I finished at about 5 this evening and put my adult locusts in and about 20 miutes ago noticed the female was trying to burrow in to the polysterene so I moved her onto one of the pots she moved over to the other one and then began to lay eggs. I was amazed, anyway here are a few pictures of my setup and I hope to be able to say I have some babies soon.

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    [EDIT]

    The female stopped laying eggs after 45 minutes then moved onto another spot. I then saw two more mating.

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    If there are any questions you want to ask I'd be happy to answer.
     
  2. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  3. reptileworld

    reptileworld New Member

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    very good set up mate ;) how do you no what sex your locusts are ? please tell me :p
     
  4. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  5. Just_Some_Guy

    Just_Some_Guy Well-Known Member

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    Congratulations! I've tired on several occasions at breeding locusts, but I get to the stage your at "egg laying" and become stuck! Simply because i'm not 100% sure what to do now.

    What is your next step?

    I would like to make a suggestion for the long term health of your collection, placing mesh on egg boxes, thus separating the floor and a area for your locusts to live. Locusts, have a habit of eating there own feces. Its toxic and you can lose some, not many. But a loss is a loss!

    Good Luck.
     
  6. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  7. reptileworld

    reptileworld New Member

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    do you think it will cost me more to breed them than buy them? because i have got 10 lizards not and i play £50 a month on the food.so will it be beter if i breed them and will it cost less to do ;)?
     
  8. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  9. Just_Some_Guy

    Just_Some_Guy Well-Known Member

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    If you do it and do it well. It will be cheaper, but if you do it half heart-ed then its not going to work.

    Things to remember are-

    - Cleanliness
    - Temperature / Humidity
    - Good Laying substrate.

    Once eggs are laid, I would transfer the tray (mine was a sand full of sand) into a incubator, and then see what would happen.
     
  10. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  11. reptileworld

    reptileworld New Member

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    incubator like what you put your reptile eggs in? that is going to be to hot for them init?
     
  12. Just_Some_Guy

    Just_Some_Guy Well-Known Member

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    Not at all.

    Although Beardies and Locusts don't live in the same place. They live in similar climates, you'd think the live food would be able to breed in a area that let reptiles breed to. By this logic I assumed a base temperature of 29c but what about humidity? The incubator also meant there was a constant temperature.
     
  13. reptileworld

    reptileworld New Member

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    lol i was going to say lol i may do it ;) thanks of the info
     
  14. xdtdx

    xdtdx Embryo

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    Well I seem to be lucky and I have 4 locusts, 2 male and 2 female. I only found out from seeing them mate, but the females are larger and are more creamy in colour. At the end of the female's abdomen it has dark brown points which it uses to dig into the laying substrate and the males remains the same colour as the rest of the abdomen.

    I've been told as long as you keep the substrate damp (i'm using peat) and the temperature above 80 degrees then you should be fine. I was tempted to put mesh over the jars, but haven't seen the males or females attempt to eat the eggs and providing they are well fed they should leave them alone.

    I may remove the jars at some point, but as this is my first attempt at breeding locusts I shall leave them in there and see what happens.
     

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