# Guide to breeding Locust



## Jamesferrassie

Hi guys, 

I thought put together a guide to share of how I have successfully bred Locust on my 1st try!!

Things you will need:

24"x16"x18" Vivarium/glass tank,
60 Watt bulb,
Egg cartons
Laying trays (i used the plastic boxes which livefood come in from the pet store)

A lot of people dont realise but your viv/glass tank needs to have as little humidity as possible as this WILL kill breed bacteria and infections. Locust like it hot, when I say hot, I mean HOT! People usually recommend temperatures of around 32 degrees underneath the bulb used for basking. I have had great success with my basking area for the Locust being at a temperature in excess of 40 degrees!! 

Now, thats the light source and heat source sorted for your Locust. Onto the Egg cartons. The egg cartons are used to promote as much surfaces for the locust to climb on as you can which means you can have more mating locust within the viv:2thumb: You can put as many or as little as you want depending of how many Locust you want.

Now to the Laying boxes, as I've said I used the plastic cartons that you get live food in from the pet store. these are great as they arent to shallow. Fill the box up to the top with sand/dirt about 5mm - 1cm from the top (I'll explain why later). This sand need substrate/laying medium needs to be damp at all times to allow the locust to lay their eggs otherwise the medium will collapse. Right thats all the Viv setup now onto the nitygrity.

You will need to feed your locust fresh greens daily whether it be a cabbage from the supermarket which will need to be thoroughly washed under the tap before feeding. Tis is to help prevent wiping out your whole colony due to pestisides which WOULD NOT be cool!! I personally feed all the locust on grass from back yard. You will need to do a spot check twice a day to check from dead locust and simply to clean up their mess...:whistling2:

Ok heres the tricky part with telling if your locust is Male or Female. It is very simple once you know the signs. Below are pictures showing the difference. In the first pic it is a newly molted adult and as you can see its pink.. no matter what sex the locust is they will ALWAYS be pink before hitting sexual maturaty.










Male's locust that have become sexually mature turn a very bright and vivd yellow like in the pic below:











Finally the female locust when sexually mature turns a very buff brown/beige colour:











once the locust have reached sexual maturity given that you have given them the correct conditions you will end up with hundreds of the things!!

Now during incubation you will need to get yourself a polystrene box and a heat mat to keep a constant temperature of around 32 degrees to allow the eggs to develop. Now going back to what i said earlier about leaving a 5mm-1cm gap at the top of the laying box is for this simple reason... you will need to place cling film over the top to make sure once the eggs have hatched that they will not escape into your incubator.










Egg incubation should usually take between 11 and 14 days for the eggs to develop. If this happens then you are in luck :2thumb:

Below are some pictures of my setup and the 2 lucky devils who will be reaking the benefits. Happy breeding!!!


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## tomcannon

I'm amazed there was no replies to this thread, I have found it very useful, especially the part about reaching sexual maturity. I was wandering why my 3-4 day old adults weren't starting to breed, but they're all pink so that explains why! 

I have a couple of questions for you (if you're still around, I know it's an old thread), I don't have the space or appliances for an incubator, I was going to leave the jars in a separate tank and hatch in to that, is this ok? Also how many days roughly does it take for an adult to become sexually mature?

Cheers, Tom.


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## DaveWillisHertsARG

*Good thread.*

I'll get a photo of my locust breeding viv up soon. It has worked very well, but I have recently hit a snag; my 3rd/4th generation of locusts don't mate! Any ideas as to why this might be, let me know. As far as I can see, there is no environmental or dietary change which might cause this.


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## tomcannon

How long Dave did you find it took for your adults to start mating? Mine have all reached immature adults stage this week (they're pink) and I want to know how long until I can expect breeding. 

Tom.


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## DaveWillisHertsARG

tomcannon said:


> How long Dave did you find it took for your adults to start mating? Mine have all reached immature adults stage this week (they're pink) and I want to know how long until I can expect breeding.
> 
> Tom.


 
I didn't time it as exactly as I should have, but about a week or so. The males will climb on top of the females and stay there for a while. Then they will go and stick their bits in the sand.


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## tomcannon

Haha. Cheers, shouldn't be too long now then.


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## antiguaheat

superb idea seperating the eggs to incubate, just made my life easier for when i start :2thumb: got the tank nearly set up using a 2 foot exoterra will be wiring up as soon as poss, already got an incubator made in preparation for breeding my beardies next season, already got dubia and turkistan colonies on the go and saving some £s but hoppers is where my cash goes so fingers crossed : victory:


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## DaveWillisHertsARG

antiguaheat said:


> superb idea seperating the eggs to incubate, just made my life easier for when i start :2thumb: got the tank nearly set up using a 2 foot exoterra will be wiring up as soon as poss, already got an incubator made in preparation for breeding my beardies next season, already got dubia and turkistan colonies on the go and saving some £s but hoppers is where my cash goes so fingers crossed : victory:


I have found this to be more hassle than it is worth, but there may be better ways of doing it than I currently employ! The youngsters will escape. I'm yet to be convinced that it is dramtically cheaper than buying in bulk once food and electricity are factored in. Still, it is relatively interesting and provides a good home for them!


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## AOTP

mine took about 1-2 weeks to start breeding after they moutled into adults which seemed a long time but it wasnt so bad. 

The colour thing on adults works to an extent but I found almost all my locusts were pretty beige, and its very easy to tell them apart from the rear of their abdomen.

Males look like the prow of a ship with two tiny bits on top like cannons.
Females have a dark coloured concave part thats a bit spiky at the bottom

I didnt seperate my breeding tubs i left them inside on the lino and glass on top of the heatmat with my 60w bulbs above, from 50 adults, I have 200+ babies. So even without seperating layboxes into a seperate place it can still work if space or heatmat fund is tight


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## AOTP

As for electricity, heat mats what 7watts? And if kept in a warm cupboard with just a heatmat this can also work, oh and leaves are free, =)

I taped over all the holes in my exo terra where mine live and no escapees, only when i open the glass have a few hopped onto my arm.

Is this hassle? Yes definatly when compared to roaches, I champion roaches over locust any day, but these are fun to breed and watch grow, and are much cheaper than buying tubs.

Bulk is cheap yeah, but the way I figured it is if i buy bulk i whack them in a viv anyway to make them last and not die so fast so the fact they breed in there whilst i feed off the males is a bonus i choose to exploit! : victory:


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## AOTP

One thing I forgot to mention, since my Dubia colony exploded and I make 4-5 thousand babies a month while feeding from the colony a Bosc/Tegu/Beardie/Chameleon/Salamander ive saved over £1000 in livefood costs over the past 4-5 months.

Because I used to be buying several tubs a day or buying bulk in and not looking after them so would loose many. Or as what I suspect happens quite often too, I was underfeeding my reps.

If you have the space and can breed any livefood its worth it, provided you breed on a scale that suits the needs, and never buy livefood again. : victory:


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