# Locust Breeding, sustaining my colony



## Eddie H (Jun 29, 2011)

Hi Folks. Hope the locust breeders and more experienced breeders can advise. I know there is a number of threads about this, I am not keen on continuing on an existing thread as it will add pages to it, so hope you will forgive me.

I have been breeding for a while but am not able to sustain my colony. I have attached an image. I have a heat mat to incubate the eggs which generates 35degrees. The heat mat covers half of the viv with the basking lamp on the top left. You can see the egg crates and a couple of thick twigs for perches etc. You can also see the lay boxes on the right hand side. On the right hand side of the lay boxes there is a dish of cereal/bran. There is no heat mat on that side.

The locusts are laying and I think the eggs are not hatching. I have no idea why. The lay boxes are sprayed three times a day. The amount of eggs that are being laid I have been anticipating more hatchlings but when the hatchlings do emerge, I only get around twenty babies.

Also, I am losing one adult on a daily basis, again have no idea why. The veg I feed them with is thoroughly washed. I have read in another thread that bran is essential to keep locusts alive. The cereal/bran is currently on the cool end, should I move it to the warm end?

I am losing faith as I am unable to sustain my colony but hope someone can advise.

Eddie

PS. Apparently I am not permitted to add an attachment. My viv is 31 inches in length, made of glass. Hope you can use your imagination.


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## tomcannon (Jan 2, 2008)

Upload the picture to photobucket and use the image code to display it on here. Then hopefully we can help :2thumb: how long have the eggs been laid for? Mine took about 15 days to first hatch.


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

I don't breed these but spraying the eggs 3 times a day seems a bit much... Since they come from dry/arid climate... Lol... 

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## tomcannon (Jan 2, 2008)

It all varies really depending on temp and amount of eggs. You want to keep the soil slightly moist at all times, this way all the eggs can get the water they need. You don't want to over water it as then you will have issues such as soil temp. I found it best to pour/drip larger amounts of water once daily as I wasn't there during the day to mist. I just checked that the water was seeping quickly into the soil/sand so it wasn't over watered. This worked... For me. Also use luke warm water so substrate temps don't drop too much.


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## Eddie H (Jun 29, 2011)

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tomcannon said:


> Upload the picture to photobucket and use the image code to display it on here. Then hopefully we can help :2thumb: how long have the eggs been laid for? Mine took about 15 days to first hatch.


I hope the eggs will hatch after two weeks (with my setup) but if there are no babies after three weeks I feel it has been unsuccessful. It is 35degrees on the ground so the incubation temperature should be warm enough, probably a couple of degrees too warm.

Had a tidy up of the viv this morning and some of the eggs looked a bit dry. Perhaps not getting enough moisture.

Eddie


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

Try.tomcannon's method.... Because misting it the water would just hit the surface... You coulduse a clear pot and put a bit of gravel in the bottom with a small tube going past the soil... Fill the gravel layer full of water and it'll act as a reservoir... It's a method scorpion keepers use for tropical species... May help to keep moisture levels more stable... 

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## Eddie H (Jun 29, 2011)

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Hi Folks. Please refer to my initial message at the very top. I have now, hopefully been successful attaching an image of my setup (or the address to my setup is attached, you may need to click to view it).

Briefly to repeat, I am losing an adult locust almost on a daily basis. I have a 100w bulb installed. Hope someone can assist.

Eddie


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## tomcannon (Jan 2, 2008)

To be honest I'm unsure of why you have adults dying on a daily basis. Your setup is very similar to mine other than having a cool end as you do. This would be the only thing I could suggest. Try partitioning the viv so there is only the hot side used, could be down to cold but I can't see why they wouldn't just stay in the hot side. Unfortunately that's all I can offer. 

What veg did you say you feed and how old are the adults? Were they bought as adults? They could just be dying of old age.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

In my opinion Locusts are difficult to do on a very small scale. To give an idea of what is possible I keep around 200 breeder adults, and from them I end up with around 5 boxes each with around 400-500 XL size hoppers. 

Once each box has grown up hoppers, its cleaned out and another batch of hatching hoppers is started. Its very difficult to get good results if you try to raise all the hatchlings, and adults together. Thats mostly why I think small scale breeding is not worth while. 

I could say alot more, but I would suspect you are 'cooking' the eggs. 25c-32c is fine, 35c too hot in my view. 

Also alot of people feed the wrong foods.


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## Eddie H (Jun 29, 2011)

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Tom/Dragon Farm. Thank you both for responding. In reply to Tom, I feed the locusts with spring greens and the bran is on the middle right in the viv. Some of the adults are reared from hatchlings from my previous attempt. I don't buy adults. If I am running low on adults (due to casualties) I buy extra large and feed them until they molt into adults.

Oh well. I will just soldier on...

Eddie


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## 123dragon (Jan 15, 2011)

how many do you have ?
in my experiance they dont do well with less than 25-30 in a group 
they love nothing more than each other


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

I agree with the above. 

Another very important factor is the incubation. You need a tub for the eggs with at least 7.5cm depth for the moist sand or soil/sand mix. I would recommend every 4-5 days starting a new tub. Put a lid on the old tub and make sure there is a couple of small holes (3-4mm) for ventilation. 

Locusts for some reason hate 'old' soil. Plus if there is too many egg pods in a tub none of them will hatch, or hatching is poor. 

Spring greens are ideal _for Schistocerca_. 

I mostly breed _Locusta migratoria._ They only eat grass and bran, but definately seem alot easier to breed, and more productive.


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## Eddie H (Jun 29, 2011)

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I think I do have in the region of thirty, probably a few more. I only have one beardie so in practice don't need that many locusts. I can probably do without breeding but you know what can happen when you start a 'hobby/interest'.

My tubs are deep enough for laying eggs. I used to use soil only and then tried sand only. The two I have in there is soil only and sand only (hoping the females will take their preference when laying eggs).

Eddie


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

If you enjoy breeding locusts, then great. But otherwise for alot of keepers I don't believe it is worth it. 

Dubia roaches are a different matter...


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## Eddie H (Jun 29, 2011)

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I'm only breeding (trying to again that is) locusts because it will save me from buying them. Starting to have second thoughts on breeding now, again. Obviously save my electricity bill if I decide to stop.

I also have a small dubia colony which I have no problems breeding. My beardie was raised on dubias (did not have a colony then) but my beardie has a preference for locusts now. Sods law.

Eddie


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## TarentolaDave (Feb 8, 2013)

*Locusts*

In my experience, keeping the substrate at the correct humidity seems to be the most difficult aspect of locust breeding! Following an overhaul of the layin box, I am now waiting on the first hatching (box placed in on the 16th). Spring greens seem to be the food of choice, and my colony gets through one a day! They have bred before, but substrate drying seems to be the biggest cause of failure once you have them at the point of laying. If this works, following a LOT of trial and error (for which read "failure") I will post an explanatory thread.


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## darloLee (Apr 9, 2009)

can anyone recommend me a good caresheet for breeding locusts please i fancy giving it a go..
thanks : victory:


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## darloLee (Apr 9, 2009)

just seen the STICKY :bash: duurrr :lol2:


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