# just because you dont see locusts laying eggs, doesnt mean they havent...



## Jim2109 (Mar 30, 2009)

just a cautionary tale for anyone else trying their hand at breeding locusts.

i started out with 24 locusts about a month ago now, and since added another 15 or so in there of varying sizes. a few died along the way, but mostly they have all become adults. about 5 days ago they started mating, and there are typically a minimum of 3 pairs of mating locusts now at any given time, day or night.

i had a 5" deep plastic tub of moist sand in the viv, fairly large, much larger than the jam jars that seem fairly popular. all the information i could find suggested that female locusts lay their eggs within 2-3 days of mating. however i hadnt seen a single locust with its rear end in the sand, no holes on top of the sand, none of the white stuff that they lay with the eggs, nothing.

i made the assumption that the sand maybe wasnt moist enough. so i pulled the container out earlier on today to moisten it, and decided id put it in a slightly smaller container (slightly deeper, but less open area on top). so im tipping sand out, fill my container, and then i see what look like twigs under the sand. except they arent, theyre locust eggs surrounded by the weird white stuff. i found at least a dozen egg clusters, each containing at least 20-30 eggs. if they all hatch i should be looking at several hundred hoppers.

i very carefully placed them into the new sand container several inches below the surface and put some more sand on top. fingers crossed my foolish intervention wont hinder the egg development and they will mostly still hatch! my adult locusts are still at it like rabbits though so there should be more eggs yet to come than have already been laid. from some more information that i have read, the eggs are incredibly hardy in the wild. if the conditions arent right, or the eggs are laid at the back end of the mating season (typically during rainy season as soil moisture is critical to hatching, and once the rains have passed the eggs wont hatch), they can sit in the sandy soil for almost a YEAR without hatching until the conditions become suitable, and then they will hatch. 

i just wanted to warn anyone that is trying this for the first time that patience is the absolute key!! it took my locusts at least 3 weeks from shedding into adulthood until they became mature and started to mate (this was the first requirement of patience). and despite me not seeing any eggs being layed and there being no signs that any had, there were plenty of them under the surface!! il reitterate it because it cant be said enough, patience is the most important thing in getting locusts to breed 

now im just hoping that there are a load of hoppers in the tank within the next week or so. then comes the fun of catching them lol. if all of these eggs die off because of my foolishness then at least there will be just as many fresh ones within the next few days that should hatch fine. there is a chance of me creating a sustaining colony yet i think, just as i had started to wonder if it wasnt going to work. 

im just setting up a Turkistan roach colony as well, il have too many insects to feed off before too long lol.


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## ex0tics (Jun 9, 2009)

Great post mate, I had a similar situation before and mine didn't hatch so I learnt from it but if this can stop other people making the same mistake welldone!

This needs to be added to a locust breeding sticky or even a sticky itself.


austin


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