locust keeper with stuff I had lying round my room

[HairyScaryMark]

I had some sand, a heat mat, an heat lamp with 40W bulb, some fake plants, an ice cream tub (which i put the sand in) lying around my room and this is what turned out. I only put one bit of egg carton as i'm unconvinced how much these actually benefit locusts and tend to be the first thing to go horrible (i'll put more in if people suggest with good reason).

I also bought 5 boxes of locusts today so have about 40-50 here. Be some time before there's much chance of them breeding but thought i'd give it a go.

I have 3 different types of food, fruit (tomato, grapes and blueberries), oatmeal and a few leaves of basil and mint. I am maybe wrong but I think the smaller locusts stuggle to eat the fruit. The leaves aren't as good for nutritition but I didn't put that many in so proporitionally they should still be ok. I'm not sure if they'll eat the oatmeal or not but it was in my cupboard (popular food type in Scotland) and wont go off any time soon.

Realise it's not the best setup. next step might be to replace the plastic door on the roof with some form of mesh and move the heat lamp to there from increased effect. Alternatively might also just look out for a cheap vivarium with a mesh/grill roof somewhere or a means to get a heat lamp in there.

I'm also not entirely sure if the heat mat works properly but I guess I'll find out soon enough anyway.

Feedback/comments are welcomed as i'm looking to improve this setup if possible.

 

[WelshOneEmma]

I find that the locusts I get don't really go for fruit or oatmeal (maybe they are fussy?) so I tend to feed them curly kale, romaine lettuce, cress and have also added in stuff from the garden, such as the leaves from the corn plant (been growing corn on the cob in the garden), grass, herbs. Tiff also mentioned that she has grown wheatgrass to feed to them.

I think they are similar to crickets in that they like things to hide, so maybe a few more egg cartons may be helpful.

How are you finding keeping them? Are their many mortalities?

 

[HairyScaryMark]

I find that the locusts I get don't really go for fruit or oatmeal (maybe they are fussy?) so I tend to feed them curly kale, romaine lettuce, cress and have also added in stuff from the garden, such as the leaves from the corn plant (been growing corn on the cob in the garden), grass, herbs. Tiff also mentioned that she has grown wheatgrass to feed to them.

I think they are similar to crickets in that they like things to hide, so maybe a few more egg cartons may be helpful.

How are you finding keeping them? Are their many mortalities?

I'll have to get some kale, romain lettuce and cress. Can't imagine the mint or basil has much nutritional value (just what I happened to have in my house currently and seems to work fine to keep the locusts alive). Watercress is apparently a 'super food', although the term 'super food' is a bit questionable in itself.

I'll have a look at what I find in garden. People recommend putting stuff through the oven but that involves more effort and i'd rather do a series of things at once using disposable baking trays so i'll leave that for another day.

 

[HairyScaryMark]

Checked on my locusts today. They've eaten nearly all the fruit and no evidence there was ever any leaves there but no noticable decrease in oatmeal. Anyone suggest some mesh type stuff I could put over the plastic door? I've seen a few things on sale from reptile shop websites which would probably be better and I imagine less likely to go on fire or melt than if I used something I might find lying around my house.

http://www.global-aquatics.com/p/877748/komodo-lamp-dome-mesh-guard---21cm.html
Maybe something like that but a bit bigger and not round so it can sit on my plastic tank thing?


I also put some more egg cartons but I wondered about using plastic cups with the bottom cut off (or just on the side) as plastic might be a bit less likely to go horrible.

 

[Dinky]

i use the mouth wash cups and cut the bottom off and since there cheap enough it makes a great hide and when they go bad i dont have to eat 18 eggs for breakfast plus once they go bad its not to hard to replace them