Sezny
Member
Hi everyone,
I am from Europe and would like to give you informations about locusts as a feeder.
First some picture. 2 species are commonly raised:
Subadult Schistorcerca gregaria (Pilgrim locust)
Adult Schistorcerca gregaria
Adult Locusts migratoria (Migratory locust)
Aren't they gorgeous?!!!!! I really think so.
They are very easy to find and purchase in Europe for good reasons:
- They are easy to breed: eat only fresh grass you gather or wheat you grow in pots (symbiotic bacterias in their guts cells produce all of the proteins they need from this poor quality food)
- They don't smell
- They don't survive in a house
- They have a very good nutritional balance, better than crickets
- They grow from a quater of a inch to 3 inches, allowing you to feed different size of Chams
- They don't hide, they will climb in your chameleon cage to find the light, straight in the predator mouth
- They reproduce super fast, you can easily get 200 from 3 females and 2 males (my own experience when I was in Europe)
- And the most important: CHAMELEONS LOVE THEM. It is from far their favorite prey, even the shyest Cham will eat it in hand after a couple of try
You probably have a question now: why does everyone not raise them in the USA? Unfortunately, it is illegal to breed them here. The reason is that they swarm. They are the plague God send on the Egyptians in the Bible and still devastate Africa from time to time.They have an amazing biological cycle that I explain at the end of this article if you are curious about it. It is sad because they die below 30 degrees and don't reproduce below 70, so it will be absolutely harmless to raise them in the northern states but I absolutely understand they don't want to take the chance as they might make trouble in the south.
Now you have an other question: why does this damn French guy is so enthusiastic about it if we can't have it? Because after doing some research, I found a native specie of locust in the USA: Schistorcerca americana, the "American bird grasshopper"
Like his friends from the old world, he swarms (it is important to raise a locust who swarms. the high concentration of insects in the enclosure stimulates the reproduction of the swarming species when the other species will not mate)
I assume it is legal to breed that specie as it is already living here anyway.
Here is a map of where you can find it:
Does anyone breed these fantastic creatures? I am very excited about it, it would make an amazing source of food for our chams!
Now, a quick presentation of the amazing life cycle of an African specie, Locusts migratoria:
Swarming locust are most of the time peaceful vegetarians insects, that reproduce a bit and eat small amounts of grass. Predators and the lack of food in dry places kill a lots of them. They have a slow growth rate: they go from hatching to adults in 6 molts and look like that:
But after a rain, plants grow fast in the desert, females get well fed and lay a lots of eggs in the ground. That produces a lots of baby locust. The eggs tend to hatch at the same time: they produce pheromones in the ground. If they are far away from each other, nothing happen. But if a group of eggs can receive the pheromones from an other group, their development get synchronized and they will hatch at the same time.
If the population reach a certain concentration, everything changes: by seeing other individuals, some hormone are produce in baby locusts bodies and they switch from solitary phase to gregarious phase: they become adults in only 5 molts, look like on the pictures I posted at the beginning of this article and are attracted by each other. They will walk and later fly together to create the infamous swarms of millions of insects.
Then, after having eating all of the food available, they will die and the population crashes. The new babies, not stimulated by other locusts, will switch back to solitary phase and be the peaceful green grasshopper on the picture above.
Scientist think that swarming allows the species of locust to take advantage of seasonal abundance of food to spread and colonise new habitats.
That's all folks, I hope you will get interested about it and will love to know if it is allowed or not to raise this native specie.
I am from Europe and would like to give you informations about locusts as a feeder.
First some picture. 2 species are commonly raised:
Subadult Schistorcerca gregaria (Pilgrim locust)
Adult Schistorcerca gregaria
Adult Locusts migratoria (Migratory locust)
Aren't they gorgeous?!!!!! I really think so.
They are very easy to find and purchase in Europe for good reasons:
- They are easy to breed: eat only fresh grass you gather or wheat you grow in pots (symbiotic bacterias in their guts cells produce all of the proteins they need from this poor quality food)
- They don't smell
- They don't survive in a house
- They have a very good nutritional balance, better than crickets
- They grow from a quater of a inch to 3 inches, allowing you to feed different size of Chams
- They don't hide, they will climb in your chameleon cage to find the light, straight in the predator mouth
- They reproduce super fast, you can easily get 200 from 3 females and 2 males (my own experience when I was in Europe)
- And the most important: CHAMELEONS LOVE THEM. It is from far their favorite prey, even the shyest Cham will eat it in hand after a couple of try
You probably have a question now: why does everyone not raise them in the USA? Unfortunately, it is illegal to breed them here. The reason is that they swarm. They are the plague God send on the Egyptians in the Bible and still devastate Africa from time to time.They have an amazing biological cycle that I explain at the end of this article if you are curious about it. It is sad because they die below 30 degrees and don't reproduce below 70, so it will be absolutely harmless to raise them in the northern states but I absolutely understand they don't want to take the chance as they might make trouble in the south.
Now you have an other question: why does this damn French guy is so enthusiastic about it if we can't have it? Because after doing some research, I found a native specie of locust in the USA: Schistorcerca americana, the "American bird grasshopper"
Like his friends from the old world, he swarms (it is important to raise a locust who swarms. the high concentration of insects in the enclosure stimulates the reproduction of the swarming species when the other species will not mate)
I assume it is legal to breed that specie as it is already living here anyway.
Here is a map of where you can find it:
Does anyone breed these fantastic creatures? I am very excited about it, it would make an amazing source of food for our chams!
Now, a quick presentation of the amazing life cycle of an African specie, Locusts migratoria:
Swarming locust are most of the time peaceful vegetarians insects, that reproduce a bit and eat small amounts of grass. Predators and the lack of food in dry places kill a lots of them. They have a slow growth rate: they go from hatching to adults in 6 molts and look like that:
But after a rain, plants grow fast in the desert, females get well fed and lay a lots of eggs in the ground. That produces a lots of baby locust. The eggs tend to hatch at the same time: they produce pheromones in the ground. If they are far away from each other, nothing happen. But if a group of eggs can receive the pheromones from an other group, their development get synchronized and they will hatch at the same time.
If the population reach a certain concentration, everything changes: by seeing other individuals, some hormone are produce in baby locusts bodies and they switch from solitary phase to gregarious phase: they become adults in only 5 molts, look like on the pictures I posted at the beginning of this article and are attracted by each other. They will walk and later fly together to create the infamous swarms of millions of insects.
Then, after having eating all of the food available, they will die and the population crashes. The new babies, not stimulated by other locusts, will switch back to solitary phase and be the peaceful green grasshopper on the picture above.
Scientist think that swarming allows the species of locust to take advantage of seasonal abundance of food to spread and colonise new habitats.
That's all folks, I hope you will get interested about it and will love to know if it is allowed or not to raise this native specie.
