locust/Hoppers

[cyris69]

Does anyone know where to buy locust here in the states?

I want to add a more prolific colony to my pyxie frogs diet. I have a dubia colony but with 5 pyxies it takes a beating. I was reading around here that you can get large hoppers in the wild to breed for food. We have some very large grasshoppers that look quite like the "locust" sold over in the UK here in Indiana. I was wondering if that would be an option?

Also could I just have them breed/lay eggs then remove the WC hoppers and then raise the babies to prevent parasites etc?

[poison]

I believe they are illegal.

[JeffreH]

You could start another culture of roaches - Orange Heads (Eublaberus posticus), lobster roaches (N. cinerea), turkistan roaches (Blatta lateralis), and several in the Blaberus genus (discoids, fusca, and hybrids) all make great feeders. I regularly rotate different species of cockroach among other insects to increased the variation in the diet.

You can potentially get vertical transmission of parasites from an adult insect to offspring - but I wouldn't be too concerned about it. If you separate the F1 generation and maintain them as captives, they should be fine to feed to your frogs.

Part of the issue with rearing captive insects from our area is that many undergo a dormant portion of their life cycle in order to over-winter. I've tried rearing the very common Dissosteira carolina with no success, but that was many years ago. If you try it, you will want to raise them much like crickets and provide some sort of soil or sand laying substrate. Whether or not these eggs require a cooling period to become viable I do not know... I've heard that field crickets and katydids require a cooler period when collected from our area.

So long as you collect on your own property or receive permission to collect, it is not illegal to culture your own insects. I'm not sure about the legality of distributing native Orthopterans across the state lines - you would need to look into that if you ever wanted to sell them.

[cyris69]

Thanks for the reply, I do love roaches but want to try something new.


So if I understand correctly waiting till the wild caught lay eggs then remove(release) then back to outdoors the offspring should be safe so long as they don't contact other wild caught insects after being born?
I was thinking of this or trying out a worm farm. I also have a few hissers with my dubia whom have already had babies so eventually I can use those.

[JeffreH]

Worms would be great; relatively low maintenance and nutritious. And yes, you have the breeding strategy down. Most parasites of vertebrates seem to manifest in the foregut or hindgut of insects, so its pretty uncommon to see transfer through oviposition of eggs. So as long as the eggs are reared separately in captivity, they should be okay.

[Mentat]

I believe they are illegal.

Yes they are! Locusts can become a plague and cause great damage to our agriculture.

Hi Kevin! If interested in something different; why don't you catch some of these and raise them: American grasshopper - Schistocerca americana (Drury) ? To catch will need a net (bug, pond, etc.) and a grass field were grasshoppers live. Just walk around and throw net where they land after a jump! Then carefully transfer to critter keeper and get some more (males are smaller and skinnier than females). Bonus is... you will do a good workout and get funny remarks from anyone around you ! As long as you do not take or send them across State lines it's legal to collect bugs.

Get set-up to high 80's to 90s F; feed wheat grass, greens and other grasses, and use sandy soil substrate for them to lay eggs. If you want can add some potted grasses to set-up too! Your thoughts to wait for babies (F1) and get rid of adults will work OK to prevent pesticides reaching your frogs. After first babies are out you could get rid of substrate and clean set-up to remove any trace of pesticides from it; then maybe start feeding the F2 generation that will probably have no chemical exposure. Wild one maybe exposed and F1 could be through contact with substrate that had Wild generation droppings.

Well, let us know if you try and what your results where; good luck !