Locusts: good feeders?

[Arachnophobphile]

I never noticed this "God-awful cricket smell" that everyone goes on about when I kept them but I was pretty militant with spot cleaning dead ones and I used to do a full clean of their tub every couple of weeks so that's probably why.

Banded crickets we get here in the U.S., (little brown ones) do stink pretty bad. I have to clean their enclosure out pretty often to keep the stench down to minimum levels. I agree with you that staying on top of keeping their enclosure clean is a requirement.

One time I wasn't able to get to the crickets enclosure cleaning soon enough. The smell almost had me puking.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Banded crickets we get here in the U.S., (little brown ones) do stink pretty bad. I have to clean their enclosure out pretty often to keep the stench down to minimum levels. I agree with you that staying on top of keeping their enclosure clean is a requirement.

One time I wasn't able to get to the crickets enclosure cleaning soon enough. The smell almost had me puking.

Yeah it was a real pain keeping them alive especially when my g porteri would go many months fasting . Eventually I just switched to roaches .

 

[Kada]

have seen many people online discussing them. Are their legs safe? The grasshoppers here have some wild spines I would be worried about given their leg strength!

Any pics or species names of the common feeders? Their habit seems so much better than crickets and roaches!

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

have seen many people online discussing them. Are their legs safe? The grasshoppers here have some wild spines I would be worried about given their leg strength!

Any pics or species names of the common feeders? Their habit seems so much better than crickets and roaches!

I’m not aware of a hopper injuring any of tarantulas not that it’s impossible. Live mice are usually the feared feeders that can kill stuff, why I don’t feed mine any .
I wish they were common in USA , we don’t have locust for sale as feeders/ were I live at-least. I gotta use super worm or roaches for big Ts.
Yeah I’d like to know that same info also, are locust hard to raise cb ?? Why aren’t they common feeders usa I used to catch grasshoppers they are here?although the flying ones are nearly impossible to catch .

 

[Kada]

Any idea of the species use din various countries? Some of the species I have caught have torn my skin, and I have farmer hands. That's why I am curious. Some of the hoppers here I would compare to large mantis species in terms of their hind legs, but even more powerful. To be fair, same goes for crickets. That's why I am curious what people are using, cause so many seem like they could rip an abdomen fairly easily.

Pics for example

locust leg macro - Google Search

Feeding live mice, or most chrodates for that matter, seems silly to me. pre kill or defenseless (eg. fish) in my opinion. but usually unnecessary.

 

[TechnoGeek]

Definitely good feeders if your T is big enough and bold enough. They tend to be a bit defensive sometimes and they can kick but in practice this has never been an issue for me cause I always make sure to feed them to a big enough and ravenous enough T.

I even feed canned conserved ones. Not all Ts would eat them, but many pounce as soon as the food hits the substrate in front of their legs so it doesn't matter.

 

[dragonblade71]

I don't know if they're good feeders but they're certainly good at laying waste to huge areas of crops and decimating farms. The footage of locust plagues is surreal. This is biblical stuff right here.

 

[TechnoGeek]

I don't know if they're good feeders but they're certainly good at laying waste to huge areas of crops and decimating farms. The footage of locust plagues is surreal. This is biblical stuff right here.

Yup, which is one thing I say when I'm trying to convince people that big spiders are a vital part of the ecosystem

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Yup, which is one thing I say when I'm trying to convince people that big spiders are a vital part of the ecosystem

Yeah commercial farming eradicated most of the American locusts. They would lay eggs in fields used for farming and be destroyed .. we had billions of them Here. More than any modern mega swarm.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_locust

 

[Wayfarin]

I think they're considered invasive here in the states. I'm not aware of any UK locust plagues.

Augh, that stinks! I was getting all in to them and everything. I may never get to see our bearded dragon sink her teeth into a giant locust.
They sell dried Locusta migratoria at our local Walmart, but dried insects aren't the same.
For tarantulas and spiders, dried insects aren't even edible.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Augh, that stinks! I was getting all in to them and everything. I may never get to see our bearded dragon sink her teeth into a giant locust.
They sell dried Locusta migratoria at our local Walmart, but dried insects aren't the same.
For tarantulas and spiders, dried insects aren't even edible.

No reason why you can't catch some and raise them yourself.

 

[Wayfarin]

No reason why you can't catch some and raise them yourself.

One problem, though, is that since Locusta migratoria is absent from our area, any grasshopper/locust that I catch may not be easily identified.
And I would have to raise them by trial and error since I'm unlikely to find a book on how to raise any generic North American orthopteran.
Also, they can sometimes carry horsehair worms, which are harmless for reptiles, but not for spiders.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

One problem, though, is that since Locusta migratoria is absent from our area, any grasshopper/locust that I catch may not be easily identified.
And I would have to raise them by trial and error since I'm unlikely to find a book on how to raise any generic North American orthopteran.
Also, they can sometimes carry horsehair worms, which are harmless for reptiles, but not for spiders.

I don’t even see grasshopper anymore outside here , the city pesticides must had killed them all off. Surely they live in the woods .. best feeder I use are roaches . Super worms decent too , although not every spider of mine eats them . Reptiles are a bit tougher then when it comes to these parasites.

 

[Introvertebrate]

I don’t even see grasshopper anymore outside here , the city pesticides must had killed them all of ...............................

It seems to me they were more numerous when I was a kid in the '70s.

 

[Wayfarin]

I don’t even see grasshopper anymore outside here , the city pesticides must had killed them all off. Surely they live in the woods .. best feeder I use are roaches . Super worms decent too , although not every spider of mine eats them . Reptiles are a bit tougher then when it comes to these parasites.

Yeah, horsehair worms in particular are just digested by reptiles, birds, and mammals. But if I ever decided to get a praying mantis, it would do best to stay away from the locusts.

 

[Wayfarin]

It seems to me they were more numerous when I was a kid in the '70s.

Yeah, I never see grasshoppers, except at this one field where we walk our dogs.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

It seems to me they were more numerous when I was a kid in the '70s.

Yeah way before my time .

Yeah, horsehair worms in particular are just digested by reptiles, birds, and mammals. But if I ever decided to get a praying mantis, it would do best to stay away from the locusts.

so Spider venom doesn’t disintegrate these worms to mush or anything?? Ouch .. I’ve only ever caught wc mantis and I don’t bother anymore rarely see them , they don’t live long. Cb is way to go ..

It seems to me they were more numerous when I was a kid in the '70s.

I used to see lots of them in the fall but I rarely do anymore .. and bugs in general I don’t see much of any spiders / butterfly or moths .butterfly I see the most or bees but not many insects… or arachnids.

 

[SpookySpooder]

I see locust all the time... and their grasshopper cousins. They're usually in grasslands or wooded areas. Usually just a big solo one. But whenever it rains out in the high desert they come out in the millions.

Here is the last time I saw them on a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, September 2022.



Depending on the size or species, their leg barbs pack a nasty punch. I have been kicked by one that induced bleeding in my finger. How can this not hurt a T? It definitely could. They also bite harder than crickets do, and everyone knows a cricket can eat a newly molted T.

The ones in NV were newborns and did not yet develop their adult colors and leg barbs.

 

[Kada]

One problem, though, is that since Locusta migratoria is absent from our area, any grasshopper/locust that I catch may not be easily identified.
And I would have to raise them by trial and error since I'm unlikely to find a book on how to raise any generic North American orthopteran.
Also, they can sometimes carry horsehair worms, which are harmless for reptiles, but not for spiders.

I gave up on our local species as they have a cold dormancy for hatching, which meant a fridge for eggs. Crickets are just too easy to bother with that haha. I would be worried about foreign species for all the obvious reasons.

But, is no one worried about the spiny strong legs kicking the abdomenof a tarantula ?

 

[SpookySpooder]

But, is no one worried about the spiny strong legs kicking the abdomenof a tarantula ?

I literally posted this above you. It is a valid concern for the adult locust, at least in the West.