Egyptian walking grasshoppers (Locusta migratoria)
Text: Heiko Werning
As a staple of live feed, the Egyptian walking grasshopper has been a part of keeping pets since, well, biblical times. It‘s now wonder then that the stately insects are also the perfect feed for large pets, and their jumping/flapping propulsion ignites an irresistible hunting instinct for many lizards, frogs, birds and small mammals. Advantages that even smaller pets can enjoy, since the young Egyptian walking grasshoppers are just as good and well-liked as prey.
In other words: perfect feeder animals. And what doesn‘t one connect with this insect? As a biblical plague, they once arrived in legions to raze their fields and trigger hunger and suffering. Even beyond the teachings of the Old Testament, impressive images from TV show us time and again how millions of migratory locusts, in particular in Northern Africa, devour entire regions.
With this in mind, you would think that the migratory locusts should be available en masse in order to feed hungry monitor lizards and iguanas. However, the opposite was true for the longest time: as long as the thrilled pet owners are actively involved in feeder animals, that‘s how intense the focus is on the migratory locusts, these insects turned to be very difficult and were difficult to breed. This result in the sale of the locusts at astronomical prices, meaning they were real delicacies. In other words: the veritable „holiday roast“ for your pets.
The breeding of Egyptian walking grasshoppers is tricky. It requires a certain amount of technical expertise and expense, elaborate logistics, absolute hygiene and the continuous supply with suitable fodder crops. Requirements that have driven many hobby breeders crazy, and that also represented real challenges for professional breeding operations. Withstanding all plagues, migratory locusts are very susceptible – breeds easily break down – in particular they react very quickly to unsuitable food.
Thanks to our sophisticated breeding technology and the enormous effort expended by us at BUGS-INTERNATIONAL, the period of locust scarcity is a thing of the past. Through our breeding system, we are able to supply the desired number of Egyptian walking grasshoppers; long gone are the days of locust shortage and the astronomical prices for these healthy and delicious bites. If that isn‘t the best news your pets have heard in a while!
Adult
Subadult
Medium
Small
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Let‘s turn our focus from the swarm of locusts to the individual insect: Egyptian walking grasshoppers can have a very different look. The insects achieve a length of up to 6 cm; the male insects are usually somewhat smaller. Egyptian walking grasshoppers are greyish, brownish or as an individual insect even greenish. On top of this, the wings have a dark marble taint that give the insects a type of militaristic camouflage look. The head and the breast area of adult male locusts are yellow.
Migratory locust babies hatch from their eggs with a length of about 6-7 mm. They are whitish in colour and soft; after their bodies harden, they assume a much darker colour than their parents. They retain this colour until they begin moulting: they have a black/orange colour. Of course, the small locusts still do not have the wings of the adults.
The feelers of the Egyptian walking grasshoppers are relatively short – a special feature that they have in common with their closest relatives. That‘s why migratory locusts are placed in the suborder Caelifera (short-feeler locusts).
In the natural habitats, Egyptian walking grasshoppers usually stay close to home and live on their own. If the number of locusts living in their habitat increases dramatically, then the famous locusts‘ wanderlust is set free. They come together in a huge swarm and begin their journey – sometimes covering incredible distances – in search of a new home. They arrive like a swarm of locusts always does. Not only the German („Wander“) or English („migratory“) name alludes to this fact – the scientific species name does as well: „migratoria“ means „migratory“. In English these hoppers are referred to as the „Egyptian walking grasshoppers“ or „Egyptian migratory locusts“.
Originally the Egyptian walking grasshoppers didn‘t just live in Northern Africa and Asia, but also in Southern Europe. However, today it is rare to find them in the wild.
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Our migratory locusts breeding – we can say this with all due modesty – made BUGS-INTERNATIONAL into the company it is today. Most likely we have the largest breeding of its kind in Europe and the US. Our locusts, which remain very difficult to breed, are available to terrarium owners year-round as a special delicacy for their pets.
It‘s no wonder, based on the amount of effort we expend for our locusts. Every one of our breeding boxes has its own illumination since migratory locusts love it when it is bright and warm. Good thing that the roofs of our expansive facilities have all be fitted with solar panels. We had already completed the conversion to green energy before the term had even be coined.
Speaking of green energy: We offer our locusts fresh green energy feed every day in organic form. Because migratory locusts love fresh food. And they truly have the appetite of an entire swarm of locusts, you can take our word for it. BUGS-INTERNATIONAL has access to the best Bavarian fields in order to grow and maintain a sufficient amount of green fodder for the billions of hungry locust mouths.
Migratory locusts are very picky about their food: If there are even the slightest hints of pesticides or other chemical impurities, it will have fatal consequences for the sensitive insects. That‘s why we harvest the green fodder during the summer months on our own 34,000 m2 farm. However, that is not always sufficient in being able to still their hunger, because even during the wintertime the animals need fresh food. That is why we have huge halls solely dedicated to growing wheat, since the locusts love the fresh wheat seedlings. Several thousands of square kilometres of sowing area are available in order to be able to feed our Egyptian walking grasshoppers during the winter months as well.
This raw food diet is supplemented by a secret recipe of dry foods through which we can also optimise the introduction of vitamins and minerals. That doesn‘t just guarantee us a merry band of locusts, but you will always receive fresh and healthy food for your lizards, turtles, frogs, small mammals and birds.It makes sense that we wouldn‘t leave any stone unturned here, either. The ingredients of our dry food are controlled by independent labs for any sign of contaminants and residues so that our insects are truly only fed premium quality food. Why do you think that we generally do not experience any delivery bottlenecks and the Egyptian walking grasshoppers are so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and available on a year-round basis?
In their luxurious heated and lit breeding boxes, the Egyptian walking grasshoppers have specially designed furniture at their disposal. Our special plastic / stainless steel „locust queen-sized beds“ enable the insects to enjoy enough space to rest and hide. In addition, the „beds“ are very easy to care for, i.e. to clean and to disinfect. The comprehensive cleaning of the boxes must be undertaken multiple times during the growth cycle.
Which brings us to the next pillar of success in the breeding of locusts by BUGS-INTERNATIONAL: absolute cleanliness and hygienic conditions. Our employees ensure that the containers housing the migratory locusts are regularly and completely cleaned, sterilised and disinfected. We don‘t even give germs a chance – correspondingly we do not use any pharmaceuticals whatsoever (and of course no growth hormones or similar). Optimal diet and fastidious cleanliness (and you don‘t really need anything more than that) are all you need to keep top fit migratory locusts.
All boxes and egg storage bins must be cleaned on a permanent basis. One of our industrial cleaning systems ensure this. Here, the very last piece of dirt is washed out of the tiniest corner. They also ensure that afterwards all containers are disinfected before they again offer our migratory locusts a safe home.
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You will receive Egyptian walking grasshoppers from BUGS-INTERNATIONAL in four different sizes: „Adult“, „Sub-adult“, „Medium“ and „Small“. That means that for every terrarium dweller – for every bird and for every small mammal – there is a suitable sized insect.
So that the Egyptian walking grasshoppers make your pets happy, our employees count them precisely and place them into the transport boxes. Egg storage bins serve as a cosy resting place for the journey. It‘s actually quite unnecessary to explain that we only use brand new egg storage bins that are in pristine hygienic condition.
We have several special small transporters available that transport the valuable freight in the shortest period of time from our Bavarian-based breeding operations to pet retail stores throughout Germany. The rest is sent per express delivery. In this way, the delicious morsels arrive in the freshest possible way at your retailer.
The best thing to do is to come to an agreement with your pet store owner and get your Egyptian walking grasshoppers directly on the day they arrive. It would be best to feed your Egyptian walking grasshoppers as soon as possible, since they are best and at their most nutritious when they come directly from our breeding facilities.
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Advantages
• Are loved by almost all insect-eaters
• Very nutritious, healthy and digestible
• Their motion attracts the immediate attention of most insect-eaters.
• They do not chirp
• Easy to handle
• Do not hide in the terrarium
• Do not try to escape; do not hide in the flatDisadvantages
• React very sensitively to unsuitable or contaminated feed
• Difficult to house (must have a light and source of heat, otherwise the food cannot be digested properly); therefore, always buy fresh
• If too many feeder animals are offered, they could begin eating the terrarium plants -
In their transport boxes, our Egyptian walking grasshoppers are dry and cosy during the time it takes them to make the journey from our facilities to your terrarium. However, for a longer storage period that last several days, you should allow our wanderers some rest before feeding them to your pets.
Place Egyptian walking grasshoppers in larger tanks. Perfectly suitable for this purpose are „fauna boxes“, which can be purchased inexpensively in any pet store. These have a practical mesh lid including a flap for easy handling. This way, you can continue caring for the locusts (and even remove them for feeding), without the danger of them quickly jumping around your terrarium room or flat.
Offer the Egyptian walking grasshoppers some selected dry food, for example wheat bran; this must be untreated. You are already aware of the preference the migratory locusts have for fresh green fodder – but beware! Unfortunately, the vegetables that you can purchase in the supermarket for human consumption are not necessarily close to the quality standards we place in our locust feed at BUGS-INTERNATIONAL.
The Egyptian walking grasshoppers react very sensitively to chemical residues or changes in diet; if you buy the wrong „fresh food“ you may end up wiping out the entire supply of locusts. And all of our painstaking and time-consuming efforts should not be for naught!
So: even here please only use feed that you have acquired from trustworthy sources – the best would be using self-pulled wheat or grass from organic fields or from your own garden, as long as this is not located on a busy main road or is regularly treated with fertilisers and pesticides. Even wild herbs, such as dandelion, are a welcome meal for the locusts. If the feed is too moist or water can quickly lead to illness or – in the worst case – death.
Please pay special attention that the locust box does not get moist due to the green fodder; locusts are very sensitive to an environment that is moist.
In addition, the container housing the Egyptian walking grasshoppers must not be too cold and must contain a light bulb the size of which is in line with the size of the container. Since you are not looking to breed any insects, you do not need to keep the high temperatures that we must ensure in our breeding process. However, when keeping the locusts for several days, please ensure a comfortable temperature between 20 °C during the night and 30 °C during the day.
And that the locust boxes are thoroughly cleansed before the fresh supply of new feeder insects arrives from BUGS-INTERNATIONAL goes without saying.
Egyptian walking grasshoppers as feeder animals
Without a doubt, migratory locusts belong to the best feeder animals that you can buy for your pets. Almost all insect-eating terrarium animals absolutely love eating these insects. The manner in which the insects jump as they move forward will guarantee that your pet‘s hunting instincts will be triggered.
Furthermore, Egyptian walking grasshoppers seem to be well-liked by almost all insect-eaters, from frogs and lizards to insect-eating snakes, birds and small mammals and even marmosets. The broad spectrum ranging from the smallest locust from the „small“ package to the „adult“ locusts ensures that almost every animal beginning with the small lizard and medium-sized frogs will really enjoy this meal.
In particular, large locusts are the perfect feed for all larger insect-eaters that are difficult to fill up. In particular, for many lizards that are often fed mice or even meat, migratory locusts are the far more natural and healthier food!
It doesn‘t matter if water dragons, basiliscus, blue-tongued skinks, gerrhosauridae, all types of small and medium-sized monitor lizards, large lizards such as ocellated lizards or green lizards, large geckos or other large lizards – all of them love eating the adult migratory locusts.
Due to the elaborate breeding of BUGS-INTERNATIONAL, this premium food is available to you on a year-round basis at reasonable prices so that you do not have to resort to purchasing questionable alternatives, as are often sold online or available in older periodicals or magazines (mail order). Leave the canned food for your cat or dog to eat – your lizards, frogs, turtles and other insect-eaters will be served delicious, crispy, jump-crazy locusts!
The young locusts can be fed – depending on the selected size – to practically all terrarium dwellers, all the way down to the size class of the Carolina anole and red-eyed tree frog. Across the board, insect-eating birds and small mammals react fanatically to the jumping locusts.
Despite the optimal diet and care of the locusts with vitamins and minerals, we at BUGS-INTERNATIONAL recommend powdering the migratory locusts with a preparation containing vitamins and minerals, however you must be prudent to apply the correct dosage.
Migratory locusts are also excellent feeder animals because as active insects during the day they are drawn to light and do not hide from it; instead they bask in it. Therefore, they can simply be placed in the terrarium or the tank; sooner or later your pets will become aware of the delicious visitors.
Only offer as many locusts as the animals can eat in a short period of time, because one of the few disadvantages of the Egyptian migratory locust is that they will start eating the terrarium plants if they have enough time to do so. In addition, the mineral powder does not stick to the insects forever. So that it does its job, the locusts should be eaten quickly.
Of course, you can also feed the locusts by hand or using tweezers. All in all, migratory locusts are perfectly suited as a main dish as well as supplementary food for almost all insect-eaters.
Escaped migratory locusts do not cause any problems. If an insect jumps away from you at some point in time, simply catch it. As already mentioned, migratory locusts do not hide. They do not run away or try to escape from humans and therefore can be easily handled, even if they are excellent jumpers. But you‘ll figure out what you need to do in due time.