Grasshoppers exclusive

Hi Guys

So finally i bit the bullet. Out with the nasty crickets!
Worms are too passive and not suitable as a high protein source.
Roaches give me goosebumps.

What is left?

Well, I thought, black grasshoppers. They breed easily and they eat fish food all year round. They dont stink like crickets do, they do not munch on your "pets" and they are a suitable protein income.

However, they get quite large and having a colony that does not breed VERY fast like dubia or something do, you have to be picky which ones to take to feed your critters with. That's the negative side of the story.

Positive side is because they are large you get to see quite a spectacle. Whats more, when you fed a scorpion a grasshopper (locust) it will be wellfed for at least 2 weeks, on one animal.

These are my thoughts. Are there people who actually took this road a long time ago and have tips or remarks to add?

Cheers

Anyway I know they like them since they all killed and are eating a grasshopper 1.5 their size. Even the fat P Transvaal female..

Crickets do small of death.

Locust are strange little creatures and they seem to be feed on dynamite.

I'm going for a dubia colony.

Q - are darkling beetles ok for livefood? I have a ton that I've been keeping as pets lol.

I doubt it, but you can try. Beetles are noones favorite meal. Not even the vertebrates like them I think.

Anyway, ontopic.. they give NO smell... its heaven!

Take a look at these meatpiles! If your scorp gets to eat something like this it doesnt have to eat for another month after it. Btw I have pretty big hands, these hoppers are between 5-9cm tall adults.


To be perfectly honest I feel the need to promote these feeders.
All use crickets or roaches. I absolutely agree with most women that roaches are just plain and simple nasty animals that should be kept OUT OF YOUR HOUSE.

One gets away, it makes for 20+ young roaches to get born INTO your house. You can say, they dont climb, they dont move.. eventually one will get out.. sooner or later.

What makes things worse is that they survive! They will not go out of your house, because they like it there! Warm, bugs around, maybe even some very small food left overs from the sink.. in the sink, you name it... They will make your house a huge Disneyworld for them.

Crickets STINK badly! They eat your animals. If they dont kill them, they will mangle them someday. They dont live long and turn on each other. They are worse than roaches, but good thing, they dont infest a house when one gets to run freely.

All in all, I have these hoppers now. The scorps dig them. They have a good nutrional value (and lots of water content).. the dont dig themselves in when fed.. they are slow moving and you can have them in every size possible when breeding them. From tiny as a fruitfly to jumbo (picture above).

They dont run and are easily caught. They dont attack anything living, in fact they dont bite at all!

They have NO odour (even their droppings are clean), you feed them whatever you want, pull out some fresh grass and they are fine. They breed like its childsplay and they dont die!

What more can you ask?

The downfall is that you need to keep them HOT. But if you stack them where your scorps are at, they will be more than fine. The price of them (which is high) is justified if you keep them to breed. Only one time you have to pay for them.


Tbh, I dont understand there is not a lot more people using these as a staple diet for their inverts....

they look bit like locusts

Actually, they are!

And I think that is why people dont use them.
In America (correct me if im wrong), people cannot get them because they are forbidden to have, or breed because they get like major plagues down there eating entire crops etc...

We europeans, we follow trends from the US and that is why I think people over here dont use them often even though they are not forbidden down here.

Locusta migratoria I believe

aaah right cool...horrible spiking barbed legs our scorps hate them lol

Hmm even my small bicolor grabbed one today lol.. it was about 1.5 x its size lol

but I think I broke off one leg..

they hardcore scorps though not like our pansy fellas lolz

I guess when they are really hungry they attack all that moves and my guess is the bicolor male was ravenous.. :-)

Still hasnt finished eating it

i tried locusts because i can't stand adult crickets making noise in my room
they are the same price for a tub of crickets, but you don't get so many..
i tried to breed some of the native hoppers we get.. didn't work

I don't buy crickets/grasshoppers much anymore i just go out in the woods and catch them i can get about 10 per 30 minute trip.

Where can you buy these things to start a colony? They sound pretty sweet as a Crix replacement.

You are a wild man-rugged-outdoor-rattlesnake-wrangler. You tellin' us that you can't wrangle some grasshoppers and get a colony going?

Street, I wish I had the time to go flying after grasshoppers bro. But what with the full time job (Now with overtime), and the epic wild man-rugged-outdoor-rattlesnake-wrangler (As you put it) gig I run, I don't have time to chase bugs. Love ya Street!

I didn't mean to be condescending there Wyatt. Just a bit of good-natured Razzing.

Oh I know bro, no worries at all man. I guess I let my sarcasm get the better of me there. Sorry man.

I wish I could work overtime...

LOL Be the only guy at wal mart who shows up for overnight maintenance and I'm sure you'll get it. Sorry bout earlier too bro, I got a serious kick out of the wild man thing.

Nice. Wally world taking care of business. I need to find a real job. Not much money in the non-profit sector.

HAHA Yea, Wal Mart dure knows how to take care of us. But I don't mind. If I have to work longer for them, they WILL pay me for all of my time and not try to squirm out of overtime pay. I'll take them down in a blaze if they try to short change me. LOL But I'm not too worried about it. I thought you had a job Street??

Yeah I do have a job, but it's working for non-profit organizations. No money to be made by working for charities.

I guess that is true. Dang bro. Hope you find something soon.