Why No Locusts in the US?

[Greg]

My 4.5" Acanthoscuria geniculata has been ignoring small food. It doesn't like dubia roaches, and the oldest crickets at my local pet store (five weeks) which barely get more than 1/2-2/3 inch long, get ignored. Giant mealworm seems to be the only other option in the US. I see videos of keepers feeding larger sized locusts, but they apparently are not allowed to be bred in the US. Those are likely all UK folks in those videos, where I see locusts available (i.e. from Northhampton). Any insights into this?

 

[Tnoob]

It's probably because they're a huge risk to agriculture here in the states. I'll see if I can turn anything up on Google.

 

[Greg]

Thanks for looking into this. I know locusts have been devastating to crops around the world.

 

[Tnoob]

I didn't find anything specific, but chameleon forum had a discussion about it. I guess they're completely banned from export.

 

[Arachnoclown]

Try hissers

 

[Tnoob]

Katydids might be a good alternative.

 

[Greg]

I guess the Brits don't don't have enough of an agricultural industry to worry about an outbreak. I wrote a paper about the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) back in college. Those things created dust bowls by devouring every single green thing in sight.
Thanks for taking an interest in my question.

 

[ilovebrachys]

I guess the Brits don't don't have enough of an agricultural industry to worry about an outbreak. I wrote a paper about the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) back in college. Those things created dust bowls by devouring every single green thing in sight.
Thanks for taking an interest in my question.

i guess you are partly right with the guess about UK not having much of an agricultural industry-we used to have a fantastic farming industry here that was enough to make us self sufficient...but we kinda lost that and any other business we used to have here to our good old friends in the EU many years ago...
the climate here isn't much good for locust/roaches etc to survive anyway...but when you purchase them the packs do tell you not to release them as there not native to the UK........

 

[Phil]

i guess you are partly right with the guess about UK not having much of an agricultural industry-we used to have a fantastic farming industry here that was enough to make us self sufficient...but we kinda lost that and any other business we used to have here to our good old friends in the EU many years ago...
the climate here isn't much good for locust/roaches etc to survive anyway...but when you purchase them the packs do tell you not to release them as there not native to the UK........

you are spot on for both points there.

 

[Tnoob]

I think katydids would be a great alternative, because from what I can tell they aren't restricted, but I've put no effort into research for that. I miss college...

 

[Tortoise Tom]

My 4.5" Acanthoscuria geniculata has been ignoring small food. It doesn't like dubia roaches, and the oldest crickets at my local pet store (five weeks) which barely get more than 1/2-2/3 inch long, get ignored. Giant mealworm seems to be the only other option in the US. I see videos of keepers feeding larger sized locusts, but they apparently are not allowed to be bred in the US. Those are likely all UK folks in those videos, where I see locusts available (i.e. from Northhampton). Any insights into this?

I suspect some other issue. I've had many large spiders over the years and they've all eaten smaller prey items. I had 6" smithii (Now called hamorii in some cases...) and big adult gramostolla species that ate several crickets per meal. When I discovered roaches as a food source in the 90's things got much simpler. I currently have a 7+ inch T. stirmi and a 13 year old G. pulchra female that is around 6 inches, and both eat male dubia. I usually feed each of them one adult male dubia once or twice a week. I have several 4-5 inch tarantulas that still take one inch adult B. lateralis in an instant. Many times the roach doesn't even hit the ground.

A. geniculata are fantastic eaters. I have three of them. If it isn't taking dubia, something else might be wrong. Try using a smaller dubia and smooshing the head. Drop the roach on its back near the spider. The flailing should get the spiders attention. If not, the tarantula might not be hungry, or it might be getting ready to molt.

We can't get locusts here but there are several easy-to-breed or buy roach species here that are quite large. Several in the Blaberus genus work quite well for feeding larger tarantula. In the past I bred Blaberus craniifer, discoidalis, boliviensis, fusca and Eublaberus prosticus, with no issues. I had more than I knew what to do with. The giant cave roaches, B. giganteus do not breed well and are difficult to get to survive well. It took a long time to grow that colony. About half of whatever was bought or bred would die for no reason. I did better with the Archimandrita tesselata, which is actually bigger and heavier than B. giganteus, but not as long. I think A. tesselata is too slow to breed for tarantula food. Slower than hissers. I've fed medium hissers to spiders, but man, the big ones are pretty well armored and those leg spines are gnarly.

Anyhow, if you feel like you need something the size of a locust, the bigger roach species might serve your purposes.

 

[Tnoob]

I suspect some other issue. I've had many large spiders over the years and they've all eaten smaller prey items. I had 6" smithii (Now called hamorii in some cases...) and big adult gramostolla species that ate several crickets per meal. When I discovered roaches as a food source in the 90's things got much simpler. I currently have a 7+ inch T. stirmi and a 13 year old G. pulchra female that is around 6 inches, and both eat male dubia. I usually feed each of them one adult male dubia once or twice a week. I have several 4-5 inch tarantulas that still take one inch adult B. lateralis in an instant. Many times the roach doesn't even hit the ground.

A. geniculata are fantastic eaters. I have three of them. If it isn't taking dubia, something else might be wrong. Try using a smaller dubia and smooshing the head. Drop the roach on its back near the spider. The flailing should get the spiders attention. If not, the tarantula might not be hungry, or it might be getting ready to molt.

We can't get locusts here but there are several easy-to-breed or buy roach species here that are quite large. Several in the Blaberus genus work quite well for feeding larger tarantula. In the past I bred Blaberus craniifer, discoidalis, boliviensis, fusca and Eublaberus prosticus, with no issues. I had more than I knew what to do with. The giant cave roaches, B. giganteus do not breed well and are difficult to get to survive well. It took a long time to grow that colony. About half of whatever was bought or bred would die for no reason. I did better with the Archimandrita tesselata, which is actually bigger and heavier than B. giganteus, but not as long. I think A. tesselata is too slow to breed for tarantula food. Slower than hissers. I've fed medium hissers to spiders, but man, the big ones are pretty well armored and those leg spines are gnarly.

Anyhow, if you feel like you need something the size of a locust, the bigger roach species might serve your purposes.

I've done what tortoise tom suggests here. It works pretty good.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

I've done what tortoise tom suggests here. It works pretty good.

Which part? The head smooshing of the dubia, or the breeding of a ridiculous number of giant roach species???

 

[nedaK]

Are you feeding it adult dubia? I honestly don’t understand why that wouldn’t work...

Dubias are fine for my larger spiders.

 

[Arachnoclown]

Well your from Portland...its probably gone vegan.