Locusts

(Schistocerca gregaria)

Available in 6 sizes, locusts are strictly vegetarian. They eat fresh insecticide-free grass or cabbage and progrub.

Locusts are popular food for all sizes of lizards.

Slightly slower moving than Crickets, they are easier for lizards to catch and eat. If a lizard keeper should over-feed there is no danger of Locusts biting the lizards back.

Locusts are particularly good for feeding indoors as any escapees will find it impossible to survive for long.

Each and every week throughout the year Livefoods Direct breeds a minimum of 110,000 Locusts.

Locusts provide more nutrition than other live food insects can, they are nurtured on a very high fibre diet consisting of bran and cabbage.

Adult Locusts are probably the largest live food insect source that are farmed or bred for the livefood industry. Locusts have an amazing growth rate, from hatching out of its egg pod to being able to reproduce itself the locust will take 42 days.

That is if the Locusts are kept in ideal conditions.

The Locusts should reach approximately 6cm. It is not only the size of Locusts that make them an attractive food source to predators, but the bright yellow wing case and abdomen, making a perfect treat for large chameleons or geckos.

Large Locusts are an excellent food for various small Primates, including Galagos, Marmosets, Tamarins etc.

Locusts are also valuable for large birds such as Jays, Magpies and other Corvids, Jay-Thrushes etc.

Small and medium sized Locusts are an important part of the diet for many rearing soft-billed bird diets.