Locust displays

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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15+ year member
just looking for some ideas for a locust display, nothing flash but not boring either. I have found photos as linked below. Any others photos appreciated.

This one I like: http://www.zoochat.com/1699/migratory-locust-exhibit-butterfly-creek-2011-a-242136/

and this one: http://www.zoochat.com/43/locust-exhibit-london-16-11-11-a-253418/

this one is alright but a bit ordinary: http://www.zoochat.com/1014/tropikariet-africa-locust-terrarium-149056/

this one not so much: http://www.zoochat.com/198/guessing-game-dudley-18-12-11-a-255754/index2.html
 
I think the one at Butterfly Creek was really well done, and the bigger London Zoo one, with bones, etc, was cool too.

For something a bit different though, today at Wroclaw Zoo I saw a mixed species exhibit with Locusts and reptiles. Not that they were just feeding them the locusts, but it was actually mixed - they had a locust sign the same as they had for the reptiles (can't remember what species though). So maybe a locust + tortoise exhibit could be done in NZ?
 
I like the London one best for bringing in the potential ecosystem effects that the locusts can have. A really cool backdrop might be a portrayal of a locust cloud (photographic or painted).
 
zooboy28 said:
So maybe a locust + tortoise exhibit could be done in NZ?
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it would have to be a locust + tuatara exhibit for my purposes, and that wouldn't work too well I'm afraid :D

I'm going to do sort of a combination between the Butterfly Creek one (so its nice and bright) and the London one (with a sheep skull and sand substrate).
 
this is what I ended up with:
 

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thanks. There's supposed to be a sheep skull in there too but I haven't found one yet; and of course once the locusts are in then there will be pots of grass and other greenery for them to eat so it will look a little less bare (but I like it the way it is, not too cluttered).
 
the window-frame thing is actually part of a sliding door. The tank used to be an aquarium but it developed an unsealable leak so a door was cut in the back wall to make it an easy access terrarium. There will be a mesh screen across the door to keep in the locusts, while the three small panels underneath it are the hand-holes for putting in food and so on.

The locusts will be the migratory (desert) locust Locusta migratoria. They are actually tuatara food but I figured may as well make them into a display as well where I can breed them. The species is found across the Old World, and is a naturally-occuring species in New Zealand (but it doesn't form plagues here as it does in some other places).
 
Chlidonias said:
The locusts will be the migratory (desert) locust Locusta migratoria. They are actually tuatara food but I figured may as well make them into a display as well where I can breed them. The species is found across the Old World, and is a naturally-occuring species in New Zealand (but it doesn't form plagues here as it does in some other places).
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Locust breeding is something that I wouldn't mind looking into, but I'm wondering if the costs and time mean it would be easier to just carry on buying them, with only getting through 2 or 3 boxes a week. I probably only have to spend £5-6 on bugs at the moment.
 
there has been a change in this tank now. Because of the size and location of the tank it just proved too difficult to heat it enough for the locusts (and I discovered that, unlike reptiles, locusts aren't smart enough to move towards a heat source!). So I've just turned it into a tank for my male Reeves turtle instead - he's quite little and he likes to explore on land a lot.....
 

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I watched a programme recently on TV it may have been an old BBC QI one that stated the reason Locusts move forward in a continual mass is because if they stopped the ones behind would eat them. I forget the reference for this, does any one know? I know crickets eat each other but hadn't realised that locusts would to, I suppose if you live in a baron region protein is hard to come by.
 
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