Grasshopppers

[Ethan1]

Does anybody know where I can find grasshoppers to feed my chameleon on the internet?

[CarlC]

Not gonna happen. It is illegal to ship them. US agriculture dept. prohibits it

Carl

[Ethan1]

Thanks Carl for the info anyways.

[CarlC]

Your best bet would be to raise your own. They are not very difficult.

Carl

[Ethan1]

Ok, thanks Carl!

[CarlC]

If your are gonna try raising your own Grasshoppers I would consider one of the early season species. We have a species here that appears after the first warm days in April. It is not big but it is green. Any green insect will help get a picky Cham eatting again.
The major downfall of raising any of the native species is the diapause. This will vary by the species but you can expect about 7 month's from most species found in the north east US. The good thing is you can through constant manipulation lower the diapause time. I worked with one species for 4 years. When I first started the species needed 8 month's of diapuse. The lowest time period I could get the diapuase to was about 2 month's.

Carl

[J-Man]

I often catch grasshoppers outside of my house and feed them to my cham. He's crazy for them.

By the way, I know to be careful with catching feeders... I live in a suburban... slighty rural area and there are no chemicals or anything like that used around here.

[DragnDrop]

When I want to catch wild bugs for treats, I go to an area around the organic farms. Not only are the bugs safe and plentiful, as long as you don't trample the crops the owner don't mind you helping yourself to all the bugs you want.

[CarlC]

Hi All,

It is almost that time of the year to start getting out to look for mantis egg cases. If you are doing any insect collecting near christmas tree farms try looking among the branch's of the tree's. This is usually a great source for the egg cases. The farmers around my place pull the cases off and usually just leave them on the ground. I try to get to the tree's before they have the chance to pull them all off.
Also a plentiful species of stick insect should start getting together for breeding. Diaphemora femorata (sp?) can usually be found in great numbers low to the ground on scrub oak and bramble. The females are prolific egg layers and as a bonus are parthonagenic so you don't need males to get eggs. Mated females produce stronger eggs but if they are just being used as food items this isn't really a issue. Just be carefull not to keep to many males in a close space. They will beat the bejesus out of each other.

Carl