Schistocerca americana nymphs hatch

There have been struggles recently with consistent hatches. After speaking with several entomologists, I began to follow of different hatching protocol for Schistocerca americana egg pods. Today was the day the first egg pod was supposed to hatch and it happened right on time. Several dozen nymphs have hatched and more are on the way.  

Schistocerca americana nymph

This one container holds 3 or 4 egg pods. This is the first one to hatch and the first one laid. So there should be several more hundred that will hatch from this container in the coming days.

The above video shows the newly hatched nymphs in their new home. The following video shows a side view of the egg pod container. Hatching nymphs can be seen (they are bright green) below the surface in the cavity left by the egg pod.

Work also continues on M. differentialis, but for now the focus of production will be on S. americana. 

Thoptera Grasshopper Operation Ramping Up

Progress with the Thoptera grasshopper growing operation is ramping up. I posted in the fall about my interest in starting an alternative protein business focused on mass rearing of grasshoppers here in the U.S. In my research, I have yet to find a company in America that is involved in commercial grasshopper production. If you know one, please post in the comments. My aim is to continue working to optimize year round production of grasshoppers for human consumption and for agricultural feed purposes (poultry and aquaculture). Earlier posts contained pictures of grasshoppers that had been captured in the wild and then caged to breed. After some research and lots of trial and error to getting them to hatch I successfully hatched out a few dozen in December (obviously not within the normal seasonal hatching in North America). If all goes well, the next generation with yield several hundred, and the generation after that will be in the thousands by summer. This would allow for direct to consumer sales initially with a more commercial type operation to follow. I am sure there will be several more things to learn over the next few months, especially as the quantity increases. The goal is to have a commercial, year-round production system in place by next fall that can be scaled for growth as demand increases.
Check out this video of one group of itty-bitty grasshoppers emerging from their eggs in my "desktop hatcher."

Here is a photo of the same grasshoppers a few weeks later in the growth chamber.

The following photo shows the grasshoppers that were caught in the wild about 6 months ago.