Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Do we get locusts in Ireland?

  • 03-09-2014 6:12pm
    #1
    Pumpkinseeds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,635 ✭✭✭


    I was minding my own business in the garden this afternoon and the weirdest looking flying insect flew off 1 of our trees and right at me. It looked like a cricket, had a dark body and bright orange/red legs. It was too fast to get a photo and I've never seen one of whatever the heck it was before.


Comments

  • #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    they are normally sold as food in reptile shops. Unless one escaped.


  • #3
    Rommie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 406 ✭✭Rommie


    Any chance it was an ichneumen wasp? Just came across one today wasp_0046.jpg

    Been seeing loads of bugs I haven't seen before in the last few weeks. Met my first Wood wasp last week, bloody things are huge! 4799395181_2780ee4903_z.jpg


  • #4
    DBB
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 9,770 Mod ✭✭✭✭DBB


    It was almost certainly a grasshopper! There are a couple of common species here including the Field Grasshopper and the Green Grasshopper, and they're strong fliers.
    There are crickets here too, but they're not common, as far as I know.
    We don't have locusts, and I *think* people who feed these types of beasties to their reptiles use crickets, not locusts? Open to correction on that though:)


  • #5
    Pumpkinseeds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,635 ✭✭✭Pumpkinseeds


    Very simillar Rommie but the legs were much redder.


  • #6
    DBB
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 9,770 Mod ✭✭✭✭DBB


    What sort of size was it?


  • Advertisement
  • #7
    Pumpkinseeds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,635 ✭✭✭Pumpkinseeds


    Length wise it was about the size of a ladies small finger, vague I know:D, width wise it was about half an inch. It had the same antennae as the pics above and looked very simillar. When I googled it there are apparently 80,000 different varieties of that wasp so it very well could have been one of those. It flew right at me and I swatted it away. We live in an estate but there's lots of large green spaces around and we're very close to water as well.


  • #8
    Assassin saphir
    Registered Users Posts: 318 ✭✭Assassin saphir


    DBB wrote:
    It was almost certainly a grasshopper! There are a couple of common species here including the Field Grasshopper and the Green Grasshopper, and they're strong fliers. There are crickets here too, but they're not common, as far as I know. We don't have locusts, and I *think* people who feed these types of beasties to their reptiles use crickets, not locusts? Open to correction on that though


    I used to buy live locust in the pet store for my reptiles. They are imported and come in hesium bags of 50 or 100. They are hard to catch if they escape.


Advertisement