Betta132

Oh, hey! I looked up the Rhyparobia maderae, and I could only find a couple of pics of nymphs, but they look exactly the same as mine. That's really exciting! I have an enclosure in the works now. Do you know what kind of fruit they like, and if they'll take dried? All I know so far about their diet is that they will happily eat a pretzel crumb if you give them one, and that they can apparently live awhile without food. I picked these skulls up in Hawaii on the 5th. It's possible there was some amount of edible material in the skulls they were hiding in, but not only did they not starve or seem to suffer any from being in the skulls that long, only a couple of them actually came out of the skulls to look around. They don't look underweight or anything, and they seem lively enough. Can you point me to any care resources about them? Roachcrossing had this to say: Adult Size: Male: 45 mm. Female: 50 mm. Climbing Abilities: All life stages can climb. Flying Abilities: Adults of both sexes may be able to fly. Mode of Birth: Ovoviviparous. Care Level: Easy. Temperature Requirements: 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit. Air Humidity: Dry. Substrate Humidity: Dry. Favorite Foods: Not picky. Locality: None.

I don't think petroleum jelly melts from lack of ventilation. The stuff in the container sure isn't ventilated, and it's not melted. If they're doing nothing for you, why do you keep investing time, money, and effort in them? Sell the colonies for more money than you spent to get them, and voila. A return on your time investment.

If they're ventilation holes, without covers, they are probably not escape-proof.

I don't think they actually carry human diseases. I was always under the impression that they might have germs on them if they'd recently run across garbage, thereby picking up garbage-related germs, some of which are harmful to humans. I don't think it's like mosquitos where human diseases can breed in them. I could be wrong, though.

I found more! We brought back a total of 5 skulls, 3 with lower jaws, but 4 of them had damaged enough sinuses that the roaches didn't seem to like em any. There were, in fact, 5 more! The skulls are now outside where the sun will scare out any remainder. I don't think there are any, though- I held the skulls perpendicular to the sinus cavities and smacked them until roaches fell out. I got 4 at about 7mm, one at about 15mm. The first one I found has vanished into my peppered roach enclosure, but now that I have more, I've isolated these 5 in their own enclosure. For now they have an inch of coco fiber, a few hardwood leaves, and a bit of pretzel to chew on- I'm tired, so they get something makeshift. Later I'll put them in something with a topsoil/aquarium sand substrate, I think. They came from a skull that was found under some sort of mesquite-type bush. A couple hundred yards from the water, I think. There were a lot of dead bits from the trees on the ground, and the ground itself was very sandy. It was definitely out of where the waves would even remotely get to, and sheltered from storms. It definitely gets pretty hot out there. Hopefully these are okay in less hot temps, I'm not gonna put them in something big enough to safely heat. It was on the island Ni'ihau, which is a small island inhabited by about 200 people, off the coast of the rest. It's largely untouched by human activity, and I'm not sure how much it's been explored. I know someone introduced wild boars at some point, and eland antelope, and who knows what else, so these could be from Africa along with those? Could also be Hawaiian. It's almost in sight of the main islands in Hawai'i, so I think a flying roach could get blown out there in a storm, or it could have come out somehow on a boat. I know I can't get a proper ID until they mature, but does anyone have any guesses at what they are? I don't know how to keep these!

I guess I'll stick it in with my peppered roaches and hope I see it again once it matures. I was really tired when we got back, so when my dad handed me a bag this roach was crawling on and asked if it was one of mine, it took me a couple minutes to figure out that it wasn't! I couldn't for the life of me remember what the nymphs of mine looked like. It's definitely not mine, though. I'm not 100% sure it IS the only one. We got 5 skulls, and this was probably inside one of those. How would I go about driving potential roaches out of feral hog skulls without harming the roaches or the skulls?

This stowed away in my dad's suitcase, possibly inside a feral hog skull we found. It's about half an inch long and can climb smooth plastic, though I haven't tested it on glass. Any idea what it is? It's from Hawai'i, though I'm aware that there's a LOT of things in Hawai'i. I'm probably gonna chuck it in with my peppered roaches- they like about the same type of environment, I'd imagine.

Weird that he wouldn't want to at least tell you how to keep them alive, if not give away the 'trade secret' of breeding them.

And don't ever use P. ornatus! People feed them live (but crippled) roaches sometimes, they're extremely protein-hungry and would no doubt devour any roach that molted where they could reach. I'd be wary of using them as cleaners with reptiles, let alone things near their size. Armadillidium species should work out okay. They're a bit slower to breed, they don't have much interest in protein that can avoid them, and they don't tend to burrow. I have A. vulgare in with my domino roaches (accidental introduction), and that doesn't seem to cause any problems, though I do occasionally trap extras out. Since isopods can't climb, they're really easy to thin out. Just bury a deli cup up to its rim in the substrate, put food and a damp substance in the bottom, and cover it loosely with something like a magnolia leaf. Isopods go in after the food and can't climb back out. Then all you have to do is check if the cup contains anything you want to keep, remove anything you want to keep, and dump the rest into somewhere else.

A. tesselata are big, easy to care for, and great for handling. I don't think they can fly, too heavy.

Never kept them, but they look really neat. Where did you get them?

Oh, yes, Therea! The downside is they spend a lot of time underground as nymphs, and the adults are short-lived, but they're extremely easy to care for. Just give them a deep substrate with lots of hardwood leaves involved. You don't even really need to feed them until they hit adulthood, though the occasional veggie doesn't go amiss.

Yeah, that sounds like pretty much ideal hisser care. Do they have plenty of space? Moisture? A couple degrees warmer wouldn't hurt.

Sure! They'd eat their own molts, a tarantula molt shouldn't be any different. You may want to avoid the part with the irritating hairs, though. More for your own finger-safety in not getting those into your roach bin than for them.

Whether or not rotting wood crumbles can vary a lot depending on how wet it is at the time. If you'd have a hard time picking up a log entirely made of the stuff, it's rotted enough. If it's not quite rotted far enough, that won't hurt anything. I don't think it's possible for wood to be too rotted unless it's turned into dirt. The really good rotted stuff is super soft, nice and spongy. I like how it feels. You can break it apart in your fingers, and generally should, to check for stowaways. Even if you're gonna boil it, it's good to try and shake out whatever live things you can before boiling it. Sometimes bumblebees nest in rotting wood, so you can find the grubs or pupae. Those in particular should be left alone- just put a whole little chunk with them in it back and let them keep doing their thing. You should also avoid termites, they'll eat the wood before your roaches do and might not be the best thing to bring into your house.

I like A. tesselata and B. craniifer. Both are fairly roach-shaped, but neat. If you want something a little more unusual, maybe horseshoe crab roaches? Can't remember their name at the moment, but they look like trilobites. Heck- you could do horseshoe crabs and something else in the same enclosure. They mostly burrow, so they can be mixed with something that mostly climbs.

If you can't keep springs alive, it's probably either too dry or too sterile for them, or both. Best to keep a master culture of them in ideal conditions (a container of charcoal with yeast sprinkled in and at least an inch of water) and sprinkle them into the enclosure until they establish. That way, if they die off, you have more.

I can see the pic now. Those are springtails, I'd say. They're harmless. You want 'em around, they keep things clean.

No, evidently I'd need to message you for permission. Do they look like tiny, pale spiders? If not, they're not grain mites. These are grain mites:

They aren't really social. If it's old, another would probably just annoy it. Don't use heat lamps for roaches, they dry the habitat out and are unnecessary. If temps are going below mid 70s frequently, it'd be more comfortable if you get it a heat mat. Heat mats should go on the side of the tank, only on decent sized tanks, so there's a warm and cool area. That sounds like a good diet. I'd add in some dried hardwood tree leaves, ones that have naturally fallen from the tree. Oak is good. Hissers aren't complicated, just keep doing that.

Grain mites look like very tiny, pale spiders. You can get rid of them by keeping the enclosure drier, and by providing less to no grain-based food for them to feed on. They can annoy your roaches in large numbers, and are known to cause skin irritation sometimes in humans, but in small numbers are harmless.

I have A. tesselata, B. craniifer, and domino roaches (forgot their name) in coco fiber with leaf litter added on top and in. Seems fine so far. Most roaches aren't as substrate-reliant as things like millipedes can be. Same thing should work for most isopods, yes, though a bit of rotting wood is also good (but not required) to add for them.

I kinda suspected that, thanks.

I found a mole cricket in the parking lot of a hotel that's not even 2 city blocks from the beach. I've never seen one of these before, only heard them. Pretty sure it's Scapteriscus borellii? If I'm right, it's carnivorous, which is really cool. It was really active and a lot faster than I thought it would be, and kinda reminded me of a spider. Seemed to be very keenly investigating the container I trapped it in. I moved it into the dirt. Absolutely adorable to watch it look around! If they didn't need live prey, I'd keep it as a pet.

Found him!