Roachsmith

Roaches don't like onion. I've been cooking lots of veggies. lately so I've been giving them my leftovers and I hadn't tried onion yet. They also won't eat bok choy stalks. Too tough maybe.

In my small colony of b. fumigata some males have full wings and others have half wings. No idea why. I thought it was just one individual with stumpy wings but it turns out about half my males have stumpy wings. I'm wondering now if I have some fumigata and rothi mixed together. Hmm.. Or maybe wing sizes just vary. Seems kind of odd but I guess it could happen. I have noticed that my winged ones are more popular with the ladies. The stumpies usually get chased off. Their mating dance seems to involve their wings a lot so that might be why.

I've been keeping them at a steady 90 degrees and I was happy to see at least a few of them wandering around the tank this morning. Most of them have burried themselves which is a good sign. I dug some of them up yesterday and there were only two that seemed to be not moving much or are dead. I left them in to make sure (a few others I thought were dead have moved since I warmed up the tank). I think they might make it but they still don't seem as lively as they should be. I will keep an eye on them though and let you know how it goes.

Thanks. Looks like they can be kept on a variety of substrates. I might try a peat/leaf mulch mix with some sand so they can burrow. I've read that they don't need eucalyptus leaves to survive. Have you guys found that to be true? Didn't see an answer about the mother caring for nymphs. Anyone know about that?

I hope to be getting a few rhino roaches sometime this year. I found a few care sheets online but they seem to be out of date and have conflicting info about substrate and feeding. I want to make sure I have the proper set up for them. Can anyone give me some good care tips for these guys? One more question: I've read that nymphs need to stay with the mother for 4-9 months and get food from her. Is that true? Can they eat on their own before then?

I'm new to orange heads and I have a few questions about them. I recieved some nymphs in the mail today. They didn't seem to be moving too much and I figured they were probably cold. I put them in their tank with a bit of peat moss substrate and they are all just sitting on top of the substrate not moving. They're not dead just not very active. Is that normal for these guys? I raised the temp in there to about 80 degrees and still not much movement. I have one sitting on my knee right now and he's just hanging out, not trying to run away. Are orange heads supposed to be that calm? I'm kind of worried about them.

They were actually tearing up my background so I took them out. I had built a foam background and they dug right through it. I had fusca in there. I might try it again with a smaller species. I think a viv for p. nivea would be nice if I can find one that looks nice and is escape proof. The new zoo med terrariums look nice, but I have only seen pictures. I want to check out the gaps around the edges before I buy one. Does anybody here have one of these yet? The exo terra tanks I have won't work for tiny roaches. There are big gaps around the glass in front.

I'm glad you asked about that. I always thought cypress had insecticide qualities and always avoided any substrate that said it had cypress in it. I usually make my own substrate out of peat moss, oak leaves and sometimes vermiculite to keep in moisture. Some of the reptile substrates with cypress in them looked kind of appealing though. Like the forest bed type of stuff that's a mixture of cypress and dirt.

I killed a few of my Deropeltis paulinoi with too much humidity. Everytime I sprayed the tank I would find a dead one the next day. Now I only mist the tank VERY lightly once every few weeks. I found mold growing on some of my therea nymphs a few months ago. I reduced the humidity and gave them more air flow. I expected the moldy ones to die but they were fine. I thought it was kind of odd a living roach could have green mold growing on it and be ok. Although I noticed the peat moss substrate sticks very well to the nymphs. They seem to be covered in little hairs that the dirt sticks to. It's great camoflage, I have a hard time finding the little guys when I'm sifting though the substrate.

I turned on the heater in my bug room and I guess it got these guys in the mood. It was fun to watch the male's mating dance. He waved his butt around then stuck his wings straight up in the air and backed towards the female. She climbed on his back and hooked up then turned around. They fell off their log a few times but remained attached. They've been like this for a few hours

I feed mine once a week. I alternate with fresh veggies and dry food.

Hi Robert! Insectgeeks is awesome. I'm "arachnocat" on there. Insectavision sounds cool. Are you the one that was trying to get your T our of the drain? I watched that. It was nuts. lol.

lol! Thanks! Those are the only ones I could get to stay still long enough! Posted the mag review on arachnoboards this morning.

Cool thanks!

Do these guys lay ooths or do they have live births? I couldn't find this info for some reason.

What is the ventilation like on your cage? I noticed I only got grain mites in my tupperware container (which has no air holes) but I didn't have mites in any of my cages with screen tops.

That one was gross, but I'm pretty sure it's fake. Looks Photoshopped.

I haven't seen that movie. I'll have to check it out. I love how in movies and TV shows all the roaches are hissers. I guess they can't have german roaches running around on the set but they aren't fooling us bug people. lol.

I've only had them in huge masses in my dubia tank. They like it hot and humid so they like the tupperware bin. The worst was when I was trying to raise mealworms. I thought there was dust all over my container but it was covered in mites. They were all over my room, on my carpet, on my cat. It was gross. I'm going to try raising mealworms again soon and put the bin on top of the mite paper. I hope that works.

I use peat moss for all my roaches. For burrowers, I add a bit of vermiculite and sand to the peat to give it more substance. The peat can be a bit powdery on it's own.

Parrots have very few tastebuds that's why they love hot peppers so much, because they have a really strong flavor. They also don't have the ability to taste the heat or "capsaicin" in peppers like we can.

I had a male hisser that lived 3 years. He was the dominant male and always guarded his log until he lost the ability to stick to it and the other roaches pushed him off. He had a good long life though.

I noticed roaches can grow at very different rates. Months ago I bought some blaberus hybrids that were aboug 1", now they are sub adults/adults. Yesterday when I was cleaning out the tank, I found a little 1" guy hanging out in there. I know my roaches haven't reproduced yet, but this one just didn't grow for some reason.

Just a regular hisser as far as I know.

I want to create a vivarium in a tank that my fuscas are in. I thought I might be able to leave them in there. Do you think they would eat all the plants or would they only eat decaying plants? It might be a fun project. I want to put some millipedes in there too and possibly a water feature that they won't be able to fall into.