arachyd

I haven't raised any hissers yet but I do have quite a few dogs. If you read the ingredients on most of the less expensive brands of dry dog food you will find various grains listed as the primary ingredients it isn't unusual for roaches to do well eating dog food as a big part of their diet.

What shape was the nest? Jug-shaped would be a potter wasp, tubes would indicate mud daubers. Personally, I'd much rather have the spiders in my yard. They are more beneficial to me, my garden and my fruit trees.

Well the people at Biocontrol say the hypoaspis will eat anything they can get their mouths on so we'll see. They arrived today.

What kind of mites do you have? I have some Hypoaspis miles on order from Biocontrol Network to help get rid of grain mites. I've read they will help with mites on reptiles too. Depending on which country or state you live in you may need a permit.

Welcome! I think I can say you've come to the right place. There are some very experienced breeders here and they are very helpful.

That is not an empty molt. We have cicada maturing every year here and we can always count on seeing a lot of the skins. That one still has the cicada in it. It looks like the roach found it just as the skin split. If you look at the last pic of a cicada molting normally you can see where the eyes used to be is a clear, tan color. That will be the color of the whole empty skin. In the first pic the eyes are still dark. Severus the sound is extremely annoying after the first couple of days. They make a loud noise that builds to a crescendo that you just can't get away from.

" I've got 13 species, and cave crickets, no other animals. My girlfriend has got a cat and he demands more work and certainly more money than the roaches. I guess 59 different species is still ok, more species is a bit over the top. laugh.gif wink.gif" Nothing wrong with 13 species. Just think, some people keep 50 or so cats in their house. Even when I was totally anti-roach I'd rather go in a house with 5000 roaches than 50 cats, and I actually like cats. I'm up to 3 species (roaches that is) and assorted T's, isopods, dogs, snakes, lizards, indoor and outdoor fish, chinchillas and a small herd of rabbits.

Horrible!!! That is exactly why we panic when one of our pets or loved ones is missing, even for a short time. There is no predicting the evil some people are capable of and willing to do. I hope the culprits are caught and convicted not only of animal cruelty but felony theft, destruction of property, petnapping and whatever charges they can give for unlawfully reaching into someone's car for the purpose of stealing. Then I hope they get locked up right after a big animal rights rally with a cell block full of PETA and ALF activists who have a grudge.

If you look to the right of the ladybugs you'll see a camera symbol next to the product #5049L. If you click on the camera symbol it will show a bigger pic of the roaches.

Welcome! I'm a 2-species newbie myself, B. dubia & G. lurida. I'm constantly learning new things about them. I started with dubia to begin a feeder colony and caught myself watching them and actually being interested.

All the information is appreciated. What I haven't done already I will do. I'm very surprised that such a pretty species (even the brown ones) has so little information online compared to other species.

This is the first time I've gotten pets and not done thorough research first. At first I figured roaches are roaches and they can live anywhere (how wrong I was). I literally can't find much at all about these guys online other than that they can fly and they can be yellow. At least the dubia have a good bit of information online. I'm going to have to make time to check out the library. Thank you for the information. At least with such extremes in their natural habitat they should be pretty hardy.

Ok, thanks for the advice. A little late since I just dampened it . Oh well. On a good note, I got to see some of the nymphs I haven't seen since I put them in there . Then they promptly burrowed again to a dryer spot. Do you have any information on the habitat they come from? Are there wet and dry periods? Would light be what is causing them to hide (since yours do not hide so much)? They are in clear plastic.

There is always condensation around the top 1/3 of their container. They also have a small dish of water gel. The substrate seems to have dry patches and wet patches randomly, depending on where the condensation trickles down. Do they need more moisture than this? I haven't found much information about them.

Does anyone have any ideas what I could do to coax my Gyna lurida into spending some time above the substrate? They are pets so I want them to enjoy their home but I really would like to see them once in a while At the moment their substrate has been reduced to about 1" of a mix of peat, coco fiber and a small amount of aspen shavings but they are still able to hide very well. I know they are in there because every now and then the substrate twitches Are they a totally under cover species or will they perch on things if provided?

I am starting to see what you mean. One of my gyna lurida just matured today (only the second one I've seen mature, the other one was tan/brown) and it has a lot of yellow on it. I almost did a happy dance but stopped myself just in time before the kids saw me. I only have these 2 species.

Thanks for the reply. After a while they took turns fighting and pestering a female and then just laying around. All is peaceful again today. It never occurred to me that they had it in them to be aggressive in any way. I think I'm going to keep a closer eye on them. Every time I watch them they do something unexpected. I got them with the intention of using them as feeders but they are actually becoming interesting to me .

Forgive me if these are silly questions, I'm a total newbie when it comes to roaches as pets. Is it normal for roaches to fight? I have a small group of Dubia which includes 2 mature males. Tonight they just started fighting, I mean really biting each other and chasing each other around their container. I've never seen them do this in the time I've had them. Do other roaches fight too? Is this mating competition or territorial behavior? Do I have to separate the males?

Thank you for the information

It was a long, sort of orange thing and did not resemble a nymph at all. I've never kept roaches before and even though I've been looking for information and dubia seem to be as common as air I did not know they were livebearers . What types of problems could have caused her to abort?

I'm starting with a small number of them as well, 16-18 would be a rough estimate (the seller was generous). Is there any way to protect the oothecae? One of the females was producing the first one I've seen the other night and when I looked for it in the morning there was no trace of it so I assume they ate it. They have plenty of food available and it never occurred to me that this could be a problem. Do they have to be separated from the roaches?

This is the contact information for the center Liberty Science Center Liberty State Park 222 Jersey City Boulevard Jersey City, NJ 07305 tel: (201) 451-0006 fax: (201) 451-6383 Someone there should be able to direct you in contacting Dr. Faber directly.