Blattodea313

Do they breed fast?

I have some adults right now that are the offspring of a black morph and a regular. A few of them have regular coloration, while others have black and orange mixes. RPH, here is what a black morph should look like: https://www.dropbox....ae/IMG_0549.JPG

OK, I was getting concerned for a second there

Has the cat actually ate one?

They must have a really good keeper then

Neither the females or males can fly. I wouldn't think they can break the skin

The black morph is usually pure black with some yellow near the end of the abdomen. I'm not sure what you have.

Do you ever actually see them eat the food? My hissers would not even touch strawberry. What all are you feeding them?

I wouldn't trust any of the "pest" species in a pickle jar, especially at school. I don't think the school leaders would be happy with a cockroach infestation P. surinamensis would grow to rapidly in an enclsoure (there parthenogenetic) that little, and the same with dubia. Of course, it probably would work with dubia if you just had males in one enclosure (like with the hissers).

Yes they usually split down the back even if it is a failed molt. I have seen this happen quite a few times with my G. portentosa.

Do you have problems with the nymphs getting out the sides where the front doors are? I am thinking about getting some G. grandidieri to go in an exo-terra terrarium.

I can empathize with you. When I ordered my first roaches, Blaberus giganteus, they came dead. I was devastated for weeks.Sorry for the loss.

Moist coconut husk definitely increases the humidity (I use it in all my natural setups to increase humidity). The egg cartons might not mold if you use a mulch or bark substrate. If you did add substrate, you could use cork flats since they don't mold as easily in moist conditions. If you want to lower humidity I would use some mesh screening on the top instead of the lid that comes with the pickle jar. Also, I don't think it is going to take long for the hissers to crowd the container...10 gallon aquariums get overpopulated easily and your using only a 1 gallon container. Maybe you could keep one gender in the pickle jar, and keep the females at home in a larger enclosure? One of my previous science teachers had her hissing cockroaches separated by gender and in two ten gallon aquariums.

Beautiful species It looks like there is a tinge of yellow on the head (picture 5)

Here is the website: http://www.rickslivefood.co.uk/ Type in "dubia roaches" in the search bar, and scroll down a bit.

I don't live in the UK but I always end up on a website selling insects that are in the UK. Dubia pairs are usually around 2 pounds. Here is one of the websites that sells dubia: http://www.rickslivefood.co.uk/View-all-products-in-shop.html

What do you mean by "encouragement"?

Ok, now I'm just totally confused. I found 2 this morning but they weren't near any moss. There was also this odd substance on the inside glass of the enclosure that I got a wet paper towel and wiped off. Not sure what the problem is...I don't think the plants would be the problem but I have 2 aralias, a dracaena, and english ivy.

I think the problem was the moss in their enclosure. The moss is very stringy and tough, so the hissers thorny legs would get caught in it. I found 3 this morning that were like the 4 from yesterday, and they had moss on their legs. After I got the moss off of their legs they all started walking again. I removed the majority of the moss from the enclosure. I have water crystals as the water source. I use a mixture of cat food flavors, iguana fruit pellets, and cichlid pellets as a food source, as well as fruits and vegetables every other day.

I don't think it had to do with pesticides because the other hissers in the same enclosure are fine. After I moved the 4 hissers that were on their back to the other enclosure I waited a few hours then checked on them, and they were walking again. I'm not sure what the problem was... By the way, were you experimenting with red runners or something?

After checking on my male hissers in their new enclosure I noticed that four of them were laying on their back, but still alive. I moved those four back into their old enclosure, but they don't seem to be moving their legs. The enclosure is slightly dry. I'm not sure if the dryness is what caused it. Edit: I've kept hissers in exo-terra terrariums before with no health issues. The one they are in right now is a 24x18x12. Their previous one was an 18x18x24. I think I will moisten the soil and increase humidity.

Ok thanks. I was really getting worried watching them run around.

Today I moved my hissers into a new enclosure. It is planted, has cork bark to hide under, leaf litter, and some wood pieces. A few hours after moving them into their new enclosure they started running around everywhere, trying to climb the glass, crawling on the screen top, and moving their antennae very quickly. I'm thinking that they are just exploring the new habitat, but I've never seen them so active. They are all male. I still have the females in the old enclosure.

I love the way part of the back (elytra?) is clear and the other is metallic gold.

You could use an under tank heater made for reptiles. I would only use that for a glass terrarium though. The small should be fine for a 10-20 gallon terrarium. Here is a link to the under tank heater http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiTherm®-Under-Heater/dp/B0002AQCKA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389659755&sr=8-1&keywords=zoo+med+heat+pad It says on the packaging to only use it for glass terrariums, but I've seen people use them on plastic containers too.