Bricktop

This may be a silly question but are those roaches actually a metallic blue color or black? I'm not sure if the picture's colors are showing properly on my PC.

Those are B. discoidalis without a doubt.

Those essentially look like 75% of the adult female "B craniifers" i'm selling off now. Orrin said they are hybrid craniifers so i'm assuming they're just a mixed variety. How do the males look in comparison?

Roachman had a species like this one of the last time i saw him, albeit slightly less odd. It was dark like that and resembled a large wasp. Its surprising alot of these weirder species aren't more common on the market considering their exotic appearance.

Welcome! Being in Singapore means you probably have an easier time getting ahold of Australian varieties like Rhino roaches and the like, along with all sorts of exotic goodness.

Indeed, Merry Christmas to the lot of you! Hope you all had a good one.

Well i've spoken to you already but i'd be glad to answer any questions etc. welcome to the place! The more the merrier.

Fascinating. It reminds me of the way driver ants make living bridges across things, or those chains of migrating lobsters marching across the ocean floor. Its a shame maggots are so repulsive to look at.

One thing i do notice about my B craniifer hybrids is that in all of the the males tend to be either pitch black or much lighter than the females, there is no real variation, just one extreme or another. Another thing i notice is that when they first molt, their distinctive "skull" marking is very visible (on nearly all of them) but once they start hardening up the markings become less visible on a lot of them. The first pair of adults i got from R. Willis looked like absolutely none of the ones i've ever seen or had since. The female was a dark brown color (i still have her in a jar in the freezer) and the male was dark but nothing like any of my other adults. Strange how it worked, i must post a picture once i dig one up.

Hitting the weights or a punching bag or running works, if bad comes to worse and I can't find anything to do, there's always Jim Beam or Chivas Regal. I figure everyone's got tough times, its best not to let things get to you, the world is going to keep turning and everything is going to keep moving whether you want to move with it or not.

I use romaine lettuce, bread, any fruit i may have on hand (apples, oranges, whatever), and as for protein, i just toss in Kibbles and Bits dogfood. I sold off my colony but it lasted me 2 or 3 years and was at least double or triple its original size, despite constantly giving them away (a friend at the Bronx Zoo wanted some). It may be dry, but if you spray it they take to it just fine. To my knowledge the same works for the orange heads and e. distantis. I didn't have any cannibalism or chewed wings problems in any of my tanks, even when they were crowded.

I tossed in a tamale and found a week later that the only thing that had taken to it was maggots. I guess no more of that. It really depends on the species and how hungry they are.

My mother's biggest fear is cockroaches, its what piqued my interest in them, her constantly reminding me of how afraid she was. Never understood it myself, but escapees i was generally able to keep under wraps until they brought a cat into the house last year. Part of my reasons for offloading my colonies is the constant pressure they've been giving me since several incidents where they'd be upstairs eating dinner and the cat would come upstairs with a live B. craniifer in its mouth in order to show them. I don't know where the cat keeps finding them, but its better at it than I am, and the first thing it does is go and drop it near my mother. I'm sure it would be funny if not for the aftermath!

whoops, sorry. the initial photos in the first post of this thread. They are so clear and crisp, my camera can't get anything remotely near that.

I saved two periplaneta americana from a glue trap at work about 3 years ago, within 6 months i had a horde of nymphs (and both adults were still alive!). I had them from another full year before releasing them in the woods (i only wanted to save the original two, not keep them). I kept them in a completely empty tupperware with only two toilet paper rolls. I fed them romaine lettuce and dogfood like my other colonies and did not have any deaths despite those conditions, so i think you'd have a hard time NOT having a successful colony here.

I know this is totally offtopic but what kind of camera are you using there, my camera can't take any halfway decent pics of my roaches at all!

Well i suppose you came into the thread at a convenient time! Thank you! I have some friends trying to go live in switzerland (they are of swiss descent) and they all love it there. The states aren't SO bad regarding shipping, just certain states can be real sticklers, like Tennessee. As for guns, i don't own one but i'd certainly like one, or at least knowledge on how to use one. Its a tool like any other except its easy to abuse in the wrong hands. What you said regarding the can of ammunition and access to the military guns is probably what i had heard, so i suppose i heard half right. I know Ireland is strict about it because of the Troubles, it always has been though to my knowledge.

I would disagree and I've heard that Switzerland has extensive gun rights issues (everyone can own a rifle or something like this). Yes, i'm aware of this and it certainly makes the move all the more appealing, although i don't plan to much leave Eire. Yes, the irony here is that in America we pay a tremendous amount in taxes but get 0 benefits. Frankly I'd rather just keep all the money and get no benefits, but if i'm paying that much, I'd might as well get the cradle to grave treatment you Scandinavians get. Ireland was flourishing on borrowed time and money and now its going to pay the price, unfortunately. Its going to be hit harder than other countries in the EU because its a small country without the resources and industrial capacity of say, Germany or France. Its unfortunate but my choice isn't based on economics but blood, I don't expect to be making millions or have a fancy job title, I'm just hoping to live comfortably and perhaps down the road get a masters degree. The weather in Scandinavia is probably similar to Ireland (despite the stereotype over here that you people live in perpetual winter). Florida has plenty of guns of all kinds, most of the southwest does. Florida is a mixed bag though. Its not as safe as it should be but its far safer than NYC where you can't even get a BB gun. that doesn't mean people are walking around shooting off pistols in the air or openly toting AK47s and the like, I have never actually seen one in real life outside of military personnel.

Frankly the areas where gun laws are the most stringent are usually the least safe areas here, i know i live in one. Cities tend to all be the same though. NYC, Detroit and LA for example all have extremely strict gun laws but i wouldn't recommend visiting them without knowing what neighborhoods to stay out of. As for me, i've got ancestral ties, a bit of land but other than that no relatives still live there, all of them moved away in the last few decades unfortunately. But to get an Irish passport is easy because i'm entitled to it as the son of emigrants. Ireland's changed dramatically over the past 20 years (infact over the past 10 would be more like it). What country are you from, OBJ? as for invertebrates, all you'll get in Ireland are earwigs, centipedes and isopods. The weather is beautiful and mild/cool, but that isn't the weather to find the most interesting kinds of inverts. If you are looking for diverse insects the southwest or Florida would be up your alley. Over in Florida i saw cuban greens right there on the sidewalk not to mention quite a few impressive grasshoppers. The Southwest from what i can tell has plenty of good stuff to but i've never been there so i couldn't tell you.

Oh no i meant no offense, i was just curious as to what you meant? are you talking about the job situation, the housing, or something relating to roaches? I wasn't trying to rag on you.

Here in Europe? My plan is Ireland, whats the scoop you can give me there? I've never heard of the BAC until you just mentioned it, and no, i was not talking about Edwin Willis although now that you bring it up i certainly will look into it.

No it was plastic. I'm sure i have pictures of it somewhere i'd have to dig it up, but it was taken with my phone camera so it isn't that great. I'll post them when i find them. They didn't get through the inner container, i wish i could find the original thread here but i remember being told that this was the best way to maintain them without them getting out and wrecking my house.

When i am in the room with them after awhile my nose starts running, eyes get watery, i sneeze. This has been going on for some time however now i can't handle them either. When a craniifer walks on my hand without a glove every single spot where its feet touch my skin develops into a bump/rash. So the few times one slips out of my grip and crawls up my arm there ends up being a trail of bumps all the way up. This never used to happen. Edwin willis? Not sure about edwin? I was referring to Richard. Thank you but what kind of questions are you referring to regarding relocation?

Very nice and neat! My roach room used to look similar. Its a good set up to have the PC there, but you may run into trouble when your colonies get larger. Not just with the containers themselves (i notice tupperware for me without any screens tend to get very moist very fast).

Interesting i should come back when i did, because i believe you are referring to a thread i started here about two years ago! I found a bunch of termites in a friend's garage and started a colony, unfortunately the amount i kept was too small and while they immediately went to work setting up tunnels, they didn't reproduce and the colony died off within 5 or 6 months. That said they were fascinating to watch, especially when one considers the far more rigid nature of termite colonies. One could identify the soldiers from the workers from the drones with no problem, while in say a bee hive or an ant colony the distinctions only exist between drones, queens and the rest (generally speaking). I was told to double layer the containers as termites would actually chew their way out of the first so i had a small container in a larger container which had a bit of water in it, to guarantee nothing would be getting out of either. It doesn't appear you are having this problem though.