varnon

This series of photos is great.

Hissers's favorite activity is sitting around and doing nothing, especially during the day and during cooler temperatures. Sometimes they are also pretty lazy about eating. If you only have a few, they might stay hidden a good bit. On the other hand, they seem to like to climb a bit, so if you have a perch for them to climb on instead of a bark slab for them to hide under, then you might see them chilling on their perch more.

Interesting. I've noticed some extra social behaviors when moving orange heads from one bin to another. Wasn't sure it was really a thing before, but it sounds like it might be common.

I'll second Roach Crossing and Bugs in Cyberspace (though I'm not sure I've ordered from them) and I'll also add Cape Cod Roaches. And also the buy/sell/trade listings here.

Hi all, I'm looking for some roach stats. I'm mostly finding dimensions, but I would also like information on weight of Periplaneta americana, Blattella germanica, and Blaberus discoidalis. Thanks in advance if anyone has some estimates or data here. I added Eublaberus posticus to the title so interested people might see this, but I've actually got that one covered. If anyone wants to know, I'm looking at an average of 3.39 grams ± 0.79 g std, range of (1.54, 4.86). This is from one sample with 80 roaches. I have some other data sets I might add to this later if anyone else really just loves data like I do.

My orangeheads will pounce on food thrown near them. I guess they feel the vibration. They quickly spin around and grab whatever it is. I can even get them to attack non food items sometimes. Love those little hungry bugs.

Hi all, I do research in animal behavior. I just finalized my first publication with cockroaches and wanted to share. See: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/12/4/339 The article is open access, so its free for everyone. To give a simple summary, we studied the tendency of orange head cockroaches (my fav so far) to startle when lights are turned on or turned off. We call it the light-startle response (LSR). I'm really interested in how animals learned, so we used the LSR to study basic habitation learning. That is, the more you present a light-change stimulus, the less they respond to it. We went through four experiments with them investigating how they learn, and how it compares to other species. I think the abstract is pretty clear if you want more information, but I'm also happy to chat about it. The orange heads worked out really well for this project, and another one I am trying to publish soon, so I'll be continuing to do research with them. I got into them for practical research purposes, but I really do enjoy having them.

I had not considered messing with their legs. Thanks. I actually have some data on the heated vs cool and male vs female topic. Warm male roaches are definitely the most vocal, at least from my colonies.

Hi all, I have a student doing a project on the disturbance hiss in what are probably hybrid G. portentosa ish hissers. For part of this project, we want to know what causes the most disturbance hisses, or what is mostly likely to consistently produce the hiss behavior. The scientific literature is a little lacking on the topic. I have my own ideas and experiences, but I'm curious what your personal experiences are. What do you think? Say you were wanted to get the most hissing possible, like if you were doing outreach for example, how would you stimulate them to hiss? The two rules have to be: you can't hurt the animals, and you can't just select those that are most vocal.

Super interesting and helpful. Also, the topic is kind of fascinating. I wonder what we will know about hissers in another 20 years. Our understanding of the various species may be very different.

Very interesting. Time to automate data collection!

There is a study with, I think American cockroaches in new york city, showing that they evolved an aversion / lack of interest in certian sweet flavors that were commonly used in pesticides. Natural selection doesn't mess around.

I did a roach research project with a student, and later her mother did the name a roach thing for us, and got us roach mugs and beanie hats. It sort of surprised me, especially because I already had plenty of roaches I could name, but it was a nice gesture. I would be all for more merch, and yes, especially non-American cockroach things. People just have the idea that American cockroaches are what everything are. More varied merch could help dispel that.

I found lots of wood roaches growing up. A few years ago, I found pale bordered field roach in my yard. I was not able to contain it or find another.

I feel like I need a beardie just to help me with my population control. Also they are adorable.

I have done a few cockroach learning/behavior studies, but nothing published yet, so nothing I can share at the moment. A fair bit of my published work is with bees, you can see here: http://cavarnon.com/publications If it has a link, its open access, if not, then it is something I'm not actually allowed to share freely. Bees are a little higher maintenance, and I don't like getting stung in the face, so I'm really shifting my work toward cockroaches this year. It'll probably be at least a year before I have something sharable, but of course I'll share everything with the group here. In the mean time, here is one of my colleagues's web page: https://www.roachlab.org/

Shon, These are excellent. I could actually see something like this being used for scientific illustration (I have commissioned such illustrations before). One of my friends had to do similar sketches for a graduate entomology class and really enjoyed it, those were less holistic and more close ups of parts though. Keep it up. Hisserdude, yours are actually pretty good too. They mostly just lack shading. And I totally get the point about not being able to get the legs to look natural. I can get it if I copy an image closely, but free hand, I think I just don't 100% understand the legs and joints. They are so alien its hard to make sense of it sometimes.

I think I've read the paper you are discussing, and I've also done some similar work, both in formal experiments, and as classroom demonstrations. Essentially, the disturbance his is a reaction to alarming stimuli. It clearly occurs in response to touch, but I think they also respond to movement and visual stimuli. Once alarmed, most individuals usually only his a few times, if any. A few will hiss dozens of times after startled. I've also noticed they are more likely to hiss when they have an opportunity to run back to their colony. I'm not sure if the function is to startle potential predators, or if they are alerting their fellow hissers. The reduction in hissing you are describing is likely habituation. Even very simple animals can learn to reduce their responses with repeated stimulation. Animals much simpler than cockroaches are capable of this. As long as the alarming stimulus is not too intense, most hissers will habituate to these stimuli over time. You may also notice that hissers that are not handled frequently will quickly run and willingly drop of your hand, while a hisser that is more accustomed to handling will calmly walk around even on the underside of your hand. I think the dropping response is another deliberate anti-predation strategy. When they are calm, they cling to whatever surface they are on. In terms of bonding, I don't beleive you are seeing what would be considered a traditional bond. Instead of bonding with you, your hisser is learning not to be alarmed by your presence. Since he is not alarmed, he is not hissing or running away. He can now act more calmly and naturally when you are with him. If he is hungry, you could likely feed him. Any of his natural behavior may occur now. I've also known some very territorial male hissers that, once they are not alarmed by humans, will actually fight with humans. If your hands get too close to their spot, they will give your finger a good shove! They are fun little animals, and there is definitely "more going on in there" than most people would think.

Dr. Darby Proctor, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Florida Institute of Technology has recently started using cockroaches to teach principles of psychology and neuroscience. Article and video below: https://adastra.fit.edu/blog/research/florida-tech-discovery-magazine-spring-2019-buggin-out/ I met Darby at a conference last week, were we were both presenting some of our cockroach research. The conference was near her school, so she actually was able to bring some of her discoid cockroaches! It was my first time seeing discoids in person. I now have "other roach envy." I know a number of labs that are investigating using hissing cockroaches for similar work, but generally I find them too lethargic. I have made some good progress with my research as well, and just received a grant to continue the work, though I do not yet have any fun videos to show yet.

I have found most hygrometers to be very unreliable. I think you will see this trend in reviews. I use a cigar box hygrometer. I think I have three of them now between home and work. https://www.amazon.com/Cigar-Oasis-Caliber-Digital-Hygromter/dp/B00JXOKQVW/ This hygrometer works great. It also can be calibrated, but at least so far, new hygrometers have not needed calibration. They are accurate and consistent. I highly recommend them if humidity is important.

They are absolutely capable of noticing differences, changing their behavior, learning, and maybe even having basic moods or emotions, but I do think what is going on with them is not quite as complicated as what causes behavior for you or I. We are sort of designed to explain things in terms that we understand, so its very normal to assume another animal (or even another person) thinks the way we do, but it is rarely the case. I imagine he simply has less reason to do things now that there are no mature females around. He will likely perk up if other adult females are around, or when the nymphs get bigger. He might even be more active if there was another male for him to have territorial disputes with, although they may also fight too much. Right now he is likely just chilling, waiting for something that actually requires behavior. I don't think he is depressed, but they are somewhat social species, so I think they probably do the best when they live in groups.

Well, I generally don't think my sense of smell is great, but it could be individual differences between us, or differences in our roaches and/or their environment. I do find the musty mothball approach to be interesting though. I can imagine that, and maybe some of the substrate has that kind of smell, but I just can't imagine that as a hisser smell. I'm going to have to do some bug sniffing later today and think about that.

Hissers have a smell to me. If there is a dead hisser in the colony, it will also have a distinct smell. Hissers smells remind me of vinegar. My orange heads have a bit of a smell if you mess with them too much. Otherwise they seem to smell mostly like the substrate. I don't notice a specific orange head smell, unless they are disturbed.

Hmm, the synchronized movement is interesting, but I do like my bugs to be a bit more active. Your wife should be happy the females get a chance to wait. So many females of various species never get a male-free moment. Waiting and longing is romantic! I imagine the poor lonely roaches singing Disney-style songs while waiting for their knight in chitin armor. And then she finally meets the one!

Wait, is this species parthenogenetic too? I might have to get some.