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Mikhail_Karkarov

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  1. Thanks, I will let him know he's on the right lines. I think he is getting isopods as well but is concerned about the dry environment. I'm sure it will work out. Thanks again.
  2. First I must apologize for not frequenting this board as much as I would like to. In adition to my three roach colonies I have a lot of tarantuals and find my free time taken with their study and care. Anyways I wanted to run something by the board. Recently I purchased 1K dubia to add to my collection. The seller was completely atrocious and I wound up getting shorted about 500, but that's beside the point. Some one else ordered some and theirs arrived with mites and mold problems. I am assuming they came from different colonies. He has been unable to identify the mites except as tiny and white (lol) and said he's found them on the roach food, the roaches, and swarming over a dead roach. If they were only on the food I wouldn't worry. I know there are symbiotic as well as parasitic mites. For treatment he has moved the colony to a new enclosure w/o substrate and is doing a period of decreased humidity and food supply. He plans to continually transfer them in the hopes of leaving mites behind. I've heard of using predatory mites and/or isopods to combat mites. Any thoughts on this and where would one obtain such mites? Does his approach sound good? I've never had mites so I didn't have much info for him.
  3. I absolutely agree. Have you ever considered building your own tanks? I haven't done it, but it seems easy enough if you are mechanically inclined. I'd probably go with some form of plexi and not glass though. Glass does hold up better in the long run but is a little more difficult to cut I can imagine. Sorry off topic. I've also considered the "I need a beardie" solution to overpopulation. I think I know enough people with beardies though that I can dish them out to them.
  4. So I googled camel crickets (Diestrammena asynamora) and saw an image. Never realized that that is what infested our home for years. I hate those things so much. House crickets are tolerable but for some reason camel crickets make my skin crawl. German cockroaches as well. Maybe it's because I had to cohab with them for so many years. I would be worried about the Jerusalem crickets bite. I know house crickets bite and judging from the size of a jerusalem cricket I would think it to be much worse. I guess it depends on the predator though. My frog is very sedentary and the cricket could take a whack at him while he was resting. I've known house crickets to chomp on em until the bites are infected. Is it possible the cricket could put up a fight during capture as well?
  5. That is so true. Although I've developed my own bag of tricks to keeping crickets alive there are inevitable some deaths. The more you buy the more deaths there are. Another interesting fact that I heard, not totally sure of its accuracy, is that a dead cricket produces fumes which can kill the other crickets. If this is true it can easily be a problem in larger colonies. Could be total hogwash though
  6. jumpless crickets. I almost died when I read that. The discoidalis nymphs actually resemble giant pill bugs somewhat. That would be a good one too. Can you imagine if you actually had jumpless crickets? That would be an accomplishment. I think I remember someone on here saying that he convinced his dad to let him have roaches by saying they were beetles. Hilarious, in an after school special kind of way. So I had this guy tell me he wants to start raising something simple and he wants to try flightless fruit flies. He's feeding two bearded dragons. Never owned one but those guys eat a lot of food. I can't even imagine how many flies they would eat. I think he just wanted something easy to grow that wont freak out his wife. Guess it's diet time for the dragons
  7. I read that some roaches don't have righting mechanisms designed for flat surfaces. That in the wild they can grasp something and pull themselves over, but in isolation they will remain on their back. I figured he was on his way out so he became frog food. Gojira definetly didn't mind the whole dying thing.
  8. Do you still have the nutritional data? I was just saying thanks in advance. I never received the PM. I must say these things are growing on me. I'm amazed at their weight compared to a cricket. It's also interesting that they don't eat a lot. At least compared to my crickets. Animals seem to take more readily to them as well.
  9. I saw one of my discoidalis nymphs laying on his back. He's still moving his legs around a bit so he's alive or close to it. Do discoidalis molt on their backs? I know my tarantula does and a few of my other bugs but I'm unsure as to whether this guy is dying or molting. Please enlighten me
  10. It's all about the local restuarants for egg crates. I didn't want to buy any so I just started asking my favorite restaurants if I could have their egg cartons when they were done. I get loads from the chinese restaurants. The breakfast joints are reliable too.
  11. I chose to go with discoidalis as my breed. The aversion to roaches is ridiculous. I just had a pet store shoot me down today because their employees down want to handle roaches. If you ask me it's way easier to count and move these guys than crickets. I've also noticed that when pet store employees bag crickets they jusst take a scoop and throw it in the bag. They rarely make a real attempt at counting. I'm a big believer in the overcount system but I used to order 12 crickets and end up with almost 30. Good for me I guess but eventually that has to hurt profits. Although it may keep customers coming back. Didn't consider it like that. The aversion is definitly odd. I suppose if I had called them beetles the store would have been all over them.
  12. Thanks for sending me the nutritional data, have actually had a lot of people ask about it. I found a few charts myself but nothing definitive. I didn't realize that you were the guy from bugsincyberspace. Nice collection there, especially the lucihormetica subcinta and Panchlora nivea.
  13. Thanks for the help. That's the approach I took with my other insects I guess I have had a hard time comparing roaches to crickets. I pulled out the tape measure and started measuring crickets today and found that even quite a few of the adults arent a full 1". Not to mention that an inch of roach has more meat than an inch of cricket. When you asked what they were using now I started to really break down what they are paying per inch of cricket. It helps the pricing make more sense. Also shows that I can run a better deal because all of my items will be measured and selected for them, whereas at the petstore some crickets are larger some are smaller, some are dead. You know I've been wondering why roaches are healthier than crickets. I mean I've heard it a million times, and I've noticed that some crickets do die mysterious deaths. Occasionaly the local pet store crickets just die in the dozens. I guess I was wondering what actually makes the roaches healthier. Are less parasites interested in roaches or do they have better defenses against them and better living habits. Off topic but I do love that roaches don't bite. Heard a million stories of crickets biting animals they were left in with overnight. As an owner of an argentine horned frog it makes sense. If he's not hungry he wont move for any reason, he would just sit there and get bitten.
  14. So I got my shipment from James at Blaberus.com. I didn't bother counting but according to the labels he overcounted by about twenty. I set them up in their new home. Pretty inactive guys if you ask me. I expected much more scurrying. They're hanging out in a rubbermaid tub between 80 and 94, eating dog food, shredded carrots, and ground whole oats. They were so cute when I first got them they ran like madmen (or madwomen si'l vous plait) for the food. They're Blaberus Discoidalis and I actually find the little spotted nymphs cute and the adults a little majestic. I have a little apprehension about using them as feeders, but oh well. All that circle of life stuff I suppose. On an unrelated subject, my crickets are at maturity. The horror, the agony of hundreds upon hundreds of full grown crickets. Some people say that crickets only chirp once they reach maturity. I've found this to be untrue. There is usually some amount of chirping before any adults can be visually observed. I suppose it could just be one adult concealed somewhere...anyway the intensity of the chirping has gone from a soothing summer night to The Grasshoppers take manhattan. Anyone seen that flick? Hopefully they produce and even more hopefully I can wean the last of my customers off of crickets and on to the much quieter roaches
  15. I'll definetly look into it. I appreciate the advice. I just got my colony of discoidalis yesterday so I'm too excited about them to think about anything else.
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