lovebugfarm

Awsome!

Oh lol my read something wrong was directed at the post about african bullet roach nymphs climbing after I had said they didn't. I guess we hit post at the same time. I think most of my wife's issue is that she's getting lonely staying at home while I spend so much time working, carding for my pets, and cleaning the house. She feels like she isn't getting enough attention. I love the part about tething I need to re-read it but I'm sure I will be needing it in a few months. Thank you for the review and info on your dubia provider she sounds great I may be boosting my colony soon. Sorry my reply is short it's a busy night but didn't want to leave you hanging after such a thoughtful reply.

Ahh I read wrong somewhere

Yeah my husbandry has gotten much more lax in the past few months with having a 5 week old baby and at times cranky wife lol. She gets upset if I spend to much time on my bugs. I have to spend 4hrs a week minimum just feeding spiders. Some other feeder suggestions similar to red runners are African bullet roach and red goblins. All produce ootheca and nymphs can't climb also mostly the same size.

Well I am thinking it will need to be more substantial than isopods to consume around 15 or more dead roaches/crickets a week. I might have to do a combo of as many as I can.

Hisser dude may have nailed it here a heat plus lack of ventilation sounds like the issue. The only time I have had issues similar to offgas 8n roaches is when I do a big harvest and have roaches in a separation bin to long where there is like 3inches of roaches in the bin. The co2 they breath out is heavier than air and can cause suffocation. Now I use bigger bins where they are never more than half an inch deep. Roaches are surprisingly heavy breathers so ventilation is crucial.

So I have a colony of white spot assassins and right now I raise them on egg carton with a dish of wet sand for them to lay their eggs. Its not very pretty but it works. I'm wanting to do a natural setup but last time I used soil there were moldy roach/cricket corpses every where since they only drink their inner juices. So I'm wondering what kinda cleaner could keep up with the bodys of the assassins victims lol I was thinking lesser meal worm or maybe earwigs but I heard if assassins eat earwigs they die... so I'm torn

lol sorry I had typed out more but there was a formatting freak out. Basically that last paragraph I was talking about how you can push growth rates in crickets from pinhead to adult in 3 weeks and they will be dead a week later cause forcing fast growth lowers their immune systems. Also I had the same effect with hard boiled egg no interest what so ever could be a good way to test if they are getting enough protein if satisfied the ignore egg if desperate for protein they devour it.

I prefer feeding orangeheads to their exoskeleton is harder-thicker but for my spiders it doesn't matter as much. There are kinda 3 different levels to the exoskeletons soft body, medium, and hard body. Examples of soft would lobster and red runner, medium would be like dubia, and hard exos are hissers and orange head. The hardness is determined by the amount of chitin in the exoskeleton. I personally don't do the graphs for my roaches that requires a lot of extra time and space. It was something I did on the cricket farm but they used a minimum of 20 bins to measure the data I just keep one massive bin of each roach species personally. Some times I combine species to save space. So its true about the gas thing we did open bins for max ventilation. We tried screens once and the negative effects happened over night. rate pushed to the max in a factory setting don't live as long and defiantly don't do well in shipping. We didn't ship live crickets so it wasn't a problem for the company I worked for.

To awnser the op's question on estimating time till the ootheca hatches. Its my understanding that halfway threw a typical 2 month gestation period hissers exudes the ootheca and rotate it 180 degrees before pulling it back in. So provided there is adequate heat the ootheca will hatch in a month. I'm pretty sure gestation is 2 months but it could be 3 I am only 80% sure.

They are social to some degree within their immediate family. Which is very fun they tend to build their nests against the glass so they are easy to view. I think you are right about them being Pogonomyrmex I will try to research that specific genus

Oh wow thank you I will be really sinking my teeth into this and comb threw all of those links that is amazing. Texas has a lot of unique any spieces so I am really hopefull I can start some colonys. We have one that's red and an inch long that will clear a 3ft circle around the entrance to their nest that has always facinated me. I feel that spieces will be very challenging since I only see them in arid hard clay soil but now I have a starting place for developing the skills to care for ants. Have you ever considered raising earwigs? The make tunnels and you can watch them care for their eggs and feeding their baby's. The ones I have can't climb glass and live in a jar but they can climb plastic. Again thanks so much I have hours of reading ahead of me I love it.

Well what are the basics? Are there any good links you could send me? What types do you have and do you produce queens?

It was amusing we ran a different experiment each month. I was there for a year they may still be doing that. It can be hard raising crickets on small scale because they are so finicky. It's a good thing we have have roaches to replace crickets far more forgiving. So as far as massive roach breeders it's tricky to say cause not many people advertise how big their colonys are. If you know they have a lot then customers will expect to pay less regardless of the work and cost to produce them. Many of the cricket company's now have roaches as an option and places that sell only one spieces like dubia are likely to have large operations. As far as multiple pet and feeders in large quantities Kyle at roachcrossing.com and Brett at capecodroaches.com and Peter from bugsincyberspace.com are kinda the big 3 in the pet/commercial realm.

Nice I may have to ask you questions about the care and husbandry of ants I really want to keep them one day...I might try a few months from now. I have an outdoor bug room my wife never goes in. Lol

It's really interesting your allowed to have ants but not roaches. My wife will never let me keep ants or termites. She's ok with the roaches but gets mad when escapees end up in the bed...for some reason that's where they always go. I tell her they like to cuddle to.

Sounds to me hobby style is in line with the scientific method in this case. I think roach hobbiest are generally pretty laid back real debates happen on arachnoboards mention USPS shipping there and people pounce. Lol We all have different backgrounds and reasons for finding our way to this hobby. A lot of people here are young entomologists in school or avid amatures. Then there are people like me who enjoy raising feeders and having crawly pets. As for my background I once worked on a cricket farm that was just starting out. Aspire food group if you want to look them up. Anyway they had a lot of money hired scientific consultants, bought scientific papers, flew to 2 of the leading cricket farms in the country for tours and to hire the owners as consultants. With all of that they still couldn't produce the numbers they wanted. Ultimately I taught them hobby style husbandry and their numbers improved. The lesson I took away from that experience was in the growth and health of inverts there are many variables and they are all highly tied into each other. If one variable changes then there's a chain reaction affecting other variables. In the cricket farm we tracked heat, humidity, light, crowd density, available resting surface area, availability of food and water. Some fun facts: The rooms we raised them in used space heaters and no fans and we showed on graphs that the bins on the highest shelf produced better and any touching the floor hardly produced at all. If raised in the dark crickets will eat continuously. We were able to show on graphs that the bins closer to the windows were less productive then the far side of the room so we put black plastic on all the Windows. We worked with headlamps on lol. In high crowd density situations crickets will only travel about one foot for food and water due to the stress caused by their antennas touching the antennas of other crickets. So in 4ft bins we had 3 water containers. For me the reason I find insects so facinateing is their so intricate and there are no right awnsers. Its really about learning your own colony and adjusting to their needs. We can all be right in our own way and the opinions of the scientific, hobby, and commercial will always be valued and a source of inspiration in our own life's whether we are here for knowledge, fun, or profit. We all lovebugs :hope this came across with the love and acceptance it was intended to show:

I agree with hisserdude dog food has long been the staple I actually take it further sometimes using cricket flour or canned meat as a supplement. E posticas and red runners can be susceptible to cannibalism Nothing is more graphic then seeing a freshly molted roach walking around with only half a body...makes you want to give the colony more protein so you don't have to see that again.

Fun fact the disposale of substrate is one of the main reasons stick bugs are illegal since many are parthenogenetic and the eggs they lay can get thrown out in the substrate. That's how Indian sticks got naturalized in southern california.

Well they can do ok crowded for awhile but the stress will shorten their lifespan and you will end up cleaning dead roaches more often. Glass tanks rarely break unless you try to break them. It can be harder to keep hissers in glass though cause you need a layer of petroleum jelly. Look for bins that say water tight. Please never release exotic animals out doors all it takes is one person seeing them outside and making a Facebook post then a frenzy starts then theres a story on the evening news about exotic roaches takeing over then they get banned in that state and all the roach loveing people who live in the same state are sad. Sounds like your best bet it to sell or give them away. When my hissers got over crowded I would sell them $1 each and they go pretty quick

I just checked looks like Eublaberus Posticus or orange head roaches can live between 1-2 years. I think for longer life span the way to go is larger roaches. Probably discoid and any other blaberus spieces like fusca, atrops, etc

I think hissers live at least 2 years.

Well first I'm not to good with individual roach health I go based on colony health to clarify. My first question is what housing your useing. The erratic breathing could be from lack of ventilation when the temp was raised. Pesticides do play an important role and leafy greens tend to the worst offenders some people say washing is enough but for me useing organic carrots is best don't wilt or mold fast and don't cost much more then regular carrots. I kinda feel like pesticide could be the cause of prolapse issues. I haven't heard of the kinda parasite issues you described I think it sounds more like prolapse. As far as cold goes the temp is right on the edge the fact they made it 7 hours is a testament to how hardy hissers are. I think it will be possible for the lil one to make a full recovery but it maybe 2-3 weeks before he's all good. Hisserdude really knows health stuff really well and should be able to provide more detail.

As long as there is 3 inches from the highest thing they can climb no lid is necessary. If useing eggcrate it's normally a 12 inch by 12 inch square so if you put them vertical you want the bin to be 15 inches high. If placed horizontal it won't matter much. Cleaner crews will depend if you use substrate spring tails and isopods need moist substrate but if not useing substrate then cleaner beetles like lesser mealworms will help and be a easy to cultivate feeder.

Cool then we have confirmation