Matttoadman

I’m not referring to live moss. Just the dried stuff in a box you rehydrate for moisture retention.

I have now acquired a small start of Archimandrita tesselata. These are going into a 40 gallon long aquarium. My goal is to create an accurate as possible display vivarium. If anyone has any ideas feel free to elaborate. I’m looking for all information regarding; native plant species, habitat info, first hand in the field info. Considering live plants would be eaten I plan to buy high quality artificial. I am also beginning a driftwood hunt. I think it would be awesome to find a hollow stump or log to trim to fit. I will probably choose Costa Rico as the habitat to reproduce. Have any of you used sphagnum moss (the green mossy kind not the substrate kind) with roaches?

The more I have gotten into reptiles/amphibians over the years the more I am drawn to inverts. There are no real draw backs to captivity for and invert if you provide its needs.

That’s interesting. Here’s a thought. Domino nymphs can’t climb so if you make the trap above the substrate they couldn’t fall in. And if you put some sort of screen over it that would keep the domino adults out? Just a thought

A few questions. I read somewhere that Gyna species adults are day active. Is this correct? I’m getting two dozen nymphs. My options right now for housing are a 3 gallon exoterra or a 5.5 gallon aquarium. Donthe adults prefer branches above to live on or bark laid on the substrate amoungst dead leaves?

My thoughts are, one, roaches breed faster in crowded conditions and two, sparsely populated bins can have more issues with fungus gnats and the like.

Got a few Archimandrita tesselata, Gyna caffrorum And Narceus annularis coming my way next week. Man these will be nice. My question is I am getting 6 Archimandritas. I have a 29 gallon for them but I am guessing with that few I would be better starting them out in my 2.5 gallonish kritter keeper?

Nice! I was always interested in genetics when I raised pigeons. So looks like I will have something to fool with genetically afterall.

So I found a few of these browns in with the normals. Is this a color morph or merely recently molted hardening?

Although much smaller than what you are using, I have discover mesh screen refills made for the vapor nicotine things. They are round,about the size of a nickel, very fine mesh size and cost a dollar for 5 at the peddlers mall. I haven’t used any yet but I bet they would prove useful for a lot of species.

Noise level is a big issue with many species of frogs. My terrarium is in my living room and the bedrooms off of it. So a noisy frog is out of the question. Right now I am leaning towards tomato frogs or axolotl ( yeah not a toad lol;) I will probably find them at a reptile expo.

I liked the blog post as well. For years I was interested in the things in others backyards. Now my eyes have been opened to what is in mine. Plus just because I see species frequently here in Ky, doesn’t mean the folks out west do. So it would be a benefit to collect and attempt to culture for others to enjoy. One man’s “garden, ground beetle” is another’s exotic Coleoptera.

Very nice. One of the things I love about inverts in the fact that you never know what is going to be active on each night. That is why it’s good to have a variety. That way something is usually out.

I’ve tried those other forums. Very little response if any. This is the only forum worth being on. I know we are invert guys, but I figure there’s a few frog guys out there.

Haha. Green widows nice. One of the problem is these chat guys are call center folks. No offense to anyone but I bet they are from India. I don’t gamble but I’d put money on this lol.

Unfortunately this is most of the guys in the business. They would not know the differance between a oriental cockroach and a ground beetle if their job depended on it.....because it doesn’t. No matter what words they use, pest control uses cookie cutter approaches. There are only a few molds, roach baiting, crack and crevice, spot treatment sprays....yeah that’s it. One sprayer in his truck with what ever concentrate his boss could find on sale. He is not mixing up something special for your individual problem. This is an entry level job. You take a certification test and they hand you a sprayer, some glue boards, roach, ant and mice bait and an aerosol can or two. Now some of us are unique. I have 5 years of college biology degree education (yeah I’m 18 hours short if non related courses) and I use that along with my personal research to help people reduce and maybe eradicate true pest problems. If you are seeing woodroaches, I don’t care. Turn off the porch light. Never seen a female parcoblatta in a house. Asian lady beetles or brown stink bug? Leave them alone they just want to rest in the corner until spring. Carpet beetles on your boxspring? Vacuum up the cat hair. Other pet peeves, “we have a wasp in a newborn room window come spray room and ceiling in the NICU immediately. What!?! They were quite mad when I came in with my IPM-HED. Integrated Pest Management Hymenoptera Erradication Device...or fly swatter. Or perhaps the restaurant that wants you to “bomb” for their “gnat” problem. Then you take pictures of all the food, fruit, trash, refuse, leaking disposals and other filth pushed under the sinks by the help. Tell them it’s a sanitation problem and hand them a bill. Yeah it was a rough week at work lol. You get some wild looks when walker over and pick up a jumping spider and throw it out the door. I carry a pill bottle in my pocket to collect all the innocent “occasional invaders” I find. Really you label a lone spider or pillbug an occasional invader? What in the crap kind of invading is a Rolly Polly going to do at room temp and 40% humidity? For you guys that don’t speak normal talk, woodroach= Parcoblatta, carpet beetle=Dermestids and rolly Polly= Isopods...wasp....I think you got it....hahaha. (Sorry I got tired of the common name/scientific name trolls on arachnoboards)

Can anyone suggest any reputable online dealers of amphibians they have dealt with before? I’m looking to find another toad species. I have dealt with LLLreptile and have always received healthy specimens although not always ID’d correctly. But I am wanting to know if there are any others worth looking at. I have dealt with snakes at sunset (5 Pacman frogs bought only one lived passed three months) so they are a no go. There are a few others that pop up and they get bad reviews. Feel free to let me know which to avoid. Thanks

My blaniulus gluttulatus were also out for a stroll.

Tonight these appear to be the most active inverts in my critter room. I also found dozens of tiny newborn A. monilicornis in their enclosure. I almost thought they were fly larvae.

Cyriocosmus elegans female

Very nice. I have each of those species. My recommendation is to keep their enclosures small. If you put them in too large of enclosures you will never see them...ever. I have actually rehoused mine to smaller containers. I don’t know how big those jars are but they will probably never out grown them. I use these 32oz from dollar tree. They are all fierce eaters for sure. My C. elegans is still in a Parmesan container. I doubt it ever outgrow it.

Those are cool. If you keep exploring the Latin word rudis, you find it means Rude, course or rough. The nymphs are definitely course or rough. So perhaps tis the Course flat bark roach or Rough flat bark roach? Gorgeous nonetheless.

I have figured it out. It’s phorid fly maggots eating the dead. I recently collected 6 unidentified specimens of isopod. I noticed I couldn’t find the 2 huge adults. I found the remains covered in maggots. The passed several months I have been finding phorid flies buzzing around the house. I have found tiny groups of them in a lot of my containers eating the dead. I even found them in a cup of land snails I had eating snail poop. It’s seems that no matter how hard I search I still find them.

If I contact Kyle, He will go into hiding again. Every time I tried to contact him he would vanish for months on end. Not worth my time.