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Are we the only ones


vfox

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By that, I mean, are we the only website that specializes in cockroaches anymore? The BCG doesn't seem to be active anymore and I can't really find much in the way of online interest other than on here and the occasional arachnid or herp site. Has the hobby really gone that far underground that only a handful of exotics breeders still exist? I feel like the interest has been lacking in this country over the last few years, what do you guys think?

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I don't think the interest has gone down (we have many more species and many more people with them than we did several years ago) but a lot of people don't have time to chillax and contribute to forums anymore. I blame the economy. :P

I suppose you do have a point there, it's not just Hisser, discoid, and dubia anymore. I still think the hobby has quieted down quite a bit lately. Maybe our culture lists have increased but I don't know if that means more people are keeping them. Internet activity usually denotes interest and on here are some of most passionate collectors and breeders I've ever met. But the number of us isn't as many as 3-4 years ago and to me that means our overall numbers have decreased. I'm not saying there are so few of us that our hobby is doomed, there are still thousands of roach enthusiasts out there...it just seems quieter.

Again I refer back to the BCG, all of the closed websites, and this being the only truly active cockroach forum for the US. Kyle since you're a breeder/dealer you should be able to judge business better than me obviously. Have you had an increase in non-feeder purchases lately or has it been slower? Orin I'll pose the same question to you and any other show species dealer out there. Is business booming or no?

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As Chase said, there is also a stratification among us. Some people who keep roaches may be more active in their local groups/clubs/forums than on here.

There's been a lot of business in both pet and feeder species. I'd say that disregarding the fact that feeders are sold in larger numbers, there's an equal interest in feeders and in pets.

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there is also the fact that alot of people might do roaches as a side to there reptiles and just aren't that active or know about forums like this, and instead spend more time on reptile forums. i know if i was still doing this only as a source of food for my reptiles and hadn't discovered some of the other non feeder species of roaches i would be one of those people.

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You guys make me sound like quite the pessimist, lol. :)

I can see how that can a common occurrence however...I never viewed roaches as a pet until I got scorpions...and only then did I see them as nothing more than feeders for a good while. I am glad my opinion changed though, they are probably the most enjoyable critters I've ever raised, except maybe my dog. :P

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there is also the fact that most of the cockroaches people thing of or see commonly are the pest species or something like the hissers that while are great roaches aren't as flashy as say a banana roach. so while thay may get into hissers thay don't realize there are more out there than that.

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I think popularity of roaches as pets sucks in the US compared to what it should be. I've not noticed a huge downturn. It has always sucked. There are many wonderful species that just never sell. If there has been a decrease, it's in the culturing of people, not the culturing of roaches.

I'm not surprised to hear the BCG forum is inactive. There was a brief moment when we were converting Orin's historic Allpet Roaches Forum (see archives) over to this newer software and we invited the UK-based BCG folks to join and collaborate with "the US hobby". But their hobby practices forbid sales (they decided to go with Olivia and her new roach forum at the time--now the BCG forum), which is unfortunate because the world runs on money and, for me at least, monetary exchange actually enhances the interactivity of the hobby--makes it more interesting. People are more motivated to stay in it if the costs of time and maintenance are partially compensated by the freedom to participate in occasional sales without fear of being looked down upon by "credentialed" hobbyists getting paid to look at the genitalia of male roaches through microscopes and writing papers on it. And the act of assigning costs to roaches gives them value against other species (if only in our minds). Eventually they come crawling back to us for livestock, and pay for it, because it's cheaper than a plane ticket to Timbuktu. Now, that's a simple history of the hobby the last several years. Zephyr has come along in this time period and infused quite a bit of time and energy into the roach hobby across many (lesser) forums. There are, unfortunately, more dealers of roaches than passionate hobbyists. You look at the big tarantula and mantis forums out there and that role is reversed. I think this is the most telling comparison of the "pet" roach hobby to similar hobbies. Of course, we all know that roaches are significantly more interesting to keep as pets than tarantulas or mantises with their various behaviors and variety of available species. Unfortunately, we still have to deal with the pest stigma in this country. We have few hobbyists, a large percentage of which have spouses that are dispassionate about roaches, and who may have visitors to their homes that are even disgusted by roaches. For example, my children have friends that think our home is the most interesting place in the world, and yet their parents have heard about our "interesting" pets and will not come through the door. These are the same germ freaks that can't name ten insects or plants from their backyards (perpetuating a pattern of ignorance that has only generally increased with each succeeding generation of Americans). C'mon, you can't even begin to share the beauty of an organism known as the Florida Skunk roach with a person that doesn't know or care that the tree in their yard is a plum tree, despite all the small fruit they sweep up before the birds, bugs, etc. have had a chance to feed on it.

Society and regulations.

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I think popularity of roaches as pets sucks in the US compared to what it should be. I've not noticed a huge downturn. It has always sucked. There are many wonderful species that just never sell. If there has been a decrease, it's in the culturing of people, not the culturing of roaches.

I'm not surprised to hear the BCG forum is inactive. There was a brief moment when we were converting Orin's historic Allpet Roaches Forum (see archives) over to this newer software and we invited the UK-based BCG folks to join and collaborate with "the US hobby". But their hobby practices forbid sales (they decided to go with Olivia and her new roach forum at the time--now the BCG forum), which is unfortunate because the world runs on money and, for me at least, monetary exchange actually enhances the interactivity of the hobby--makes it more interesting. People are more motivated to stay in it if the costs of time and maintenance are partially compensated by the freedom to participate in occasional sales without fear of being looked down upon by "credentialed" hobbyists getting paid to look at the genitalia of male roaches through microscopes and writing papers on it. And the act of assigning costs to roaches gives them value against other species (if only in our minds). Eventually they come crawling back to us for livestock, and pay for it, because it's cheaper than a plane ticket to Timbuktu. Now, that's a simple history of the hobby the last several years. Zephyr has come along in this time period and infused quite a bit of time and energy into the roach hobby across many (lesser) forums. There are, unfortunately, more dealers of roaches than passionate hobbyists. You look at the big tarantula and mantis forums out there and that role is reversed. I think this is the most telling comparison of the "pet" roach hobby to similar hobbies. Of course, we all know that roaches are significantly more interesting to keep as pets than tarantulas or mantises with their various behaviors and variety of available species. Unfortunately, we still have to deal with the pest stigma in this country. We have few hobbyists, a large percentage of which have spouses that are dispassionate about roaches, and who may have visitors to their homes that are even disgusted by roaches. For example, my children have friends that think our home is the most interesting place in the world, and yet their parents have heard about our "interesting" pets and will not come through the door. These are the same germ freaks that can't name ten insects or plants from their backyards (perpetuating a pattern of ignorance that has only generally increased with each succeeding generation of Americans). C'mon, you can't even begin to share the beauty of an organism known as the Florida Skunk roach with a person that doesn't know or care that the tree in their yard is a plum tree, despite all the small fruit they sweep up before the birds, bugs, etc. have had a chance to feed on it.

Society and regulations.

I think you hit the nail on the head Peter. Ignorance of what is around you and a complete disinterest in nature amongst many people of the baby boomers to the current generation has led to poor regulations regarding wildlife and a lack of understanding of our natural world by the general public.

When all we see of the natural world is on the discovery channel, we are missing huge percentages of the biodiversity of this planet. Most people have no idea that only 3-5 roaches around the US are truly pest species and then only 2-3 are the real culprits iny opinion. The same can be said about spiders, centipedes, and other useful insects.

I have great hopes for Ken's new show next year. I really hope it spurs an interest beyond Hissers and gets people motivated to look into the invertebrate world. Not only that but because I am an educator (art, but a certified teacher regardless) I plan on doing studies with local schools and colleges pertaining to our local fauna as well as doing presentations once my collection is stable enough. I wan to spread knowledge of what we are all about and the wonder of the invertebrate world and I think we should hold ourselves accountable to chance the status-quo. Fight the good fight as it were lol. :)

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I think you hit the nail on the head Peter. Ignorance of what is around you and a complete disinterest in nature amongst many people of the baby boomers to the current generation has led to poor regulations regarding wildlife and a lack of understanding of our natural world by the general public.

When all we see of the natural world is on the discovery channel, we are missing huge percentages of the biodiversity of this planet. Most people have no idea that only 3-5 roaches around the US are truly pest species and then only 2-3 are the real culprits iny opinion. The same can be said about spiders, centipedes, and other useful insects.

I have great hopes for Ken's new show next year. I really hope it spurs an interest beyond Hissers and gets people motivated to look into the invertebrate world. Not only that but because I am an educator (art, but a certified teacher regardless) I plan on doing studies with local schools and colleges pertaining to our local fauna as well as doing presentations once my collection is stable enough. I wan to spread knowledge of what we are all about and the wonder of the invertebrate world and I think we should hold ourselves accountable to chance the status-quo. Fight the good fight as it were lol. :)

Yeah, sorry to but in, but everyone in my neighborhood thinks I'm a freak that only cares about "weird things" lol; but anyways, people don't care! You need to give some away to them or keep talking about them until they give in. I don't even have my hissers yet (coming today) but I'm already giving some away AND showing them this forum AND showing them the socal forum.

Just my two cents.

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Yeah, sorry to but in, but everyone in my neighborhood thinks I'm a freak that only cares about "weird things" lol; but anyways, people don't care! You need to give some away to them or keep talking about them until they give in. I don't even have my hissers yet (coming today) but I'm already giving some away AND showing them this forum AND showing them the socal forum.

Just my two cents.

Also a great way to get people into them is to offer freebies. Free is always good, especially in this tight economy. :). Keep spreading the disease. ;)

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have to agree, i work in a pet store and we have roaches there (Hissers, Discoid and lobsters) and i'm always trying to get people into roaches as a feeder. it may only be a feeder roach but alot of times that opens them to the possibility that not all roaches are bad. so far i've gotten one costumer to try it out for there ackie and a couple other people interested, and freebie's say maybe one or two roaches to begin with are is the way to go.

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Personally I tend to be a lot more upfront about it... I have the nickname "Roach Boy" around here. :P

The hilarious thing is when I meet someone new and show them the roach room, and they completely wig out, and all my other friends are just like "Oh, no big deal." lol

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Personally I tend to be a lot more upfront about it... I have the nickname "Roach Boy" around here. :P

The hilarious thing is when I meet someone new and show them the roach room, and they completely wig out, and all my other friends are just "Oh, no big deal." lol

lol

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When all we see of the natural world is on the discovery channel, we are missing huge percentages of the biodiversity of this planet. Most people have no idea that only 3-5 roaches around the US are truly pest species and then only 2-3 are the real culprits iny opinion. The same can be said about spiders, centipedes, and other useful insects.

I don't believe in pest species unless one is referring to a species that humans introduced to a natural habitat.

Otherwise, humans create unnatural environments that provide particular native or exotic species with ideal habitats. We're the pests and, I say, kudos to pest roach species that manage to live in our homes, despite our best efforts! (I don't mean that in a pro-"pest" prolilferation way, but in a "respect the power of nature despite humans" way.)

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Hi

I did only fly over this post (might read it later in detail):

are we the only website that specializes in cockroaches anymore

No, there is one forum in France, and a few ones in Germany (well, actually only one still active) ;) .

Grüessli

Andreas

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I don't believe in pest species unless one is referring to a species that humans introduced to a natural habitat.

Otherwise, humans create unnatural environments that provide particular native or exotic species with ideal habitats. We're the pests and, I say, kudos to pest roach species that manage to live in our homes, despite our best efforts! (I don't mean that in a pro-"pest" prolilferation way, but in a "respect the power of nature despite humans" way.)

I agree. Like with cane toads in Australia, which people think are "pests". How do you think they got there? Or in the US, what do you think happened to all the grizzly bears?

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I agree. Like with cane toads in Australia, which people think are "pests". How do you think they got there? Or in the US, what do you think happened to all the grizzly bears?

If we do look at it that way the only reason a pest species is a pest species is because we exist. No humans, no pest species designation, however we are here and not going anywhere. That being said any "pest" species is easily removed, even (when talking cockroaches) large infestations can be easily dealt with. So to me, a pest is only a pest when humans do not properly maintain their property. Anyone can get roaches, but an infestation is always our fault because it's we who make the idea conditions, not the roaches. It's a somewhat gray area, I don't want to kill roaches but at the same time I'd not want them infesting my house. I feel the same way about field mice that come inside.

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The hobby has grown a lot since the last millenia which I like to attribute partly to Allpet Roaches. In some ways it seems like it grew to a high point around 2005 and dropped off a little since then.

I really do attribute the success of the hobby to websites like this and dealers that work with both feeders and exotic pet species. Without a bit of comrodary hobbies tend to lose interest a bit, at least for me. I love to share, learn, and show what I've learned.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Here in the Philippines we don't have a forum that is dedicated to roach keeping.

The exotic pets scene is not so famous around here most especially on roaches.

So many people are still afraid of them because P. Americana are running rampant here. :lol:

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