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'Nuther Norn Iron Newbie


WarrenB

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Or: 'nuther Northern Ireland newbie. :) Hello all. I'm Warren. I used to keep exotic pets years ago, starting with garter snakes and some amphibians, moving onto inverts like tarantulas, scorpions, phasmids, and other insects and arachnids. In terms of roaches I've kept Gromphidorhina portentosa, Archimandrita tesselata, Nauphoeta cinerea, Blatta lateralis, and Blaberus discoidales.

Like I said, that was years ago. I cleared out all I had and moved onto other interests; but lately I've been thinking of keeping just a few bugs again, especially some peppered roaches. Those seem to have become scarce in the UK&I side of things, so I've restarted with a tub of foolproof* dubias - partly pets (a pet tub of coir so far...), partly feeders for any carnivorous thing I buy in future. Peppered roaches are still the holy grail, but lurking around here I'm impressed by the sheer range of cultured species I hadn't heard of before.

* We'll see if they survive this fool, though.

I'm also surprised - but interested - to see a surge of popularity of isopods, in the meantime. Back when I last looked, it was Trichorhina tomentosa or some 'nameless grey things' from outdoors as cleanup crews for tarantulas, and little else. (I might've been spectacularly unobservant, though) In the last few days I've been goggling at photos of yellow-spotted, zebra-striped, and bright orange examples, and reading up on local species and their identification. Turns out I live just a few miles from one of the more isolated sightings of Androniscus dentiger in Northern Ireland, though I've never seen one. I would've remembered! Time for a bug hunt.

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Welcome to the forum Warren! :) Glad you are getting back into the hobby!

Yeah, isopods are a pretty big thing now, lots of amazing new species and color morphs have entered the hobby recently, in particular the larger species from Spain like Porcellio bolivari and magnificus are stunning! :D

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Hello there! Hope things work out for you and your bugs. It's funny how roaches and isopods are similar interests (usually). I think most people like isopods (not as much creepiness as other bugs). It's neat that you've got some interesting isopods near you.

Bug hunt!

I think that the more people get interested in their environment, the more they see things to be interested in.

Welcome!

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Ta guys!

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I think that the more people get interested in their environment, the more they see things to be interested in.

True that. Here in Ireland we have even less wildlife diversity than England. Now that's poor! But there's always something to appreciate.

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