Ihaggerty1313

Over the years my feeder roach business (The Roach Ranch) has enabled me to talk to countless amounts of people who enjoy animals as much as I do on a daily basis. One of the frequent questions I field from people day to day "Is this ALL you do for a living?" The short answer is yes, but the real answer is that The Roach Ranch has been an integral part to allow me to do what I really love, and that is play guitar. When I'm not roach ranching I play guitar in the nationally touring Rock band out of Providence, Rhode Island PISTOL SHOT GYPSY. We've had the chance to tour most of the country a few times over and have done opening stints for Buckcherry, Chevelle, Saving Abel, Finger 11, Days of The New, Skid Row, Slash, and a fantastic guitarist who you may or may not know and fellow New Englander Gary Hoey . My favorite times on the road are when I get to meet people I interact w/ online within the Reptile/Arachnid industry face to face at some of my gigs around the country. It never gets old and people always seem to step it up and blow me away by how nice they are. I'm very proud of what PISTOL SHOT GYPSY has accomplished so far and I'm very excited to announce that we've just dropped our new website which can be found at www.pistolshotgypsy.com and you can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pistolshotgypsy (we love FB). If you're into Rock N' Roll I invite you to check us out and explore the other side of what I do besides The Roach Ranch. BTW you can hear our music in full under the media/discography section on our site. If you like what you hear feel free to sign up on our e-mail list and receive an MP3 of our newest single "Luv Junky" mailed directly to your inbox. Our management agreed to release this to our fans for the bubble and we hope you guys dig it as much as we enjoy playing it night to night out on the road. One heads up about PSG. I would categorize us as a PG-13 band. We're an honest to goodness Rock band and some the subject matter in our music tackles the woes of our surroundings. I also write our blog and sometimes I use adult language in them. Just wanted to mention this as here on the forums we tend to keep it family oriented. On a final note, playing in a band you'e gotta shamelessly self promote yourself in order to survive. In a recent article the writer titled it "PISTOL SHOT GYPSY - Rock N' Roll for the people, by the people" and we couldn't have said it any better ourselves. If you dig the band feel free to spread our music far and wide. Rip it, burn it, trade it, get it out there anyway you see fit. We've turned down labels to keep control of our music so that our fans can be part of our band. Any and all success we've had to this point in time is due to our fanbase. We're pretty dam proud of that and can't thank them enough!

Thanks Ralph. How would they have gotten in there? Any suggestions as to how to keep them out? -Ian

What is this animal? One of my customers finding them in their roach bin. Thanks, -Ian

I've heard of taping the heat pak onto the inside box. But when you say it was w/ the filler newspaper, do you mean it was just floating around in there or did they pack it nice and tight next to the inside box? -Ian

Alright bear w/ me for a second. I posted something similar to this thread a while back but am looking for someone to walk me thru the steps to shipping a lot of roaches. I am sending my friend 450 male dubia. How would I package these correctly for winter travel? I'm going to get some 72 hour heat paks and send this package 2-3 day priority. I'm figuring it's going to have to be a box inside a box w/ newspaper tightly packed around the inside box. Where do I tape the heat paks and how many should I use? Maybe chuck in a carrot for some road food etc. If I'm way off on my packing scheme than I'm all ears. Thanks again for any help guys! -Ian

Thanks guys! I gotta say, that's what I've been telling them. I just wanted to get another opinion on the subject to ease my mind. Thanks again guys! -Ian

I gotten asked recently by a couple of my customers if they had an escapee Blaptica Dubia, could it possibly infest their house? I'm from the NorthEastern USA. Winters get pretty cold. Any thoughts on this? I've never heard of tropical roaches infesting houses in the USA. Any info that I could tell my customers guys? -Ian

Excellent! Then that's a good thing! I'll have to thin them out cuz I was keeping a 3/1 ratio. Not a problem w/ hungry Beardies around though! -Ian

I need all you roach experts to help me out here. Seems that this is up for debate. Just WHAT IS the proper male to female ratio when keeping dubia? I've heard 1/3 all the way up to 1/10. Thanks, -Ian

Alright this may be a bit of a dumb question but I wanted to make sure of it before I proceed removing the nymphs. My adult Dubia colony so far has about 400+ females and 130+ males in it right now. Needless to say I'm starting to get a ton of nymphs. I wanted to remove them within the week to make room for more nymphs over the next month. Is it cool to do this? My understanding is once they are born they are on their own and I could remove them whenever I wanted. Is this a true statement? I'm probably going to move some frass into the new container for them as well. What do you guys think? Thanks, -Ian

I have one that has one wing and is a little deformed. It came to be about a month ago and is doing fine. I don't have it in my breeder tank. I was just going to feed it off. -Ian

I've got a quickie for you. I'm using the mesh that's used for screen doors on the top of my dubia colonies. I see some people use aluminum screen so are there any problems w/ what I'm using? Thanks, -Ian

W/o overcrowding what would be a good number of B. Dubia adults to house in a 35 gallon or 55 gallon sterilite tub? Is there a formula I should be using as to not overcrowd my tubs? I'm keeping a 3/1 ratio of females to males. My colony is really starting to pop and I'm getting anywhere from 45-60 adults a day. Thanks, -Ian

Hey guys what's the best way to ship roaches? I've had them come in the 32 oz. Deli Cups w/ vented lids which were nice and easy on the transfer to their tubs. AND I've had them come "loose" in a taped up box.... Not my favorite way to recieve them. I'm just trying to find the pros and cons because I'm going to be shipping some over to my buddy. Also I'm probably going to ship within a month so it's gonna be a bit chilly. How do I pack the heaters properly? Thanks, -Ian

Matt, I'm really getting to like reading your responses here on the forums more and more. You take what is said, think about it and return w/ a volley of legitimate proportion. And though playing devils advocate isn't going to get one the glory. It may solve problems within communities down the line. You are absolutely right. We talk a good game but when it comes right down to it no one has an alternative solution to the problem. You did mention banning together and I recently heard an interview on Reptile radio w/ my bud Kev McCurley from NERD up my way in NH and he suggested the same exact idea you just did. Setting a plan like that in motion would take a lot of tenacity on the little guys parts. Namely us! As for the last statement. I like throwing that out there to jostle things up a bit. Though I truly believe someone, somewhere made a HUGE mistake that day. I'm from Massachusetts and it sorta hit home when I heard that a couple from the next town over from me (North Attleboro) was on one of those planes. I didn't know them but they lived like next door to me. Anyway to save the thread and get it back on track. I'm not a conspiracy theorist or someone who hates America. I love America but don't trust a soul in the US government as far as I can throw them. The whole 9/11 episode for me leaves me a bitter taste w/ our government and if I could I'd throw it back in their face every chance I got. Plus don't think that I judge all Muslims just because of a few "Bad Apples". No religion promotes violence and killing innocent people. Alright back on track w/ this topic! Sorry to open that can o' worms. -Ian