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The availability is definitely crazy for those who have been accompanying the hobby since its inception. Going back to 1st October 1986 BCG Species List which is only limited to 17 species, tells us all how far it is has grown. But to be honest, I am more amazed by how organized the hobby was back then, with newsletters, regular articles, all of those efforts which built the foundation in which we all of us are still standing on today. its just amazing if you think of all the limitations back then!

A few years ago I saw people keeping the two species in the same enclosure, and I've seen people mislabel L. verrucosa as L. subcincta before, so it's possible for newbies to put them together by accident. I've seen people claim they cannot hybridise, but nobody seemed to have actually tested that. Since I own both species and have space for more, I decided to give it a go. FOR SCIENCE! But mostly for everyone's peace of mind. This experiment has been going since about 2022, I decided to put it here now too so everyone can actually look it up and find it instead of it being trapped within a niché social media audience. Enclosure is large critter keeper with about 7cm (~2,8 inches) of soil, both species love making burrows and little underground tunnel systems and seem happier when they have plenty of room to do so. Original set up had coconut fibre but I noticed a significant loss in nymphs that I did not experience with the more earthy soil I use in my other enclosures, so I switched it out. Leaf litter was always available as food source and the occasional fruit snacks, rotting wood, and fish flakes (for protein) were given, too. They also really like rodent food sticks with seeds and nuts. Misted regularly so the soil never dries out completely. Kept at room temperature between 20-26C. Note - To make sure the females had not already mated, I picked female nymphs and placed them in an enclosure with males, then waited until they reached adulthood and produced nymphs. Most images are labelled for clarity/image search engines. First experiment: Lucihormetica verrucosa (male) × Lucihormetica subcincta (female) Have been kept together for almost an entire year. No sign of offspring. Second experiment: Lucihormetica verrucosa (female) × Lucihormetica subcincta (male) Produced hybrid offspring! Here's the only survivor from the coconut fibre disaster. At this stage it's impossible to visually tell that it's a hybrid because their nymphs look pretty much the same (my older L. verrucosa nymphs tend to develop interesting orange patterns on their body while L. subcincta nymphs remain mostly black looking more like the pictured hybrid nymph here, but I don't consider it reliable enough for identification). Once the hybrids reached adulthood though, it was fairly easy to tell. Pure and hybrid males comparison: Females comparison: More adult hybrids (the light colour in some hybrids is due to them having molted recently): Appearance notes: Wings in all hybrids tend to be an interesting mix between the parent species, appearing like a square with rounded sides. The antennas of hybrids have a small white section towards the end just like in L. subcincta, something that is absent in L. verrucosa. Their wing colour is darker than L. subcincta and in person appears closer to L. verrucosa. More inconsistent appearance notes: The size of hybrids is similar to L. verrucosa, but can vary a lot between individuals. Pronotum pattern on hybrid females tends to be closer to the L. subcincta I own rather than the common pattern in my L. verrucosa colony, but the pattern can vary a lot even between individuals of the same species. Same goes for the head pattern, even being absent in some individuals of either species. Fertility of hybrids: While they can and do mate, no offspring has been produced yet. I am experimenting with offering pure bred individuals and see if any of the hybrids are actually fertile. Will update with the results eventually. TL;DR: I personally wouldn't recommend housing Lucihormetica verrucosa and Lucihormetica subcincta together.

I have nowhere else to share this info, but I got to meet Orin today, which had me fangirling a little bit. I had no expectation he'd be at the kentucky reptile expo today, so I was pleasantly surprised 😄

Very excited this finally came together after another decade plus. Lots of new information and species accounts. Milliped Zoology: Husbandry and Diversity of the Class Diplopoda by Orin A. McMonigle, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Yesterday when checking in my heavily pregnant female javanica I noticed she was not chunky anymore and thought she aborted her babies but instead I saw many nymphs suffering through the substrate! Finally after many months of no reproduction it has finally happend! (I will post photos if All-pet roaches website lets me)

A beautiful species of small Blaberid with metallic green adults. 😍 I did not find them too difficult to rear, fingers crossed they'll breed well for me! Female: Males: Females are unbelievably vibrant in coloration, they look oversaturated in real life. 😍 Males are quite a bit darker but still super pretty.

Cockroach availability today is crazy

A larger adult male:

Another quick update I've finally got babies lots of babies 😳 That's all folks SB

Not Roach related but a pic of my dads crimson day gecko!

My second ever roach specie I got into and I will always love the bright reds on female javanicas they are definitely such an awesome specie, anyways here’s a nice photo that Allpet roaches actually accepted.

yes

No, a male from a different breeder.

He might be good for breeding, hard to say. The horns aren't like hissers but the pronotum should be a bit different in shape except small males aren't so different. Big and small males come from the same parents so it's really hard to say if you'll get a monster or a runt. Like hissers a brother can be 1/3 the mass of another.

I've had to start over because the hot glue I used to secure the stainless steel mesh is starting to peel from tub walls. I read how people had wrote that hot glue wasn't working for them, but I didn't know what they meant until now. I purchased a plastic welder with a small triangle shaped welding piece (like an iron) and some brass mesh and gave it a go just now. Besides the gas emitted from melting plastic I'm happy with my first try.

Fresh just in the last couple hours

I am happy to report that, as of today, I am also a happy keeper of this line of Therea sp from India. Gifted by the Hong Kong keeper 🥰

Leaf litter holds moisture very well I just keep the bottom inch dark and it keeps my humidity high it's perfect I hate coir for anything I've tried it in the past and will never use it again I find it dries out easily and goes powdery and has no function or nutrition especially for Pods etc My go to perfect sub is forest floor for anything it holds moisture well it's very nutritious for anything that eats sub totally natural I use it for Roaches Pods spiders centipedes pet much everything I also like live Moss but with a good inch+ of roots (yes I know it doesn't have roots they're rhizomes) that is a fantastic moisture holder as the roots never dry out even if it's neglected for a couple of weeks and it's perfect I have a quarter to a third of the tub depending on species with love Moss How this helps SB

Sorry I've been MIA I'm just soooo busy ATM and don't get a minute I did a complete overhaul a few weeks ago and went through all the sub very carefully and I'm down to 1 HUGE female that's still producing lots of nymphs (I know that by the amount of new tiny ones in the sub) so I've got about 40+ can't remember exact number of various size nymphs + plus many dozens of tiny ones I didn't bother to try and catch/count as there were too many I'll try and get some pics to post when I get a minute but the colony is doing very well and I'm expecting a lot of adults very soon due to the large number of sub adults I'll update when I start getting new adults and I'll have to Rehouse from their current 40 litre to an 80 litre as I want to give any males plenty of space with lots of vertical bark I'm only using leaf litter for sub now (I was using 3/4" forest floor plus couple of inches leaf litter on top) which they seem to prefer about 3/4" crushed layer and a couple of inches whole leaf litter on the top Food apple and banana plus my fruit jelly which they prefer to the fruit Temps mid/high 80s with high humidity

Got around to starting the vertical gravity assisted wing dropper for my Blaberus sp. Honduras. Still need to make it so it'll stand up though.

One of the very biggest terrestrials pied (partial albino) tri-color (orange, black and white) various immatures. Adult males of this of this species have extremely long, sword-like tails (uropods).

F1 is usually the offspring of wild adults, F2 is the following generation. They take 36 to 60 months to mature.

I spoke to Kyle from roach crossing about it, he said their humidity may have been too high which caused a bacterial infection. He said you can’t save infected ones. I increased ventilation and the infected ones have since passed but the uninfected ones are still alive so hopefully this was it. I still have like 2-3 pregnant females so hopefully I figured it out.

These look a good choice for a large jar with a “bean sprouting lid” then.

Adult female: Pair:

Adult male: Adult female:

Bit of a late update, but was very successful in breeding these BTW, and already onto the next generation. Adult female: Males & females:

A few adult females chilling

Adult female: Ootheca. Note the exit hole on the last picture, the oothecae of this species do not have an exit seam as is typical of roach ooths. Instead the nymphs chew their way out of their oothecae!

I don't think it's protein, maybe you're keeping them too dry.

Thank you all for your help! I’ve since had much more success, my colony is slowly coming along and growing as it goes. They’re doing much better, with no deaths for several months!

I recently had the good fortune of being able to collect a small group of Sphaerodactylus elegans(1.2.1) and have had the concept of a compostium bouncing around my head for far to many years so I decided its finally time to test out this theory for myself, which I originally read about from a Ben Eichen(from Dendroboard) post that has since been deleted. This is the only remaining post I’ve be able to find referencing this type of setup. https://www.dendroboard.com/threads/self-sustaining-terrariums-in-depth.25846/ The basic premise is that you have a portion of the enclosure sectioned off with a material that allows insects to pass through but not the main inhabitants. One section acts a refugium where you culture a variety of insects while the other section houses the main inhabitants. The hope is that insects will travel from the refugium to the other section and get consumed. My experiment is with a 40 gallon breeder(36x18x16) that I have divided into three sections. Two 10x18(outside) and one 13x18(Center). The 13x18 section will act as the refugium and the two 10x18 will house a pair of Sphaerodactylus elegans each. I used Matala filter pads(High density blue) as the membrane between the refugium and main enclosures. I also used Matala filter pads as the false bottom and will cover them with calcium bearing clay substate(a unfired clay that incorporates calcium into its composition with the intention of calcium passing on to the inhabitants). Compsodes schwarzi will end up the main star for insects cultivated in the refugium. I’ll update the post as I make progress over the next month or so. I always seem to have issues with image uploads here. So forgive the external links to photos. https://ibb.co/r2YtKBy https://ibb.co/BNv0z3D https://ibb.co/H7NQW2g https://ibb.co/s5P1tXS

Does anyone have experience culturing this species? I found some in my backyard and am trying to start a culture, but I can't seem to find any info on these guys.

The first few months last November when I got my Halloween issuers they had tons of nymphs after that for the next 6 months nothing. And during this summer the have had two litters of nymphs. Finally feels like these guys are going somewhere agian, the nymphs are starting to grow up very quickly. Been a bit sense my last post mainly been busy.

I like it!!!

This is the future of making bug tubs, hot glue is dead. I'm making a new set of tubs this way with stainless steel mesh. It's faster, looks nicer, last longer, and less expensive cuz I'm not buying hot glue sticks. This is so good I had to give this a bump

Almost every person on YouTube that's done a dubia breeding video says 40 and most "care sheets" I've seen say the same

Yes. Yes yes.

I tried it for a number of years but included some regular food just in case. My very old yellow mealworm colony eventually all died, every last one. They seemed okay with eating it for a long time but crashed and died after four to five years. Maybe the Styrofoam I tried was treated with something, but it was regular packing Styrofoam. My experiences makes me wonder if mealworms living on Styrofoam is a hoax that is not very easy to disprove.

I find Gyna lurida incredibly easy and hard to fail with.

Only had one lot of adults hatch using it so far and they were very big but that doesn't really prove anything I'll wait until I've tested several generations on it before I decide how well it's worked I have more MTU on it ATM including some blue morphs but I'm getting some Goliath L1 larvae and an adult pair this year so rearing the larvae then any larvae I get from my pair will be a great trial for the jelly as I like to record data anyways so weight will be regularly logged and length of any adults hatched etc so looking forward to collating all that information SB

Quick update from that original 10 I've now got 3 thriving colonies all growing rapidly 😳 they're almost like tiny dairy cows breeding wise Just glad I didn't start with 50 I'd be knee deep in the buggers now And I never did give them proper ventilation it's a solid lid with many tiny holes put in with a blue gauge needle my original intent was to give them my normal voile panel lid but they were thriving so I've left it like they say don't fix it if it's not broken as they obviously love very high humidity and mid to high 20s temps which doesn't mesh with a dark cool cave but I've now got 100s from the original 10 and they're one of the fastest breeding pods I've got and I've got about 30 colonies SB

Three of my males have matured, and looks like my females are very close behind! Such a beautiful species, hopefully I'll get a good amount of offspring from them!

Quick update as not been on here for a while Now the final count got 6 adults (from 7 nymphs) all very healthy and huge everything perfect so expecting the patter of tiny feet anytime soon SB

Thanks mate and here's a pic that the chap I'm getting the nymphs off sent me of one of his adults I think it's a really pretty roach can't wait to get my nymphs just hope they grow as quick as my Tesselata SB

Maybe five years ago the biggest male I'd ever seen matured and I figured that was top for the species but then last year a really big one came out, just like the size variability in oblongonota.

Well, my two females are doing great, one matured, and the other's a subadult. I needed a male to fertilize them, and thankfully @Cariblatta lutea loaned me his. This is a childhood dream of mine in the making, finally pairing Macropanesthia rhinoceros!!! Hopefully the females will give birth next year! Adult female: Mating pair:

It seems unbelievable. Imagine if I could put some styrofoam in my mealworm culture and not have to worry about mites and moisture levels. And yet, other beetle larvae I have refuse to eat (let alone digest) the small pieces of sytrofoam that end up in collected leaves. I'm going to put my mealworm culture next to my cold fusion generator.

ok i've been working on this for a while, with help from Zephyr, for Geckos unlimited one of the reptiles forums i'm active on. it's only supposed to be a general care sheet but i wanted to include a relatively expansive list of feeder roaches that are available our there. i also would like to hear what other people on here think and what thay would do to improve it. Feeder Roach: Care and Breeding Tropical Roaches are a great alternative the crickets and meal worms. They are more nutritious, easier to keep, easy breed and don’t smell the way crickets do. Because of this I feel they make a superior feeder and the ease of which they can be breed makes them vary affordable. In this we will go through the general care and high light some species that make good feeder roaches. Housing: Housing for most roaches is relatively simple, a standard aquarium or other containers works well for all non-climbing species. For climbing species smearing a layer of Vaseline around the top 2-3 inches of the container keeps any from escaping. I find that Sterilite 56qt containers are ideal for larger colonies while the 16qt containers work well for my smaller colonies. For extra surface area for the roaches to climb on use egg flats, it helps if you stand them up vertical so the fras (poop) falls to the ground. I do not use substrate for most my roaches; I find it’s easier to maintain them without it, but there are a few that do benefit from the use of substrate. Food & Water: Water crystals are the best options for watering many species of roaches. For those who don’t know water crystals are a synthetic material that absorbs water so that it looks like a crystal but feels like a gel substance. Because of these properties roaches can’t drown in it in it, I have even found baby dubia nymphs hiding it in at times. For actual water container you can use a deli cup with slits cut in the sides or use a low bowl so roaches can reach the crystals. Food is also pretty simple and there are a lot of options open on what to feed, but because these are feeder roaches and thus going to eaten by your animals the main diet should be a good quality gutload. It is also important to give these guys fresh fruit and vegetables. I tend to use a lot of bananas, apples, oranges and carrots but you can use others. For food bowls you can be anything just make sure that the roaches can get in and out of it. Another option for gutload is to separate the nymphs or full grow adults you are planning to use in a given week and gutload them there. Heat & Humidity: Because these species come from warmer climates temperature and humidity is very important. The optimal temperature range for most of these roaches is from 80-95 degrees with humidity usually above 50%, High temps = more breeding. They will stop breeding though below 78 degrees and will start dieing off below 60 degrees, so heat is very important. Non-climbing or flying species: Blatta Lateralis: Common names are Turkish roach or rusty red roach. These guys are smaller than dubia and discoid, adults are the size of a large crickets and nymphs can be as small as 1/8 of an inch. These guys are faster than dubia roaches but nowhere near as fast as some people make them out to be. Also unlike dubia they are egg layers and will scatter eggs everywhere. Just leave them alone and eventually they will hatch after a month or so. Blaptica dubia: Another name for these guys is Guyana spotted roach they are one of the more popular species of feeder roaches. Adult are 1 ½ to 2 inches while baby are around ¼ of an inch when born. These are also one of the easier species to sex with males having wings and females no having wings. These guys are livebearers so no need to worry about egg sacks (ooths), and each female will have around 20-30 young every month or so. Top: Female on left Male on right Warning: b. dubia are illegal in Florida but because discoid roaches are native to Florida and are legal there and thus a good option for Florida residence. Blaberus discoidalis: Discoid roach and false death head are two common names for these guys. These are similar to B. dubia with one major difference; both males and females have full wings. An easy way to sex these guys is by looking at their underbelly, males have light and dark striping while females are almost entirely dark. Also like b. dubia these guys are livebearers and give birth to 20-30 roaches. Eublaberus prosticus: Otherwise known as the Orange Head, this is a new species for me to star rising but quite happy with them so far. Both male and female have wings and are a nice rusty orange brown color and nymphs are deep orange red. Size wise adults are usually around 2” wile nymphs usually start out with 1/4'”. With these guys, heat is important and should be keep in the 90’s to get optimal breeding and humidity should be kept relatively high. Also Orange are notorious wing bitter so a source of protein should be available at all times. If these requirements are met they are one of the faster breeding species of the larger bodied roaches. Photo by Zephyr (Kyle) from All Pet Roaches Forum Climbing and flying species: Naupheta cinerea: Lobster roaches are one of the more popular climbing species out there. They are relatively small species reaching around 1¼" as adults and around 3/16” when born. These guys are glass climbers but not all that great at it so a 3 or so of barrier of Vaseline around the top of the enclosure should keep them in. also they seem to be a bit more cold tolerant than others but breed vary regularly, probably one of the easier roach to breed which makes them a good feeder. Photo by Zephyr (Kyle) from All Pet Roaches Forum Phoetalia pallida + Oxyhaloa duesta (Pallid and Red Head Roach) Housing: Small container (compared to colony size) with lots of egg crates; coconut fiber for substrate is recommended to keep humidity levels buffered. A barrier must be applied since both species climb. Size: P. pallida are usually .7" to 1"while O. duesta tend to be 0.5"to 0.9" P. pallida grows larger and has smaller newborn nymphs, while O. duesta grows smaller but has larger newborns. Temperature: Optimal reproduction will occur from 78-85 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity: Fairly high; both species dry out quickly. Ventilation is necessary, though. Other notes: Very easy to culture. For larger cultures, I recommend introducing a colony of Alphitobius diaperinus which will eat dead roaches and scraps. Reproduction: O. duesta; Females will give live birth to babies every 3 weeks or so. This species has a "reproductive trend" where a lot of babies pop up at once but for a bit after only a few will. P. pallida; Females will give birth every 3 weeks to a month. This species reproduces steadily. Oxyhaloa duasta “Red Head Roach” Phoetallia pallada “Pallid Roach” Photo and info on P. pallada and O. duasta by Zephyr (Kyle) from All Pet Roaches Forum Panchlora nivea (Green Banana Roach) Housing: Small container (compared to colony size) with a good 2"-3" of substrate. Coconut fiber with sphagnum moss for aeration is ideal. Egg crates or bark can be used on top of this. A barrier must be used since the adults can climb and fly. The nymphs cannot. Size: .5"-.9" The newborns are incredibly tiny; Roughly 1/2 a millimeter. Temperature: 78-88 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity: HIGH. This species will die very quickly if it dries out. One side of the container (at least!) should be soaking wet. A small ventilation hole is necessary, though. Other notes: Fairly easy to culture. For larger cultures, I recommend introducing a colony of Alphitobius diaperinus which will eat dead roaches and scraps. A tight fitting lid is vital for preventing escapes. Reproduction: The females will give birth every 2 week-1 month depending on temperature. This species is live-bearing. Photo and info on P. pallada and O. duasta by Zephyr (Kyle) from All Pet Roaches Forum