CodeWilster

Home Depot is probably easiest for most. They're with all of the other drills and parts. You could ask an employee for help, just need a hole saw and bit/mandrill for any regular power drill. Here's a link to a cheap one I found on Amazon with both components. Just be sure to get the right vent size. Video is in the making but has been put on hold. It will come around someday

Wow those are awesome, the nymphs almost resemble a scale insect. Very cool, thanks for sharing!

You would be correct sir! It's a Blaberus craniifer nymph.

Congrats, these things are awesome and grow very fast at that stage. Even though it'll slow down over the next few years, by this time next year they'll still be humongous if you keep them going. Also, the BEST oak leaf food for them is the type that is very decayed (dry, crispy, breaks apart in your hand). I would avoid the leathery, freshly fallen fall oak leaves. If you come across soft, spongy rotten wood they love that too - and of course dog food kibble. I love watching them grab food and drag it around before eating it. Reminds me of a dog trying to find a spot to nibble on a treat.

Yours have nice full yellow banding. Good luck with them! If you put a piece of fruit in there every once and a while you'll see them on it. They're pretty shy to light though like some other millis.

Yeah, first one I found was dried up on the floor and I had no clue where it came from. Then after giving the plant a good soak, about 5 adults surfaced to escape the water. Somehow now a few weeks later, this still happens but now only with a couple more. They're an awesome milli, very colorful and super easy. I just threw mine in a deli cup and they haven't gotten the attention they deserve, and yet they are still thriving and even reproducing.

I don't think you'll have any issues with these guys in either setup. The only downside to smaller setups with millis is that they can process the substrate much more quickly, so usually bigger is better to cut back on how often you need to change substrate. These guys are very small though, and a 2.5 gallon is plenty big enough for a dozen but the 5.5 wouldn't hurt either. I have a volunteer colony living in a houseplant's pot that I got from Home Depot, every time I soak the plant I find more Bumbleebee mills. They're neat little guys!

Hmm I can't say I have though I haven't been sifting through their poop lately! They look like they're full of air? I bet it's something in the dog food that is just passing through the digestive tract abnormally. What type of dog food kibble do you feed?

Yeah I've been making it a habit to change out their substrate every once and a while which was easy when it was just adults. Now I've got a ton of nymphs though and so it's going to get tricky!

Yeah, the amount of poop they produce is insane!

Just a few leafy-looking roaches. Epilampra maya Rhabdoblatta formosana

Glad I stumbled upon this, these are awesome Gil! Great photos too by the way. Do you have any shots of an adult female, and/or some nymphs too? @wizentrop

Yeah I'm aware they are beneficial, I just like to be top predator in my bug room and make sure their numbers don't get too crazy ?

A beautiful hobby classic - G. grandidieri "Tiger Hisser" Excuse the photo-bombing mite that met its doom shortly after this photo...

I actually wasn't talking about the vents they haven't touched those, and for the few I was worried about I did a layer of Vaseline around the underside of the vents hoping to help stop them from getting to it in the first place. Even in my tub of 500+ Periplaneta with no Vaseline the mesh hasn't been touched though. What I was actually talking about is the blue foam seal that comes with the sterilite tubs that seals the lid around the outermost edges. A few species occasionally gnaw on this as some have discovered.