JeffreH Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Hey guys, I just received a mixed colony of E. posticus, it was a three day trip to me from Utah and it's been really quite cold here in Dayton, OH. It was a little nerve racking on both ends shipping the lot out due to the cold, and when they came in I was actually quite concerned. The hot pack was no longer producing heat and the vast majority of the little guys appeared DOA. I immediately transferred them to the bin and applied heat with a couple of space heaters in addition to the heat tape on the shelf...within about 15 minutes all of the big fat nymphs who were upside down, frozen and unmoving began kicking their legs. After about a half hour had passed every roach was roaming around the bin, several even had began to eat. The most fascinating thing occured with a lone adult female in the group - she appeared to be the only casualty in the entire order by the time they had the chance to warm up. Even after the half hour had passed, she lie still and appeared brittle. I cupped her in my hands and kept her near the space heaters for several minutes. Within no time her antennae began to twitch follwed briefly by her legs. I isolated her for about 10 minutes and soon she had started to try and right herself. Before I knew it, she was crawling on my hand and had fully sprung to life... it blew my mind! Gave me a pretty good feeling that I might have saved her life, but it's amazing how these guys have the capacity to survive even when nearly frozen. I thought for sure they were all done for - but now I have a bin full of active, beautiful orange head roaches. Already finding they are quite a shy species...I turn on the light and hear them scatter even in an opaque bin! = ) Just wanted to share this - it amazed me how cold they allowed themselves to get before dying out. It was less than 20 degrees here - and the mailman had put them into my mailbox and I know they were in there for at least an hour with a heatpack that failed. I have a question though: I suppose time will tell - but would you think that the stress from this 'cold shock' might negatively affect their breeding ability? Or perhaps have any other ill effects down the road? They all seem to be doing their normal roachy things, but I'm slightly concerned about potential long term effects of this exposure to the cold. -I suppose I could take this time to introduce myself...I've been ghosting the forum for a few months now. I keep a smorgasbord of reptiles, particularly working with morph ball pythons and Rhacodactylus geckos. My interest in roaches began to take off after getting ahold of some as feeders. I'm currecntly keeping your typical feeder roaches in addition to the E. posticus: B. dubia, B. discoidalis, N. cinerea, and Shelfordella lateralis...the latter have been taking off so fast I'm having difficulty controlling them. I've recently arranged my insect area to accomodate several roach bins, and I have intentions of expanding my collection over the next year or two = ) These guys are just cool! -Jeff Howell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hisserman Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Hey guys, I just received a mixed colony of E. posticus, it was a three day trip to me from Utah and it's been really quite cold here in Dayton, OH. It was a little nerve racking on both ends shipping the lot out due to the cold, and when they came in I was actually quite concerned. The hot pack was no longer producing heat and the vast majority of the little guys appeared DOA. I immediately transferred them to the bin and applied heat with a couple of space heaters in addition to the heat tape on the shelf...within about 15 minutes all of the big fat nymphs who were upside down, frozen and unmoving began kicking their legs. After about a half hour had passed every roach was roaming around the bin, several even had began to eat. The most fascinating thing occured with a lone adult female in the group - she appeared to be the only casualty in the entire order by the time they had the chance to warm up. Even after the half hour had passed, she lie still and appeared brittle. I cupped her in my hands and kept her near the space heaters for several minutes. Within no time her antennae began to twitch follwed briefly by her legs. I isolated her for about 10 minutes and soon she had started to try and right herself. Before I knew it, she was crawling on my hand and had fully sprung to life... it blew my mind! Gave me a pretty good feeling that I might have saved her life, but it's amazing how these guys have the capacity to survive even when nearly frozen. I thought for sure they were all done for - but now I have a bin full of active, beautiful orange head roaches. Already finding they are quite a shy species...I turn on the light and hear them scatter even in an opaque bin! = ) Just wanted to share this - it amazed me how cold they allowed themselves to get before dying out. It was less than 20 degrees here - and the mailman had put them into my mailbox and I know they were in there for at least an hour with a heatpack that failed. I have a question though: I suppose time will tell - but would you think that the stress from this 'cold shock' might negatively affect their breeding ability? Or perhaps have any other ill effects down the road? They all seem to be doing their normal roachy things, but I'm slightly concerned about potential long term effects of this exposure to the cold. -I suppose I could take this time to introduce myself...I've been ghosting the forum for a few months now. I keep a smorgasbord of reptiles, particularly working with morph ball pythons and Rhacodactylus geckos. My interest in roaches began to take off after getting ahold of some as feeders. I'm currecntly keeping your typical feeder roaches in addition to the E. posticus: B. dubia, B. discoidalis, N. cinerea, and Shelfordella lateralis...the latter have been taking off so fast I'm having difficulty controlling them. I've recently arranged my insect area to accomodate several roach bins, and I have intentions of expanding my collection over the next year or two = ) These guys are just cool! -Jeff Howell Well welcome to the forum! That's quite a story you told! I would help but I don't know anything about cold shock since I live in a area where it's 85 most of the time :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigtoach Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 ur roaches should be fine. I once took about 70 crickets up to the sierras trout fishing, they were in a wire mesh tube, for 3 days. it was snowing and about 20 degrees. the crickets went dormant from the cold 3 days in a row, i thought they froze to death. each night back in the cabin they warmed up and chirped all night. roaches are 100 times heartier than crickets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.