New to keeping roaches, having problems keeping them in

[Andee]

Hi all ^^ this is my first post on this forum and all I can say is I'm heavily addicted to roaches already. Mostly I use them as feeders for my cham but I have started looking into buying a few pet roaches. The problem I am having is that I had a set of plastic drawers I was keeping them in (dubias and green banana roaches) well most of my adult dubias escaped. I managed to find them around my garage as most didn't travel too far from the drawers but I figured it wasn't a safe place to keep my roaches anymore. So I unloaded everyone into rubbermaid containers with holes drilled into the top. But I can't exactly keep them in this in my room forever as they take up a lot of space. And if I put them out in the garage we will have ant problems (as we are infested with them right now >.<). Any suggestions on anything would be great ^^, on how to keep ants out and how to keep roaches in a safe place that saves space.

[ArtBug]

Hi Andee,

I feel for you! I just got started in roaches last fall and now I have tanks all over my kitchen.

The best thing I did was to buy the "Allpet Roaches Cockroach Care Guidebook." I learned SO much about roaches and how to make bucket cages for them. I don't have any bucket cages yet. I only have 4 species in aquariums lined around the top with vaseline.

I think where you choose to keep them is kind of a personal thing. From what I can see on the forum some folks have whole walls and even whole rooms lined with Sterlite and bucket cages! You just need to figure out what you can live with

I'm jealous of your green roaches - I want to get some of those soon!

[Andee]

The only problem I've noticed with the green banana's is that they are born absolutely tiny >.< like itty bitty, so if you have anything set up wrong they can easily get out. Once mine start breeding (only have 4 adults right now and like 95 nymphs) I will be selling them ^^ because I doubt I can keep up with just feeding them off. XD They seem pretty happy right now though I only see them come out at night, which I hear is pretty normal for them. Thanks for the turn on to the book. Will definitely check it out ^^ I've been looking for a book to help me so this will be great ^^

[Bamboo]

I just use sterilite containers with locking lids .... I use papertowels and packing tape to seal up any holes and at the lip of the containers to make the lid fit on alittle extra tighter for those tiny crawlers such as hissing roach nymphs... The clear sterilite containers are somewhat thin plastic and very smooth so it's very easy to cut out a circle at the top and use Gorilla glue to secure window screen mesh for your holes on the lid. So far it's all worked for me !

[Andee]

Thanks Bamboo ^^ does vaseline on the outside of the container keep ants out?

[Ace]

I've heard that keeping cages on tables with gelled legs works against outside predators, specifically ants.

Edit:

By gelled, I mean petroleum jelly layered in rings around the table legs.

[Andee]

Alright thanks ^^ I'm hoping that will work we just got the house baited and the ant problem seemed to have calmed down. But it's still here, hopefully with the next time around by next month it'll be gone completely, until then gelled legs it is ^^