Culturing Lobster Roaches (and other roaches)

[KingCam]

Nice guide man. That is a lot of roaches.. Do these kind burrow like the Dubia's? I know you said before that Turkistan roaches don't, but what about these?

These don't really "burrow," but they will tuck in under whatever cover they can find. I find it's best to tong feed the lobster roaches to your animals if they have an enclosure with lots of places for the roaches to hide. This also ensures they won't escape your animals' enclosure and make it into your home.

If you need something that will just run around on the surface Blatta lateralis is definitely the way to go.

[Faith]

"I don't keep a lid on my tub because I like to have plenty of ventilation. It is probably smart to put a lid on your tub if you have pets or children that roam the house freely. No one wants a roach covered dog walking around the place, right? XD **shudder**" - I can see my two year old now xD

"Many people grind the dog or cat food up before putting it in with the roaches. This step is completely and totally necessary. The roaches will eat it either way." - I assume unnecessary (I'm not picking it apart, I know you typed this sucker up pretty fast lol, just making sure I read it right!)

One other question. The first video - what exactly are you showing? I swear I'm not blind, I read the title, but was a bit confused lol.

As stated earlier, awesome guide! I think you have me sold on this

*runs*

[KingCam]

"Many people grind the dog or cat food up before putting it in with the roaches. This step is completely and totally necessary. The roaches will eat it either way." - I assume unnecessary (I'm not picking it apart, I know you typed this sucker up pretty fast lol, just making sure I read it right!)

THANK YOU!!! I did not notice that

Apparently I can't edit it anymore? How annoying.

Can a moderator PLEASE fix that for me? It's kinda an important typo to fix, lol.

[Faith]

No problem! I think it's the mod in me, I proofread so many guides a day @_@ lol.

And how odd that you can't edit it! Hopefully one of them can get that for you

[adinco]

omg the pics gross me out. i don't think i can do it... i hate buying crickets only to have them keep dying on me though. where do you get the roaches you start with? do your frogs eat the adults too?

[KingCam]

omg the pics gross me out. i don't think i can do it... i hate buying crickets only to have them keep dying on me though. where do you get the roaches you start with? do your frogs eat the adults too?

haha, they're nasty little things aren't they? Still not as nasty as cricket in my own opinion, though.

Well I got my first 500 lobster roaches from a friend I met on a different forum. He UPSed them to me. The Dubias.... hmmmm.... I cannot remember who sent me the dubias. I think I may have ordered them from aaronpauling.com I have some hissers, the females sent to me by a friend in Texas, the others sent from a friend on caudata.org. My newest 4 species were sent to me by a friend on caudata.org

Ebay is a great place to get feeder roaches sometimes, also.

Yes, my frogs eats the nymphs and the adult lobster roaches. I also give them nymph dubia roaches sometimes, but the adult dubias are far too big for a grey tree frog to eat.

[Pluke]

My baby tomato frogs love dubia nymphs. They suck them down no problem. Hopefully they grow up to like them because as of right now, my pacmans seem to hate dubia's. I've got them to eat about 10 in the last 3 weeks. I have over a hundred left, lol. I'm just glad that my tomato's like the nymphs. Dubia's remind me of giant roly-poly's aka Isopods. I need to get an animal that will eat the bigger ones I have. The only time my bigger pacman will eat them is if they're freshly molted, that's if I'm lucky.

[KingCam]

One other question. The first video - what exactly are you showing? I swear I'm not blind, I read the title, but was a bit confused lol.

I just now saw this question, totally missed it the first time I read it. lol sorry

When I clean my colony (once every 6 months) I have two tubs. One is the roach colony and the other is an empty tub. One at a time I take cardboard out of the roach colony, shake the roaches out into the empty tub, discard the old cardboard, and do this until the colony tub only has a layer of frass and stragglers at the bottom. I get as many of the roaches out of the frass as I can, then I dump boiling water into the mostly empty colony tub to kill any babies that remain in the frass. After I am satisfied that everything is dead I dump the frass water on my garden for fertilizer. I put my bag of used up cardboard in my deep freezer to make sure any stow aways are dead before sending to the landfill. I wash the empty colony tub out, put brand new cardboard in, and dump all of the roaches back in. They will not need cleaned again for another 6 months if you are careful to always bowl feed. If fruit juices, etc aren't contained in a bowl they will mix with the roach droppings, the cardboard will get soggy, and your whole colony is going to be a mess in no time.

What you were seeing in the first video was my tub of roaches, waiting to be re-introduced to their clean setup.

[arielgasca420]

I have been unsuccessful at breeding my roaches, however their molts are complete and I have only had one fatality in the last two months. my setup is similar to the one you described, but I wanted to know if the light I am using to create a 90 degree temp is stressing them out. my room is roughly 80 degrees so should I do without the light or get a Ceramic emitter

[JeffreH]

Good info on Lobsters Cam - I actually have a question. Have you ever experimented with using metal sheets or something similar (such as the aluminum roofing material) as decor in the climbing roach bins? I've been tempted to try it after someone recommended it to me for lobsters (his name evades me). Because they are capable of climbing smooth surfaces, the sheeting serves to add more surface area just as the egg flats or tp rolls may do, but it never needs replacing and stays cleaner...apparently.

arielgasca420: what species are you keeping?

I did have to lol a bit... yay for roach guides on FrogForum! ; )
http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeder...r-roaches.html

[arielgasca420]

I am using Dubia blaptica. I have had them since mid july and I have not seen any nymphs. I thought maybe I had too many males so I feed about 6 of them to my frogs.

[KingCam]

but I wanted to know if the light I am using to create a 90 degree temp is stressing them out. my room is roughly 80 degrees so should I do without the light or get a Ceramic emitter

I would be willing to bet the light is stressing them out. I would definitely switch to a ceramic heat emitter if I were you!

Good info on Lobsters Cam - I actually have a question. Have you ever experimented with using metal sheets or something similar (such as the aluminum roofing material) as decor in the climbing roach bins? I've been tempted to try it after someone recommended it to me for lobsters (his name evades me). Because they are capable of climbing smooth surfaces, the sheeting serves to add more surface area just as the egg flats or tp rolls may do, but it never needs replacing and stays cleaner...apparently.

That's an interesting idea. Never thought to use anything like that before. I saw a guy on youtube using this thing he made out of fiber board that looked pretty permenant. I thought about making one but decided it was just easier to stick with egg cartons.