Pyxie Project Update

[Jace]

My females love to climb on the top of their wire lid, and it makes a rather creepy sound. Watching horror movies late at night and hearing that...I like a good scare, but I kept one of the lamps on anyway!!

Jeff, do you think with my small colony I should worry about all the interbreeding? After all, I'm pretty sure the original three were two brothers and a sister, or does it not really matter with insects?

[Jeff Kennedy]

Hi Jo-Anna! I don't think that it matters with insects but I could be wrong. I mean, after all. All we want them to do besides breed is to get there guts full and get ate so I don't think that it really matters how smart they are or whatnot . HaHa!!! No but really, I can't answer that 100%. I know that with my dubia colony, it probably has at least 16 different bloodlines in it because I purchased from 16 different people to build it. If you think that I can get them to you, I'll send you a batch of hissers when ours come in. That will ease your worries about having roaches that date their sister

[Jace]

Maybe I've watched too many mutant horror movies...I'm envisioning inbred cockroaches with 6 antennae and screeching like fighting cats!! I'm sure it will be fine. I'll check with the petstore I got the original three from and see if they can get me a few more-that way I don't have to sleep with one eye open!

[Jeff Kennedy]

Just listen for a banjo being plucked in your hisser bin. When you hear that, you know that you have some imbreeding going on and it's time to seperate the brothers from the sisters.

[Kevin1]

Roaches should be fine Jace. I've read many many articles and scientif research papers on roaches and not one of them said that any of their colonies suffered from inbreeding except for one which wasn't too bad. She said after years and years of having a colony this scientist noticed a reduction in the number offspring produced by individual females.
They were dubia and wild caught. When first acquired, the females regularly had between 40-50 offspring each time. After years the litter size was averaging 30. She imported more wild dubia and the numbers went back up. Inbreeding isn't really a problem in many "less advanced" organisms. Some scientist believe inbreeding is better for a population to rid the gene pool of inferior genes.I would get into it more but I've already typed quite a bit there.

[Jace]

Thanks, Kevin. I wasn't overly concerned, more curious than anything. I have kept several females, and have 4 males capable of helping me out (1 of my original males died already and the other is in the process of dying), so I hope to have more babies being born. I have separated them for the time being as I don't have the necessary setup for heat for them at the moment. But I have a plan come spring!!

Jeff, once you get your colony in, I would love to see how you house them and everything. I hope to have a more substantial (though NOT 10, 000) colony by the end of next year, but I don't like having escapees like I have been. Best of luck!

[Jeff Kennedy]

Hey Jo-Anna, I am going to keep them the same way as my dubia with just a couple differences. They will go in a large, dark Sterilte plastic tub that has had an opening cut in the top with screen glued down. It will have a heat mat placed inside with no substrate and egg flats for them to climb on. Up top, I will have the standard layer of clear packing tape (which keeps the dubia babies at bay) as well as a layer of vasoline above that. I have heard that the vasoline can break down with elevated temps and have heard that "bug barrier" is the best. If that ends up being the case and I have some Houdini's on my hand, then I will invest in the bug barrier product.