Converting Unfinished Shelves into Vivs?

[houston]

I'm renovating my space and have a few plywood shelves. What would be the best way to make them into enclosures? I'd probably sand + stain them, coat them in polycoat, add a similarly finished back and retaining wall front piece ( screwed together with silicon in the seams), then an acrylic sheet on hinges as a door. Would this work? If not, does anyone have any advice?

I'll likely end up putting a cockroach colony in there. Thanks!

 

[The Seraph]

I'm renovating my space and have a few plywood shelves. What would be the best way to make them into enclosures? I'd probably sand + stain them, coat them in polycoat, add a similarly finished back and retaining wall front piece ( screwed together with silicon in the seams), then an acrylic sheet on hinges as a door. Would this work? If not, does anyone have any advice?

I'll likely end up putting a cockroach colony in there. Thanks!

I would just do what you are going to do. Make absolute sure every surface in waterproofed. Also, with a vertical orientation there would be little room for substrate, so you could not really have anything that likes that. I would just flip it on the long side, cut out a section on the top and make a locking door of some sort. That way I am not so strictly limited to arboreal species. What are you going to do for ventilation?

 

[houston]

I would just do what you are going to do. Make absolute sure every surface in waterproofed. Also, with a vertical orientation there would be little room for substrate, so you could not really have anything that likes that. I would just flip it on the long side, cut out a section on the top and make a locking door of some sort. That way I am not so strictly limited to arboreal species. What are you going to do for ventilation?

I should have mentioned I have a colony in mind already! Blaberus giganteus, the Giant Cave Roach, as my colony has begun producing adults and my current setup doesn't have a lot of vertical space for them. That said, I may flip one of the shelves onto its side and cannibalize the others for walls to increase floor size for future nymphs.

For ventilation I was planning on screen sections, cut out of the walls and then framed in.