# Cheap way to house Roaches.Step by step.



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 17, 2007)

Ok well I have weird days off and I got bored, so it was time to clean the roaches house out. It also gives me a chance to show you how to make a roach motel for a whopping 15 bucks. 

1) Gathering materials. This includes 1/4 inch wooden dowels, and medium pre cut sections of cork board. 







2) Next you want to figure out how many sections you want. This will depend on how big you want your colony as well. Or how big it already is. You will then section off where you want to make the holes on each piece. The more accurate you are the better your spacing will be in the end. You also want some gaps bigger then others, the larger gaps the adults will jam themselves in there, and the smaller gaps the babies will migrate to those areas.







3) Once all your sections have the holes made in the corners you want to slide them all on together.







4) You now begin spacing out the individual pieces. You dont need glue, nothing harmful at all. The cork grabs the dowels and nothing moves. 







5) Next roaches. If you dont have them order them from DaveGrimm1.  (shameless plug Dave hope you don't mind)







6) You even can make food dishes out of cork to, put the cork food dishes next to the colony and they will come feed when they want to, they are even washable!!! Place lid on tub and sit tub on lapmat heat mat and mist and air out every now and then. The great part about this setup is if you want to do some light cleaning, you can pick up the whole colony and nothing comes out of the cork. Clean up even wash and dry the tub and put them back in.







I cant be doing to bad here are the little guys that are pulled out weekly. 







This has been a product of bored at night, thank you very much.


----------



## T-chick (Apr 17, 2007)

Does it work for non climbing species?


----------



## ShadowBlade (Apr 17, 2007)

T-chick said:


> Does it work for non climbing species?


Then I lay the layers down.

Nice pics!

-Sean


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 17, 2007)

T-chick said:


> Does it work for non climbing species?


Non climbing? Dubia cant really climb anything, and that is what is housed here. But they can get up the cork.


----------



## arrowhd (Apr 17, 2007)

Very well done.  Might just start keeping roaches because of this thread.  Getting tired of buying crickets all the time.


----------



## Drachenjager (Apr 17, 2007)

yeah better than egg crates for sure!!! by the way , how did you make the feed troughs from the cork . glue?


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 17, 2007)

I meant to take pictures of that to. I made interlocking pieces that well, lock to together, but if you dont have the patience for that(it did take a few tries) a non toxic glue would work just fine.


----------



## Amanda (Apr 17, 2007)

That looks downright manageable!  I've only got 11 Ts right now, so I'm afraid a roach colony would rapidly outgrow me and my collection.  I want food, not a giant pet roach colony.  Yours looks reasonably small.  Does it maintain itself well at that size?  Do you ever have to stage a mass-execution to keep the numbers down?


----------



## edesign (Apr 17, 2007)

nice, very similar to the method CM outlined here (he used nuts and bolts instead of wooden dowels):
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=463

was he an influence by any chance?


----------



## T-chick (Apr 17, 2007)

How do you feed the babies? And watering?


----------



## Hedorah99 (Apr 17, 2007)

T-chick said:


> How do you feed the babies? And watering?


http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=463

this should tell you everything about keeping dubia roaches


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 17, 2007)

T-chick said:


> How do you feed the babies? And watering?


I seperate the babies, they get a similar setup. Both setups get sprayed with a mist at night then I close the lid of the tub and leave it till I get back from work, then I open the tub and air them out, then repeat. The babies also have a double stached square feeding setup, this gives them a great hiding place to eat in the dark at all hours without the colony having to be in a dart closet. 
Once the babies get to a medium size they are put in with the adults. I only seperate to make it easy to find smaller prey for the slings and bigger prey for the adults.


----------



## slimtim454 (Apr 17, 2007)

I always thought egg crate would be good because each roach would have her own nesting area. Where are all the newborn? At the bottom of the corkboard structure?


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 17, 2007)

No once and a while about once a week or so I seperate out the babies and move them to a tub with adult frass and other food items. babies seem to need the frass they can almost live off it for the first part of their life it seems like.


----------



## slimtim454 (Apr 17, 2007)

So DaveGrimm1 has a good variety of roaches?


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 17, 2007)

slimtim454 said:


> So DaveGrimm1 has a good variety of roaches?


Thats where I chose to get my roaches. He's lives on the other side of the state of me, but I have never had a complaint when buying from David.


----------



## Amanda (Apr 17, 2007)

Amanda said:


> That looks downright manageable!  I've only got 11 Ts right now, so I'm afraid a roach colony would rapidly outgrow me and my collection.  I want food, not a giant pet roach colony.  Yours looks reasonably small.  Does it maintain itself well at that size?  Do you ever have to stage a mass-execution to keep the numbers down?


Just bumping... I think my question was temporarily obscured by the flames.


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 17, 2007)

Well its not that small, their are maybe 250 adults, mostly female.......and maybe 1500 babies in the other tub.

The cool thing is you can regulate breeding with temps. If you have enough food and want them to stop for a while lower the temps. Need more food increase the temps back into the upper 80's.

Or just sell of the extra if it gets out of hand thats what most people do on the boards. Mass killing no..... I have to many slings right now that always can use the food.


----------



## edesign (Apr 17, 2007)

Amanda said:


> Do you ever have to stage a mass-execution to keep the numbers down?


I.E., feeding a T. blondi or L. parahybana?


----------



## Amanda (Apr 17, 2007)

Lol.  My L. parahybana is only 3.5" or so.  He's in premolt tho!

Thanks for the reply, Ryan.  I didn't think about temp regulation.  That's a BIG plus!
I'm sorry your thread is going to Hades in a handbasket.  :wall:


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 17, 2007)

When I feed my 7.5 T. Blondi the roaches I swear dont hit the ground before they are snatched up.


----------



## pinktoe23 (Apr 17, 2007)

edesign said:


> stick around a while...you'll see  you've been here less than a month...the people who are "bashing" him have been here much much longer.


i want to stick around longer but I don't want to keep reading jerk posts uncalled for in every thread this guy does  



talkenlate04 said:


> When I feed my 7.5 T. Blondi the roaches I swear dont hit the ground before they are snatched up.


i'm hoping to buy one just like that. can't wait! :}


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 18, 2007)

Ill remember to say where my idea was spawned from next time.

One thing I did notice with this setup and proberly any setup like it is it stinks less..... the frass falls mostly to the ground where it can be swept up. I like that. With egg cartons the frass sticks everywhere and builds up over time and starts to smell a bit.


----------



## billopelma (Apr 18, 2007)

> That looks downright manageable! I've only got 11 Ts right now, so I'm afraid a roach colony would rapidly outgrow me and my collection. I want food, not a giant pet roach colony. Yours looks reasonably small. Does it maintain itself well at that size? Do you ever have to stage a mass-execution to keep the numbers down?


Actually you had better have some hungry critters to feed, It takes a while but once those things hit critical mass it's,







That's a 66 quart bin with a foot deep of 'em and only about 4 months ago it was a 28 quart. It gets to the point where they eat more than you and your dog...

Bill


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 18, 2007)

Wow thats a ton of roaches............ how long did it take to get like that? All the roaches I bought in sept are mature now and reproducing. They reproduce a lot but not like that wow. 

Your never going to have a shortage of food.

One thing I dont know is something good to make them as a staple food..... I mix things all the time, blend carrots and apples.... they love that, crush dog food. I cant find that chicken feed stuff I have heard mentioned in a few threads. Any ideas where to look for some of that stuff. I dont know of a feed store anywhere near me. 
Bannana every now and then. They seem happy, but I am pretty new with roaches. So anyone that knows a better food souce your input is welcome.


----------



## chris 71 (Apr 18, 2007)

can these be frozen and thawed later for feeding like feeding frozen mice


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 18, 2007)

I have no clue.... I doubt it. I am sure someone who knows more will answer that one. 
I dont think they have enough guts to make it worth it...... plus most of my Ts that are subadult or adults wont take dead prey. 
That would be cool if it does work though, then id never have to worry about a population explosion.


----------



## chris 71 (Apr 18, 2007)

i was thinking of getting some roaches but if the are that prolific it would be great if they could be put in the freazer for latter use some of my larger ts will take dead mice so this could be really good if they would take dead roaches too


----------



## Cirith Ungol (Apr 18, 2007)

I just love the food containers! I've been wondering how to use any which even the babies can climb into! Great!


----------



## edesign (Apr 18, 2007)

talkenlate04 said:


> One thing I did notice with this setup and proberly any setup like it is it stinks less..... the frass falls mostly to the ground where it can be swept up. I like that.


for some reason i thought frass was akin to bird droppings lol.


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 18, 2007)

I had no idea that stuff came out of them semi solid liquid. Almost like bird poo..... I could not figure out why that stuff was sticking to everything on the egg cartons. I thought for the longest it came out hard. 

Do roaches urinate? Or is it all just in that one form. 

Sometimes I notice they secrete a liquid from their anus when I pick them up to be fed. Whats that stuff?


----------



## billopelma (Apr 18, 2007)

> Wow thats a ton of roaches............ how long did it take to get like that? All the roaches I bought in sept are mature now and reproducing. They reproduce a lot but not like that wow. Your never going to have a shortage of food.
> One thing I dont know is something good to make them as a staple food..... I mix things all the time, blend carrots and apples.... they love that, crush dog food. I cant find that chicken feed stuff I have heard mentioned in a few threads. Any ideas where to look for some of that stuff. I dont know of a feed store anywhere near me.
> Bannana every now and then. They seem happy, but I am pretty new with roaches. So anyone that knows a better food souce your input is welcome.



It took 'em probably 8-10 months to ramp up but once they hit a certain point it's exponential like a bell curve. Just split mine into two colonies and am exploring options on what new fauna to aquire to perform population control.
I'm lucky to have a friend with a pet store and I get free bags of returned high end type dog/cat food, and grind it up in a food proccessor. They'll eat the whole kibbles but tend to run off with 'em and they accumulate in the 'hide stack', then if you spill water it makes a bad mess.
 I also hit up the supermarket 'scratch n dent' produce rack and my compost pile is suffering 'cause these guy's get all the peels and cores of everything. They will consume a cup of dogfood a day and make a banana disapear in an hour. I also have chickens so I obviously have chicken feed. They will eat it but it's the last thing to go so it's evidently not a favorite. You can get 'chick mash' (unmedicated) at feed stores like agway or blue seal. It's just non pelletized corn based chicken feed. 
 There you can also get a (lifetime supply) 50 pound bag of 'table bran' for around $9 that is an excellent medium for mealworms and superworms. I have a shoe box of each and they also reproduce like crazy and are way lower maintenance than the roach's, like just through in a carrot (optional) once every week or two and another handfull of bran once a month. I'm just starting on my third generation of superworms and the mealworm colony has been mostly self sufficient for almost a year. 
If crickets wearn't so high maintenance I'd try those too...

Bill


----------



## Talkenlate04 (Apr 18, 2007)

Superworms and meal worms have higher fat content right? I have been under the impression thats a bad thing for Ts. 

What about oats? I have access to tons of that...... I will have to search for some of the other things you mentioned.

I love cutting a bannana in half and coming back 10 minutes to see it covered in roaches climbing over eachother to get to a spot on it. 
They seem to only like red apples, maybe thats the sugar content, I have no clue. But I learned they wont touch a green apple. 

Thanks for the tips Ill have to mess with that now.


----------



## Kugellager (Apr 18, 2007)

ATTENTION EVERYONE!

Cut the OT crap or this thread will be locked.

Regardless if talkenlate04's roach raising method is nothing more than a more econimical variation of CodeMonkey's method there is still information on raising roaches that may be useful to others.

Thanks,

John
Arachnoboards
];')


----------



## epr0gress (Jul 7, 2007)

billopelma said:


> Actually you had better have some hungry critters to feed, It takes a while but once those things hit critical mass it's,
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Sorry for this question,but you don`t give them water? I can`t see a water dish


----------



## edesign (Jul 7, 2007)

odd, i don't recall ever seeing John's post almost three months ago  ah, brings up some good memories of this thread 

roaches are the camels of the insect world, they only need water once every ten or twelve oasis'  j/k...depending on exactly what food they get, they could get it from that. And I can't imagine a water bowl in such a setup...where would you put it and I can see all those roaches somehow making a mess in it.


----------



## pinktoe23 (Jul 9, 2007)

edesign said:


> odd, i don't recall ever seeing John's post almost three months ago  ah, brings up some good memories of this thread


is it been that long already? memories are coming back to me too  

@ eprogress- well someone correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read they get all the water and moisture they need from the fruits and veggies you give them. I think some would drown like crickets do if you put a water bowl in there. plus like Josh said, would definetely make a mess.


----------

