# How do you clean your B lateralis colony?



## biomarine2000 (Nov 16, 2009)

I'm sick of searching with no results on this one.  How do you clean your lateralis colony?  How do you dispose of everything?  I live in Texas and dont want to dump a bunch of ootheca into the environment.  How do I steralize them before dumping them?  If someone could post a walk through of how they do it I would be more then appreciative.


----------



## gvfarns (Nov 16, 2009)

I have two identical enclosures, one always empty.  Call the one full of roaches the "old" one and the empty one the "new" one.

When it comes time to clean I move all the objects in the enclosure to the new one (taking whatever roaches are hanging on with them).  Then I hold the old enclosure almost horizontal over the new one so any that run out run into the new one.  I poke and shake whatever remaining roaches there are until they run out into the new one without letting any of the frass fall out.  I then grab any egg cases or roaches that I can find and move them over by hand.  Then I toss everything from the old enclosure (frass and some roach babies I couldn't catch, etc) into a plastic bag, which i tie and toss in the freezer and later throw away.

Then I return to the new container and shake all the roaches off the eggcrate.  Those egg crates get stinky, so I replace them.

After brushing and scraping the old enclosure outside, I wash it real well in the bathtub with dishsoap and let it dry.  I will use it when I change the roaches over the next time.

That's my system.  If I have substrate in there I toss it after freezing it, just like I do with frass.


----------



## biomarine2000 (Nov 16, 2009)

I didn't even think about freezing them, thats a great idea.  There is probably 3 inches of oothecas in the bottom of the roach colony so it will take a while to bag all of them and freeze them.  Thanks for the info.



gvfarns said:


> I have two identical enclosures, one always empty.  Call the one full of roaches the "old" one and the empty one the "new" one.
> 
> When it comes time to clean I move all the objects in the enclosure to the new one (taking whatever roaches are hanging on with them).  Then I hold the old enclosure almost horizontal over the new one so any that run out run into the new one.  I poke and shake whatever remaining roaches there are until they run out into the new one without letting any of the frass fall out.  I then grab any egg cases or roaches that I can find and move them over by hand.  Then I toss everything from the old enclosure (frass and some roach babies I couldn't catch, etc) into a plastic bag, which i tie and toss in the freezer and later throw away.
> 
> ...


----------



## OxDionysus (Nov 16, 2009)

How often do you guys clean them?


----------



## rvtjonny (Nov 16, 2009)

3 to 6 months will do..


----------



## jmiller (Nov 16, 2009)

OxDionysus said:


> How often do you guys clean them?



Once per year of longer.  The longer the better because every time you clean the bin out you loose a lot of nymphs and ooths.


----------



## brothaT (Nov 17, 2009)

The way I manage my colony makes cleanup relatively easy.  I keep mine bone dry and once a week collect the oothecas by shoveling all of the frass into a strainer just big enough to hold the ooths but allow the frass to fall through.  I collect every egg case and incubate separately and also get to choose how much frass I keep in the colony on a weekly basis.  It's also nice as it strains out all the dead roaches and sheds which keeps the smell down quite a bit.  It takes about 5 minutes and also allows for easy sorting and much more controlled conditions for egg hatching.


----------



## Kloster (Nov 17, 2009)

brothaT said:


> The way I manage my colony makes cleanup relatively easy.  I keep mine bone dry and once a week collect the oothecas by shoveling all of the frass into a strainer just big enough to hold the ooths but allow the frass to fall through.  I collect every egg case and incubate separately and also get to choose how much frass I keep in the colony on a weekly basis.  It's also nice as it strains out all the dead roaches and sheds which keeps the smell down quite a bit.  It takes about 5 minutes and also allows for easy sorting and much more controlled conditions for egg hatching.


Cant believe you do the egg case thing...

How many do you have?

Id say I have around 2000 in my colony. Taking the eggsacs would take hours...


----------



## brothaT (Nov 17, 2009)

Kloster said:


> Cant believe you do the egg case thing...
> 
> How many do you have?
> 
> Id say I have around 2000 in my colony. Taking the eggsacs would take hours...


With the strainer it really only takes a few minutes.


----------



## biomarine2000 (Nov 17, 2009)

brothaT said:


> With the strainer it really only takes a few minutes.


Could you post a pic of the strainer that you use?


----------



## Kloster (Nov 17, 2009)

Yes a pic would be awesome.
I got several strainers at the dollar store cause that was also my first idea but the roaches clump up together so shaking the strainer doesnt really uhhh strain much frass from the enclosure.

I do what gvfarns does, except instead of freezign them i set them on fire hahaha.


----------



## brothaT (Nov 17, 2009)

I just got mine at the dollar store too.  I remove half of the egg crates and wait a second until all the roaches have fled into the other half.  I then scoop everything into the strainer (top right), and shake all the frass out.  Most of the dead roaches and wings etc... end up on the top and can be scraped off and thrown away pretty easily (bottom left).  I repeat the process with the other half of the egg crates and then put the oothecas into an incubator and they all hatch 3-4 weeks later.  

You do need to have it dry though, I can't imagine trying to do this in a high humidity enclosure.


----------



## gvfarns (Nov 19, 2009)

brothaT said:


> I just got mine at the dollar store too.  I remove half of the egg crates and wait a second until all the roaches have fled into the other half.  I then scoop everything into the strainer (top right), and shake all the frass out.  Most of the dead roaches and wings etc... end up on the top and can be scraped off and thrown away pretty easily (bottom left).  I repeat the process with the other half of the egg crates and then put the oothecas into an incubator and they all hatch 3-4 weeks later.
> 
> You do need to have it dry though, I can't imagine trying to do this in a high humidity enclosure.


I really like this system.  Can you describe or post pictures of your incubator?  I'd like to keep my roaches dry for easier cleaning as well but I need a solution for the egg cases.


----------



## TalonAWD (Nov 19, 2009)

Yeah I would like to do the incubator thing as well. I vacuum the frass and sheddings. Of course right now I don't have a big enough colony to make lots of ooths.


----------



## biomarine2000 (Nov 19, 2009)

gvfarns said:


> I really like this system.  Can you describe or post pictures of your incubator?  I'd like to keep my roaches dry for easier cleaning as well but I need a solution for the egg cases.


Same here.  I already bought my strainer.


----------



## brothaT (Nov 19, 2009)

It's just a Hova Bator:

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...cubators/-/thermal-hova-bator-incubator1602n/

There are water compartments in the incubator to keep up the humidity so you don't have to worry about putting the oothecas in moist peat moss or another medium.  I throw them in a plastic container (no lid), making sure that they are not over 3/4" thick in order to prevent molding.  Currently I'm incubating at 84 degrees because I have some beardies in there as well, but I've not really experimented with temps.


----------



## TalonAWD (Nov 19, 2009)

brothaT said:


> It's just a Hova Bator:
> 
> http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...cubators/-/thermal-hova-bator-incubator1602n/
> 
> There are water compartments in the incubator to keep up the humidity so you don't have to worry about putting the oothecas in moist peat moss or another medium.  I throw them in a plastic container, making sure that they are not over 3/4" thick in order to prevent molding.  Currently I'm incubating at 84 degrees because I have some beardies in there as well, but I've not really experimented with temps.


Thank you for the link. They are local to me and think I'm going to pick this up.


----------



## JC (Nov 20, 2009)

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=89797&highlight=lateralis

+ 5


----------

