# Orange head roach (Eublaberus Prosticus)



## Snake_Eyes (Nov 19, 2007)

I've read that they are one of the more stronger smelling roaches but exactly how strong are we talking? 

The only roaches that I've experienced are dubia and lateralis.


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## KyuZo (Nov 19, 2007)

Snake_Eyes said:


> The only roaches that I've experienced are dubia and lateralis.


umm what happened to your B. giganteous?  i thought that you have some?
I think that i've seen some pictures that you posted.


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## Snake_Eyes (Nov 19, 2007)

Nope, never owned them(yet) I've posted pics of a male and female dubia and one of my two male hissers that I keep with the dubia.


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## Takumaku (Nov 20, 2007)

I say they have more of a musty smell (think dirty, wet laundry).  I don't really notice it until I'm reaching inside the bin and disturb the colony.  Not really offensive [to me].  Adding a little substrate will help to reduce the smell.


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## Snake_Eyes (Nov 20, 2007)

Thanks.

Would you recommend them for a pet?  I'm planning on ordering some craniifer soon and was toying at the idea of getting a dozen or so of these as well.


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## pinkfoot (Nov 20, 2007)

_E. posticus_ are a very attractive roach, and since you are planning some as pets, I think you will have no problems regarding odour, as the qtys will be small. My colony is around 65 or so, and I've never smelled anything offensive in their tank.


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## cacoseraph (Nov 20, 2007)

my Ep colony (~30 adults 100-200 nymphs) can strip a mouse down to skeleton in ~24h. fun roaches.  i TOTALLY prekill before i feed them out though =P


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## Takumaku (Nov 20, 2007)

If you are going for a pet, I would recommend E. distanti over E. posticus.  E. distanti are usually more expensive than E. posticus, but Dave Grimm is running a special now on them.  He is advertising them at the same price as his E. posticus.  The only difference between the two is the E. distanti won't attack the wings of the others, so the roaches stay alot prettier alot longer.


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## Snake_Eyes (Nov 20, 2007)

Takumaku said:


> If you are going for a pet, I would recommend E. distanti over E. posticus.  E. distanti are usually more expensive than E. posticus, but Dave Grimm is running a special now on them.  He is advertising them at the same price as his E. posticus.  The only difference between the two is the E. distanti won't attack the wings of the others, so the roaches stay alot prettier alot longer.


Thanks I'll have to look into them.  

I'm not familar on who Dave Grimm is, does he have a website I can check out?


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## KyuZo (Nov 20, 2007)

Snake_Eyes said:


> Thanks I'll have to look into them.
> 
> I'm not familar on who Dave Grimm is, does he have a website I can check out?


Lol, you must not have visited this board for a while.  
i haven't done any business with him yet but he has been selling roaches to a lot of people from the board.  
i don't think that he has a website, but he posts an ads every now and then


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## Snake_Eyes (Nov 20, 2007)

I visit the board somewhat regularly but hardly ever go to the classifieds/reviews section.  Plus I've only been keeping roaches for a little over 8 months.


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## KyuZo (Nov 20, 2007)

I have some tarantulas, but i think that roaches are more suiteble pets for me cause they are very active.  plus you can have different species in one display tank.


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## KyuZo (Nov 20, 2007)

just because they are roaches and roaches have a bad reputation, so they are not as popular among people.


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## Snake_Eyes (Nov 20, 2007)

Yeah when I tell people that I keep roaches 99% of the time I get a  followed by a  They can't believe that I have roaches in my house(apartment) on purpose.


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## dtknow (Nov 20, 2007)

Haha, so true.

They have a pretty strong defensive odor...way more than dubia. Their enclosures can get pretty musty especially if they are kept moist. The spines on their legs are also sharper than those on dubia and they will happily prick you if you grab them the wrong way.


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## Takumaku (Nov 20, 2007)

> Thanks I'll have to look into them.  I'm not familar on who Dave Grimm is, does he have a website I can check out?


Just IM Dave, he is very quick at responding.  One day he'll create a webpage, even if I have to barter with him to do it.  Webpage for more roaches, sounds like a prettier good deal.   

If you want to look at a website for pics, etc., check out James T. (blaberus.com).  Both I would recommend buying from.


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## Snake_Eyes (Nov 22, 2007)

Yeah blaberus.com was where I was originally planning on ordering from. I really like the looks of the orange heads but with them supposedly being really fast breeders and being stinky I think I might just pass on them and just get the death heads. If they weren't being kept in my bedroom I could probably deal with the smell.


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## Takumaku (Nov 22, 2007)

Don't let the smell stop you, it isn't that bad.  Yes, they are fast producers, but that's because they produce alot of nymphs (avg. 25) vs. Cuban roaches (B. fumigata that avg. 10) or any blaberus specie.  If, by any chance, you have too many orangeheads, you can always sell them here or a local pet store/breeder.

Death heads are good too, though Blaberus giganteus might be a better "visual" pet roach.  Peppered roaches also make great pet roaches.  They are the slowest reproducers of the 3 mentioned.

A few more roaches that I'll add to this list are:
Neostylopyga rhombifolia (a.k.a. harlequin roach)
Rhypharobia maderae "Goldi"
Corydia (therea) petriveriana


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## OldHag (Nov 23, 2007)

I think they smell a bit like a skunk... I like it 
Dubia are still better IMO.


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## cacoseraph (Nov 23, 2007)

i've had orangeheads in my bedroom for like 2yrs or so now. smell's not that big of a deal. all mine burrow all thetime anyways. i gave them like 6-7" of semipacked coconut stuff. their cage smells mostly like the coconut stuff. they do have a bit of an odor when you go to feed them out and the get nervous, though.


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## Snake_Eyes (Nov 24, 2007)

Thanks everyone, I'm still considering them.





OldHag said:


> I think they smell a bit like a skunk... I like it
> Dubia are still better IMO.


I already have a colony of those.


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## Snake_Eyes (Nov 24, 2007)

cacoseraph said:


> i've had orangeheads in my bedroom for like 2yrs or so now. smell's not that big of a deal. all mine burrow all thetime anyways. i gave them like 6-7" of semipacked coconut stuff. their cage smells mostly like the coconut stuff. they do have a bit of an odor when you go to feed them out and the get nervous, though.


I'm curious how do you go about retrieving the nymphs when cleaning the cage with substrate? I recently cleaned my dubia with no substrate (other than their frass) and it was a pain in the butt and took forever.


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## cacoseraph (Nov 24, 2007)

Snake_Eyes said:


> I'm curious how do you go about retrieving the nymphs when cleaning the cage with substrate? I recently cleaned my dubia with no substrate (other than their frass) and it was a pain in the butt and took forever.


i haven't seen a need to clean the cage yet. at about 6 months into the colony i recaged them to a smaller container cuz i thought they weren't making the babies but found many small nymphs.  i moved them back to their 8-10gallon plastic tote and they have been there ~18 months now. i have thrown a duck head, a mouse, some chicken legs, and all kinds of normal food in there and water the sub and it doesn't ever develop a smell or look like it needs attn. from time to time i turn up the substrate when i am pulling nymphs out for feeding and i have never found any evidence of nastiness forming beneath the sub, either


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## dtknow (Nov 25, 2007)

Yeah...keeping them with substrate really decreases the smell. I have mine on a mix of coconut coir, peat, and aspen bedding. 

Also I threw in a male dubia which had been half eaten by a tailess whipscorpion. They started from the half eaten abdomen and continued up as the dubia squirmed and twitched.


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Nov 26, 2007)

How "tropical" are orange head roaches? My old house has such a 
permissive thermostat that winter nights drop to the "60s".
Although my Panchlora colonies survive these thermal vicissitudes my
hissers aborted their babies...if they bred at all...which most did not.

I do not have hissers here now.
I am breeding mutant Panchloras in several strains.
I HAVE thought of bartering mutant Panchloras for orange heads...

but...

Could orange heads survive winter "60s" at night?


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## Takumaku (Nov 26, 2007)

> Could orange heads survive winter "60s" at night?


I have had my colony down to the around 65 with no ill effects.  You got to remember there are two temperatures at play here when rearing roaches.  The ambient temperature and the internal temperature (or core temperature of the colony).  The ambient temperature is a moot point so long as the core temperature of the colony is maintained at/above 65.  This is one of the reasons I suspect roaches breed faster when crowded.

If it gets much lower than this, just sit (if possible) the enclosure on the top of the fridge or stove or ...


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## KyuZo (Nov 26, 2007)

Takumaku said:


> If it gets much lower than this, just sit (if possible) the enclosure on the top of the fridge or stove or ...


how about in the oven? ;P :wall: :drool: :}


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## Mina (Nov 27, 2007)

Just a not to anyone who has orange heads or is considering them.  I was considering them before my dubias took off.  I found out in my research that they need a lot of protein.  I found at my local feed store that they have something called trout chow, that is 60% protein.  Hope that helps someone.


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## dtknow (Nov 27, 2007)

Yeah...mine still make babies at 60-70 degrees.


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## Xaranx (Nov 28, 2007)

I think you can expect longer growth and incubation periods with the lower temps but nothing to worry about.  They are roaches, they'll survive in the 60's.


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## Rochelle (Nov 28, 2007)

of course they'll breed _faster_ at higher temps....a ceramic heater set on the top of the cage - over the nesting/breeding area works like magic.  
The fish food is an excellent idea. I feed mine koi pellets...cheaper by the weight...  
The deep substrate keeps smell down and facillitates breeding. They only smell odd when you are culling to feed them to someting scary....
I'd probably smell bad suddenly...too!


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## cacoseraph (Nov 29, 2007)

all my colonies get down to ~50*F (10*C) during winter and do fine. i'm pretty sure they stop makign the babies (except maybe N. cinerea, lobster roaches) but other than that they do fine. considering all my predators stop eating at around teh same temp the roaches stop producing it all kind of works out and i get a big giant pause for winter

i have N. cinerea, B. dubia, B. discoidalis, hissers, and B. lateralis


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