Blaptica dubia
- Thread starter Herp13
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It's all corkboard, it's what I've been using all along, just not hole punched the whole time.Herp13 said:
I get it with the holes punched from my dad, who gets it from the people who manufacture queen cages for queen honeybees. They punch out the plugs for the queen cages and just discard the rest. My dad uses it for floats in watering containers for the bees and I build roach motels.
Pegboard from the hardware store works just as well, lasts longer, but is heavier.
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They breed as fast as almost any large cockroach: female produces 20-some young a month, take about 9-12 months to reach maturity. It's all a numbers game, get a critical mass of cockroaches and you've got more than you know what to do with. It's getting to that critical mass that takes time so always start with as many as you can afford.Herp13 said:
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If they're mature in 3-5 months then they are keeping them hellaciously warm. It took more than 18 months to go from a starter colony of two dozen nymphs of various sizes until I could start to feed from it at temps in the high 80s. I would say 9 months is much more realistic.Herp13 said:
Size is anywhere from 1.5" to 2" for a giant female.
Oh, so they're nothing like a G. portentosa. Thats alright though, they look cool enough. Another thing that is interesting about the South American species is how the nymphs don't resemble the adults, but with G. portentosa the nymphs are like little adults.