Cheap way to house Roaches.Step by step.

[Talkenlate04]

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

 

[pinktoe23]

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

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Talkenlate04]

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]

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]

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

 

[edesign]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

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

 

[edesign]

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]

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.