Cheap way to house Roaches.Step by step.

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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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. :D (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.
 

arrowhd

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

Drachenjager

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

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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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

Arachnolord
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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?
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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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

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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

ArachnoGod
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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.
 

Amanda

Arachnolord
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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. :rolleyes:
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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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.
 

Amanda

Arachnolord
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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:
 
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