Culturing P. Nivea, Creative new ideas

[DoubleD's]

The nivea i suggest that you use some moist peat moss or cocconut bedding, wet the bedding so that it is moist bbut not soaking wet then fill a 10 gallon glass tank or 20 gallon rubermaid tub 1/4 full with it and place some egg crates or tree bark in it for housing. If you use the glass tank the best thing is a screen top that way you can mist the enclosure 2 times weekly with some luke warm water, that will keep them hydrated and the enclosure moist, But you will need to line the enclosure with bug barrier to prevent them form escaping because when disturbed they will fly straight up and out or run up the walls.
The use of a rubbermaid tub is great, just make holes in the lid with a nail or screw, and along the upper top of the lid this will help to ventilate the conainer, Once again line with bug barrier and place housing items, When you put in the peat or cocconut bedding and it it heated it will generate moisture that will precepitate down and keep the bedding moist. The nivea are very keen on heat and moisture, any escapees will easily die if they do not find any moisture within 24 hours. Preferred temperatures of 75-80 degrees are the ideal temps for raising them as too much heat will dry up the peat and too little will not allow enough moisture to form.
Feeding is relatively easy and very practical as they will eat dry food, vegetables and it is even practical to set up a conpletey self sufficient colony of these animals by simply growing grass within the enclosure, This can be achieved very simply by taking an enclosure of you choise, lining with peat of cocconut and simply sprinkling grass seeds on top and allowing it to grow for 1-2 s and place the Nivea within the container, they will eat the fesh shutes and teh older ones will thrive, this is recommended on a small scale observatory sclae because when the colony grows they will readily consume fresh schutes and old schutes alike until there is nothing left and you will be re seedingyour enclosure monthly...
Back to feeding, you can feed everyhting from Avocado to lettece and your nivea will readily take them all.


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Sincerely
Dexter D
Double Ds

 

[Vys]

A thing that I've found a little hard when keeping these is that- It is very true that they very much like heat and humidity, and therefore food like oatmeal, stonefruit, cucumber, and various other things mold rather easily.

Flipside though is as you say that they do die relatively quickly when they manage to escape. The B.'dubia' I kept previously were invulnerable in comparison. And, is it just me, but are P.nivea heat human-seeking missiles if you happen to release an adult one in a room? They tend to seek me out as if I were a tree, or a lamp post.

Anyway, back to the point: Therefore, I like the sound of that grass-idea. Green cows that fly. And with the occasional alternative food-item they run less of a chance to turn into grass (or cows)..hmm, may be worth a try.

 

[Gsc]

I also had good luck using rotten hardwood (broken by hand to substrate size pieces) with some decaying leaf litter mixed in....a few rotten logs on the surface...

Cage was a "bucket style with holes drilled in the sides...I used "pipe screens" to cover the holes since the nymphs are so small...If I ever redid it, I doubt I'd go through that much trouble since the nymphs ususally don't leave the substrate....

The grass seed idea is awesome...

Once you get P. nivea established, they do great!

 

[xelda]

I fed mine food that didn't mold (e.g., carrots, potatoes, yams). But once my colony grew big enough, I could feed them anything because the food would be devoured so quickly. Not surprisingly, these guys live up to their name and enjoy eating bananas and a lot of fruit.

 

[Vys]

Hmm, but carrots mold, and potatoes do too? (Following further thought I see that your statement was not made for all carrots and yams, but rather for your situation)

Only two things I have not managed to turn into fuzzy stuff are peppers and lettuce. They really do seem to like peppers however

To get enough P. nivea to have the food devoured before it had a chance mold..well, you'd need humidity and heat enough to mold a rock within seconds?
(The first enclosure I tried was even a petpal..pretty screened and ventilated lid there)

One thing about the grass though: After I found a few sprouts of..well, pepper tree/bush , I let them be for a while, and when there was like a mini forest one one side of the enclosure, I found a few roach individuals dead there before long. Could have been coincidence, but if not, would this be tied to something to do with the grass as well?

 

[DoubleD's]

Feeding Avocado

I have a rather large colony of P. Nivea and whenver i want to bost the colonies size i feed them Avocados. I think its the fat content in the Avocados but man they explode like heck when they eat that stuff and they seem greener and the females fatter than normal.
Just wanted to share my trade secret.

Dexter D
DoubleD's
http://www.doubleds.org