Feeding off climbing roaches

[Kaqpewqt]

Hi!

I aquired a colony of lobster roaches and really enjoy their speed of reproduction and behavior as a whole. While I don’t worry about escapes out of their container when i feed them or when its closed, i always get the shivers when i open the tub and see them running up the sides as soon as I try to pick them out to feed them to my Ts. The only way it worked for me so far, is putting the whole tub in the freezer and wait 10 minutes for them to be in cold rigidity (is that what its called?).
That is a lot of effort and forces me to throw them into the Ts enclosure quickly bc they start to move after 5-10 minutes, which just isn’t fun and enjoyable As i want to observe the Ts while they catch their prey.

Do you have any tips for feeding off fast-moving climbing species? Otherwise I would just have to feed off the whole colony quick before they start to reproduce even more.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Matt Man]

they are not worth the infestation threat in my book, so I wish I could help but I chose a different route

 

[Pmurinushmacla]

I agree with matt, id feed them off and use a different, non climbing type of roach tbh.

 

[Dry Desert]

Hi!

I aquired a colony of lobster roaches and really enjoy their speed of reproduction and behavior as a whole. While I don’t worry about escapes out of their container when i feed them or when its closed, i always get the shivers when i open the tub and see them running up the sides as soon as I try to pick them out to feed them to my Ts. The only way it worked for me so far, is putting the whole tub in the freezer and wait 10 minutes for them to be in cold rigidity (is that what its called?).
That is a lot of effort and forces me to throw them into the Ts enclosure quickly bc they start to move after 5-10 minutes, which just isn’t fun and enjoyable As i want to observe the Ts while they catch their prey.

Do you have any tips for feeding off fast-moving climbing species? Otherwise I would just have to feed off the whole colony quick before they start to reproduce even more.

Thanks a lot!

A trick they use with fruit flies is when you purchase the fruit fly culture the lid comes with a tight fitting sponge in the centre of the lid.
The sponge size is exactly the same diameter as the bottom of a spider sling pot.
Remove the sponge, pop on the sling pot, and job done.
You could adapt a container with a sponge opening and feed one at a time.
If you have several pots ready you can catch one after another as the roaches come to the top and through the hole..
If it works with fast swarming fruit flies I'm sure roaches one at a time should be fairly easy.

 

[l4nsky]

The only climbers I own are a few hissers that I got as hitchhikers in a lat colony, so I can't weigh in too much. That being said, I did do some research as I was looking into potentially breeding the hissers for larger feeders. Do you use any kind of climbing barrier for them like a vaseline layer or the like?

 

[Arachnophobphile]

Hi!

I aquired a colony of lobster roaches and really enjoy their speed of reproduction and behavior as a whole. While I don’t worry about escapes out of their container when i feed them or when its closed, i always get the shivers when i open the tub and see them running up the sides as soon as I try to pick them out to feed them to my Ts. The only way it worked for me so far, is putting the whole tub in the freezer and wait 10 minutes for them to be in cold rigidity (is that what its called?).
That is a lot of effort and forces me to throw them into the Ts enclosure quickly bc they start to move after 5-10 minutes, which just isn’t fun and enjoyable As i want to observe the Ts while they catch their prey.

Do you have any tips for feeding off fast-moving climbing species? Otherwise I would just have to feed off the whole colony quick before they start to reproduce even more.

Thanks a lot!

Since you can get them in the freezer I would suggest just freeze them all. Thaw for feeding.

I'm not familiar with that roach.

I will recommend Blatta lateralis roaches. They are my favorite feeder to use thanks to a generous person that gave me alot of them. They are labeled as invasive so check your laws before obtaining. B. lateralis really can't climb so no worries there but you do need to prepare their enclosure correctly.

Here is a link for what you need to know:

B. Lateralis care sheet

This is the care sheet I sent out with each of my B.Lateralis orders (now sold out, thank you for your orders!). I thought it may help the users here :) BLATTA LATERALIS CARE SHEET You will notice I sent a healthy overcount of roaches; I want to see everybody succeed with this roach, and...

arachnoboards.com

I will add this, I was worried about some escaping then having a roach problem. With that said I did not keep them in ideal temperatures or correct moisture for them to breed on purpose. They did however reproduce as I keep finding nymphs.

I'm glad they did reproduce even though I never planned on them to. They are an excellent feeder and triggers all my T's to eat them unlike other feeders I've used.

 

[coolnweird]

Have you tried fluon or vaseline as a barrier?

 

[thedragonslapper]

Aaron Pauling sells an adhesive like “roach barrier” specifically for lobsters and other such climbers. Could look into that. Alternatively you could try B/S. lateralis. Their rapid movements practically scream “eat me” to Ts, especially ones with vicious feeding responses, and they can’t climb smooth surfaces.

 

[CedarArachne]

Another thing you can do to be extra safe is put your roach bin in a larger bin so there is an extra layer of defense against escape.

 

[Kaqpewqt]

Hi!

Thanks for all the answers.

The only climbers I own are a few hissers that I got as hitchhikers in a lat colony, so I can't weigh in too much. That being said, I did do some research as I was looking into potentially breeding the hissers for larger feeders. Do you use any kind of climbing barrier for them like a vaseline layer or the like?

I also own hissers, i just keep them in an exo terra, even the newborn nymphs do not escape through the gaps. I dont plan on breeding them in the exo terras. that said, they produced offspring at around 21C room temperature. But even if they did escape, they’re hissers, I wouldnt worry about an infestation as i live in Germany, its not that warm here, the nymphs would take forever to grow and an adult is very very easy to spot.
I do use a roach barrier (idk what exactly it is, its a bit more solid than vaseline at room temperature) for my other climbing roach colonies, i also put a fine mesh under the lids so even if any roach can pass the Vaseline barrier, they can’t come out of the tub and i could spot any roach that’s on the mesh before i open the lid. This hasnt happened yet, even though i saw a P. pallida once walk on the roach barrier.

A trick they use with fruit flies is when you purchase the fruit fly culture the lid comes with a tight fitting sponge in the centre of the lid.
The sponge size is exactly the same diameter as the bottom of a spider sling pot.
Remove the sponge, pop on the sling pot, and job done.
You could adapt a container with a sponge opening and feed one at a time.
If you have several pots ready you can catch one after another as the roaches come to the top and through the hole..
If it works with fast swarming fruit flies I'm sure roaches one at a time should be fairly easy.

Fruit flies couldn’t infest my house if they dropped down from the sponge, lobsters may be able to infest, so that would still make me anxious. Good idea though, haven’t heard that before, thank you!

Since you can get them in the freezer I would suggest just freeze them all. Thaw for feeding.

I'm not familiar with that roach.

I will recommend Blatta lateralis roaches. They are my favorite feeder to use thanks to a generous person that gave me alot of them. They are labeled as invasive so check your laws before obtaining. B. lateralis really can't climb so no worries there but you do need to prepare their enclosure correctly.

Here is a link for what you need to know:

B. Lateralis care sheet

This is the care sheet I sent out with each of my B.Lateralis orders (now sold out, thank you for your orders!). I thought it may help the users here :) BLATTA LATERALIS CARE SHEET You will notice I sent a healthy overcount of roaches; I want to see everybody succeed with this roach, and...

arachnoboards.com

I will add this, I was worried about some escaping then having a roach problem. With that said I did not keep them in ideal temperatures or correct moisture for them to breed on purpose. They did however reproduce as I keep finding nymphs.

I'm glad they did reproduce even though I never planned on them to. They are an excellent feeder and triggers all my T's to eat them unlike other feeders I've used.

I already keep and sell B. lateralis (and a few other non-climbers), i just wanted to try some new roach species because i find roaches interesting to observe and thought „oh well, how bad can the climbing be“ lol, thanks for the information though!




All your responses made me realize i probably should just feed them all off. Even if i would trust the Vaseline barrier, they still could run up the tweezers, the thought alone makes me shiver. Thank you!

 

[scottbot84]

I use silicone grease, it works much better than Vaseline in my opinion.

I typically use forceps or tweezers and haven't had any issues. I've dropped one from time to time but unless you live somewhere very warm and humid I don't feel they are a risk for infestation. I only ever find adults, I think normal household air desiccates any smaller nymphs pretty quickly.