How to clean a tartara colony with sub?

[Cirith Ungol]

Anybody got a receipe for cleaning a tartara colony with substrate?

I'm contemplating subbing my colony so I will no longer have to incubate the egg cases in a special tub, but I'm imagining that cleaning a tub with sub must be a complete horror. Or is it not?? :?

 

[Cirith Ungol]

I know of things that can go bump in the night! Honestly!

P.S. tartara = lateralis

 

[Stylopidae]

For lateralis, I'd take about four gallons of petrol and flood the tank. After this, drop a match in. Should take a few minutes to get completely clean.

Cheshire isn't the biggest lateralis fan

On a more serious note, I have some my discoids and dubia on substrate. Were I to clean them, I would just get a colander from the store and this should allow you to get most of the egg cases out (as I'm assuming this is your concern).

Either way, if your colony is well established I wouldn't worry about tossing a handful of egg cases. Just remember to freeze or bake the substrate.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

For lateralis, I'd take about four gallons of petrol and flood the tank. After this, drop a match in. Should take a few minutes to get completely clean.

Cheshire isn't the biggest lateralis fan

On a more serious note, I have some my discoids and dubia on substrate. Were I to clean them, I would just get a colander from the store and this should allow you to get most of the egg cases out (as I'm assuming this is your concern).

Either way, if your colony is well established I wouldn't worry about tossing a handful of egg cases. Just remember to freeze or bake the substrate.

No the egg cases arn't the problem, it's the babies. They are just as large as a perants poop... or should I say "tiny"? Egg cases I can spare I believe.

 

[Nikos]

What I used to do for my dubia colony is with the help of this thing that is used to drain pasta from the boiling water (dont know the english word for it), I put them all in this thing and shake it, after a few shakes the sustrate/frass/empty oothecas and everything else apart from the roaches is out.

Then just toss them inside their new tank.

I hope you understand what I mean

 

[Cirith Ungol]

What I used to do for my dubia colony is with the help of this thing that is used to drain pasta from the boiling water (dont know the english word for it), I put them all in this thing and shake it, after a few shakes the sustrate/frass/empty oothecas and everything else apart from the roaches is out.

Then just toss them inside their new tank.

I hope you understand what I mean

Yes, that's exactly what I also do with my dubias. The only problem there again is that baby tartaras will just fall through the mesh. Besides, if I was to use peat as a sub in the bin I'd either get "dust hell" from shaking and/or the peat would get stuck in the holes.

 

[Bear Foot Inc]

I use one of these http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/4h/unit2/hotm&uas.htm to catch up babies when there is not to many of them. When there is thousands its just a pain in the butt!!!! The best thing is to just not clean the tank.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

OMG! I could never use that! I'd get a terrible allergic response after a few minutes I'm sure . I'm not having a big problem just checking the bin and doing some stuff in it but if I hover over it for too long my nose starts watering.

It's much worse with the dubia bin, if I breath normally right above it for a minute I'll have problems breathing for the rest of the day.

But ofcourse thanks for all your suggestions, posters! Right now the only way I see is hoping that most babies will hide away in the toilet paper rolls and that maybe I'll be able to catch a few stray ones. If anyone comes up with some smooth method of catching those quickly I'm greatful.

 

[Nikos]

an other option is to use the toilet paper thing you said but with something they like to eat on the inside so that they will gather in the roll and move them easily in great numbers

 

[Cirith Ungol]

an other option is to use the toilet paper thing you said but with something they like to eat on the inside so that they will gather in the roll and move them easily in great numbers

That's actually a good idea! I could starve them for a week before cleaning the box. That'd almost ensure they go to the good stuff!