How to prevent mold in wood roach cage?

[Vulgaris]

Hello all

I recently captured 4 wood cockroach nymphs. I want to raise them to adulthood so they will breed for me.

What is the ideal setup for these?

I did try a mix of soil and wood chips as substrate. And since wood roaches need their humidity and moisture, I misted the cage once per day. But mold grows rapidly with this setup

so now I have them all in a bare plastic cage with a piece of bark and a moist paper towel

What is the ideal cage for these guys?
Thanks

 

[koolkid98]

Hmm i think you just need some[maybe a lot] of ventalation holes with screen on the lid.

 

[Matt K]

You may wnat to get a couple more, as the male pictured may be slightly more mature than the females pictured and likely to be overly mature by the time the females are prepared to breed. But maybe not, just an observation...

"What is the ideal setup for these?"
Just like most roaches. Couple inches of potting soil substrate or "eco-earth" type coconut product and some egg carton pieces. Some additional bark is fine too.

"I did try a mix of soil and wood chips as substrate."
This is fine.

"I misted the cage once per day."
Way too often. Water the substrate to keep it moist and mist the roaches once a week to 10 days.

"...so now I have them all in a bare plastic cage with a piece of bark and a moist paper towel..."
Re-do this set up.

"What is the ideal cage for these guys?"
Any plastic container that can be well ventilated by cutting some holes in the sides/top and using hot glue, apply a section of window screen over the opening.

Here are some examples fo various containers:
(aluminum window screen is used most of the time, but I had some brass mesh that I used on some things a while back and it worked as well):

 

[Vulgaris]

Ok thank you so much that helps a lot. As for getting more, I have been look all over my yard but I can't seem to turn up anymore than this...

So I do have at least one female then? That's great!

 

[Matt K]

Ok thank you so much that helps a lot. As for getting more, I have been look all over my yard but I can't seem to turn up anymore than this...

So I do have at least one female then? That's great!

The photo of 3 posted in the first post appears to show two females and one male I believe. The male is the one in the middle of the photo... the last three tail segments differ and it has wing buds; mature males have wings and the females don't.

 

[Vulgaris]

Ok. They are really neat little critters! I hope they will breed once they reach adulthood.

It seems that nymphs CANNOT climb glass/plastic walls, yet the adults easily can. I kept an adult male last year and he was the same way; could not climb as a nymph but ran easily up the same wall as an adult

here are some more photos

 

[koolkid98]

Wow cool pictures vulgaris
P.S
Hey its me Antkid from The V.L

 

[Vulgaris]

It has been over a month and these guys have hardly grown! They are still doing well but they are just growing very slowely. I have 6 nymphs. The largest is around 10 mm long

and I don't know what happened to the photos...

 

[Vulgaris]

One of them finally molted to adulthood today!