Need Another Vendor of Firebrats

[richard22]

I would like to breed Firebrats since I have heard they’re very prolific and easy to breed, though they need above 100F heat and don’t have that good of a protein content. I have had some trouble finding and ordering them since they’re not very commonly sold. I live on the east coast of the US so keep that in mind, I don’t want to order all the way from Britain from the other British vendor of Firebrats I found on google. I have unfortunately made the mistake of ordering from USMANTIS (horrible scammer who rarely ships insects) but after a threat of an FTC Fraud Report I got a refund, next vendor I could find was roach crossing in Michigan, but they do orders in commission form and you have to wait for their response to your emails which could actually take months, so I feel it’s pretty suboptimal. eBay doesn’t have a seller either, these feeders are a bit obscure.

If anyone knows another vendor of Firebrats here in the US that would be appreciated, maybe I could use a contact if another vendor selling now isn’t available.

Does anyone know what Firebrats taste like? Just wondering.. Are there any strings attached to breeding them that I don’t know about?

 

[KevinsWither]

I am looking for them too.

 

[wizentrop]

I'm not in the US, but talk to me if you are unable to find any

 

[richard22]

I'm not in the US, but talk to me if you are unable to find any

Are you able to ship from Ontario to Maryland fine? Not that much farther than Michigan from the roach crossing guy. If so, what sizes are available, I’d be willing to buy maybe 20-30USD worth of Firebrats to start up a culture if that’s fine with you.

Do they need humidity AND very high heat? I could buy some heating elements and put the culture in my already 90F attic and give some egg cartons, cotton balls, and fish flakes if that would be adaquate. Humidity would be harder to maintain, I normally mist and replace food every other day. I hear they probably breed best at 100F-110F and beyond that might be excessive; convert to Celsius on google if you need to.

 

[wizentrop]

Kyle from Roach Crossing is a great guy, but he is dealing with some life issues at the moment, and his communication is slow. I think he keeps different silverfish species than mine.

I'd say they are easy to keep on a substrate of paper. No heating is required, but air humidity is favoured. NO MISTING. They should have a dry substrate. You need to find another way to regulate air humidity levels (I just keep the entire room at 50%).
I did have an ad posted about them a while back (excuse the tongue-in-cheek language)
http://arachnoboards.com/threads/silverfish-firebrats-unique-feeders.320887/
They ship pretty easily.

 

[richard22]

I’m not referring to silverfish, the silver-bodied ones, I’m referring to Firebrats, the brown ones that lay thousands of eggs. All sources I have read said to keep their temps above 90F, so I think you have to have high heat. You have the hairy brown ones right? Just want to check.

Silverfish are slow and barely produce 100 eggs each, so they’re highly undesirable to me compared to Firebrats, even if silverfish have low heat requirements. If you refer to the brown mustachioed Firebrats as silverfish, it’s a bit of a misnomer, a better descriptor is ‘bristletail’ (not to be confused with jumping bristletails) or ‘zygentoman’: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygentoma

 

[wizentrop]

If you refer to the brown mustachioed Firebrats as silverfish, it’s a bit of a misnomer, a better descriptor is ‘bristletail’ (not to be confused with jumping bristletails) or ‘zygentoman’

As an entomologist I would argue that ALL common names are a misnomer (because each common name has a different origin, and thus different countries/regions may use different common names to refer to the same species), which is why I give the scientific name in all my postings. If you prefer to get another species that is fine.

 

[richard22]

I’m not very experienced in this sphere, been into it for a year now. Google (including different websites) and Wikipedia are my biggest assets, but forums help. Well if the bristletails you offer are Thermobia Domestica I’m going to check if I have the money and if I can get PayPal to work, planning on 30$ worth. Do you have a picture of the colony and/or insects you could send here?

 

[wizentrop]

Here's a photo. Mine are more silvery than usual (color variations are common). PM me if you'd like to order any.
View media item 62675

 

[richard22]

Still looking, I don’t want to be duped into buying the vastly inferior silverfish, or buying from someone else mislabeling accidentally or intentionally. Firebrats are ~8mm, are brown and patterned, and breed very fast.

 

[wizentrop]

Lucky for you they just sold out.
Whether I would choose to sell to someone who describes some species as inferior, now that's another story... Good luck on your hunt. I was just trying to help.

 

[richard22]

Good someone else got them, they probably shouldn’t even be bred for feeding they’re so slow and inferior to smaller roaches. Roaches the same size (like green bananas) could grow and have babies in 6x less time and have many more babies; I don’t understand the point of feeding them considering protein isn’t very good either, all they have going is fiber. Maybe some pets don’t eat roaches and only silverfish, I don’t know since I have all but 2 leopard geckos and all my bugs, no spiders scorpions etc. I scowered the internet again with search filters and all I can do is order from Britain or wait until Roach Crossing resumes doing orders (who knows when) unless I find a vendor on a forum like this, so the search continues.

 

[mantisfan101]

What animals do you exactly plan on feeding the firebrats to?

 

[richard22]

What animals do you exactly plan on feeding the firebrats to?

Myself, maybe my leopard geckos occasionally. I’m not doing this to meet a demand for food, it’s just as a new interesting feeder and I could see how well they work for breeding and food.

 

[Smokehound714]

The problem is actual thermobia arent common in homes, t

Myself, maybe my leopard geckos occasionally. I’m not doing this to meet a demand for food, it’s just as a new interesting feeder and I could see how well they work for breeding and food.

i'll collect some REAL thermobia for ya the next time i hit the desert. (where theyre actually from)

 

[BenLeeKing]

As far as I know, Thermobia is a nice feeder for mantises, and other smaller animals. Their size and soft bodies make them good for some animals. Metallyticus splendidus (Metalic mantis) for example exclusively feeds on these guys.