Roach Question?
- Thread starter GAD
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2004
- Messages
- 931
easy
http://www.blaberus.com/ will tell you which roaches don't climb glass. And it is a very great place to order from. There are alot of roaches that do not climb glass.
thedarkfinder
http://www.blaberus.com/ will tell you which roaches don't climb glass. And it is a very great place to order from. There are alot of roaches that do not climb glass.
thedarkfinder
billymac
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 41
Blaptica dubias are a good choice, they cant climb nor do the fly...and best of all the arent wing biters either...and are a slower moving roach, which makes them easier to catch.;PGAD said:
JMO
Bill
Arachno-Geek
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2006
- Messages
- 18
I just ordered a bunch of Dubias from Blaberus....talked to him for quite a while on the phone beforehand as well. Dubias will not climb up plastic, like rubbermaid containers or glass!
Good luck...
Good luck...
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2005
- Messages
- 71
Blaptica dubia
James at http://www.blaberus.com was very helpfull with me over the phone as well. He answered all of my questions and then some that I had not not thought of until I talked with him.
I started with 150 Blaptica dubia about 6 months ago. By about Xmas all of the origional nymphs had become adults. Suddenly I have had had a huge population explosion of dubia. Now I have well 1000 baby dubia nymphs, so many that I can no longer count them, running around all over my 20L aquarium in with the adults. Everyday I see many more new ones.
Since my origional Blaptica dubia purchase I have also aquired 4 other species from James...
Blaberus discoidalis
Blaberus parabolicus
Blaberus craniifer
Blaberus fusca
...and I am hoping that they will all have population explosions before Easter 2006.
John J Starr Jr
.
James at http://www.blaberus.com was very helpfull with me over the phone as well. He answered all of my questions and then some that I had not not thought of until I talked with him.
I started with 150 Blaptica dubia about 6 months ago. By about Xmas all of the origional nymphs had become adults. Suddenly I have had had a huge population explosion of dubia. Now I have well 1000 baby dubia nymphs, so many that I can no longer count them, running around all over my 20L aquarium in with the adults. Everyday I see many more new ones.
Since my origional Blaptica dubia purchase I have also aquired 4 other species from James...
Blaberus discoidalis
Blaberus parabolicus
Blaberus craniifer
Blaberus fusca
...and I am hoping that they will all have population explosions before Easter 2006.
John J Starr Jr
.
Last edited:
Yes if you buy 150 and assume that 50% will be females then you may have 3 females giving birth each day. The numbers can add up pretty quickly.
It's been written that they can mature in 3-5 months. My experience is it is probably closer to 5 months in a container with a hot end of 95F and cool end in the mid 80's.
It's been written that they can mature in 3-5 months. My experience is it is probably closer to 5 months in a container with a hot end of 95F and cool end in the mid 80's.
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2005
- Messages
- 71
dubia
Since each of us are dealing with heavey inbreeding of the Blaptica_dubia and each of our colonies is producing somewhat of its own unique genetic drift I was wondering how anybody in this forum felt about trading the same quantity and the same size/age of Blaptica dubia nymphs with each other later this year to at least help with some genetic diversity?
John J Starr Jr
I figured in a worse case it would be around 20 newborn per day. To feed three hungry Dragons, "Pogona_vitticeps", I am looking at around 1000 adult females which would include replenishing the adult breeders as they expire from old age. I should easily have this by the summer of 2006 with the dubia species alone. Of course this does NOT include the required adults to feed all of the newborn Dragons I expect to have this summer.Dom said:
Since each of us are dealing with heavey inbreeding of the Blaptica_dubia and each of our colonies is producing somewhat of its own unique genetic drift I was wondering how anybody in this forum felt about trading the same quantity and the same size/age of Blaptica dubia nymphs with each other later this year to at least help with some genetic diversity?
John J Starr Jr
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2005
- Messages
- 3,200
I'm hoping to start a dubia colony in a 35 gallon rubbermaid container
Anyone notice if their movements create any amount of heat?
They're going to be outside in my garage over winter with either a heating pad or cable.
Anyone notice if their movements create any amount of heat?
They're going to be outside in my garage over winter with either a heating pad or cable.
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2005
- Messages
- 1,425
I just ordered 50 B.dubia from James and am hoping to get a colony up and going in a while
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2003
- Messages
- 358
Back to the plastic climbing...The babies of b. dubias can climb plastic. I had them in a blue rubber maid. The new born babies could climb right up and out. They could not climb glass. I used a strip of packing tape around the inside (of the plastic tank). Not as messy as vaseline and they could not climb over the smoothe surface of the tape.
Scott
Scott
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2005
- Messages
- 71
Unheated Garage?
Insects work just like reptiles in which they absorb enough heat to come close to the tempuratures of their current enviroment. As far as the heat given off from the cage I would be very worried if the tempurature were to get very cold in the garage. If it is cold enough even a heating pad may not be warm enough and it will kill off your insects. It got double digits below zero here and even colder with the wind chill so I dought that my roaches would have survived for very long in my "UN-HEATED" garage even with a heating pad. It all depends on the coldest tempurature in your garage over the winter and do not forget it could get to hot in the summer and cook your insects.
These roaches are highly tropical so escapes will usually die due to the low humidity and the low tempuratures below 70F. Why not just keep them in your house? Prove it to yourself and take a couple of large nymphs and then keep them at standard room tempurature around 70F and standard room humidity. See how little they will move/freeze up and how long it takes them to die.
Or, you coud build a little room in your garage even using scrap lumber with an electric space heater inside that has a thermostat. A small closit size room that you can step in and close the door should be just fine with a few shelves for all of your cages to sit on. It would need to be very well insulated for the cold and electric space heaters with thermostats are very cheap to purchase these days.
In my case all of my Dragons and Roaches are in a basement in which the tempurature is allways between 70F_and_80F all year round. I use a ZooMed_U.T.H. for my roach heaters. The moisture is my largest problem because it is usually allways below 30% in my area unless it rains or snows then it will go slightly above 50% once in a while for a very short time so I am spraying the inside of my aquarium's glass with water every one or two days to keep the humidity up.
OWE, I suggest that you start with 100 to 200 nymphs. That gives you a good starter colony. I have seen a few start with 50 and this fine, it may take just a little bit longer to get your colony going is all. I started with 150 and now I have so many I can no longer count them. Well over 1000 baby nymphs running around every where in with the adults. I am going to to remove all of my young nymphs in a week or two and place them in a different cage so they can be my new and much larger colony to produce summer feeders.
John J Starr Jr
Very ScarryEvil Cheshire said:
Insects work just like reptiles in which they absorb enough heat to come close to the tempuratures of their current enviroment. As far as the heat given off from the cage I would be very worried if the tempurature were to get very cold in the garage. If it is cold enough even a heating pad may not be warm enough and it will kill off your insects. It got double digits below zero here and even colder with the wind chill so I dought that my roaches would have survived for very long in my "UN-HEATED" garage even with a heating pad. It all depends on the coldest tempurature in your garage over the winter and do not forget it could get to hot in the summer and cook your insects.
These roaches are highly tropical so escapes will usually die due to the low humidity and the low tempuratures below 70F. Why not just keep them in your house? Prove it to yourself and take a couple of large nymphs and then keep them at standard room tempurature around 70F and standard room humidity. See how little they will move/freeze up and how long it takes them to die.
Or, you coud build a little room in your garage even using scrap lumber with an electric space heater inside that has a thermostat. A small closit size room that you can step in and close the door should be just fine with a few shelves for all of your cages to sit on. It would need to be very well insulated for the cold and electric space heaters with thermostats are very cheap to purchase these days.
In my case all of my Dragons and Roaches are in a basement in which the tempurature is allways between 70F_and_80F all year round. I use a ZooMed_U.T.H. for my roach heaters. The moisture is my largest problem because it is usually allways below 30% in my area unless it rains or snows then it will go slightly above 50% once in a while for a very short time so I am spraying the inside of my aquarium's glass with water every one or two days to keep the humidity up.
OWE, I suggest that you start with 100 to 200 nymphs. That gives you a good starter colony. I have seen a few start with 50 and this fine, it may take just a little bit longer to get your colony going is all. I started with 150 and now I have so many I can no longer count them. Well over 1000 baby nymphs running around every where in with the adults. I am going to to remove all of my young nymphs in a week or two and place them in a different cage so they can be my new and much larger colony to produce summer feeders.
John J Starr Jr
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2005
- Messages
- 3,200
Thanks for the advice...my landlords won't allow them to be kept inside. It was a struggle to allow them to be kept in my garage. I live in Iowa and double digits below zero are somewhat common, although the past few winters have been very mild and I see no reason for that not to continue (hooray for global warming;P ).
I am keeping hissers (g.portentosa (sp?) in a 35 gallon rubbermaid container with an oversized heat pad, one that heats a 50 to 60 gallon tank. I'm considering switching to a heat cable, because they put out twice the output of a heat pad. For info on the outside conditions, click on the link in my sig.
They seem happy and healthy. I can hear them scrabbling around the cage and hissing at each other from across the room. They usually stay camped out right under the heat pad.
With mealworm colonies, if you have a large number of individuals in one container, their movements will produce heat. I experienced this in the form of condensation problems recently, but left half the container open and that took care of the problem. The colony feels warm to the touch still.
I am probably going to go with the heater idea next year. I may even build a wooden cabinet and line it with epoxy resin and install a ceramic heat emitter on each one.
I am keeping hissers (g.portentosa (sp?) in a 35 gallon rubbermaid container with an oversized heat pad, one that heats a 50 to 60 gallon tank. I'm considering switching to a heat cable, because they put out twice the output of a heat pad. For info on the outside conditions, click on the link in my sig.
They seem happy and healthy. I can hear them scrabbling around the cage and hissing at each other from across the room. They usually stay camped out right under the heat pad.
With mealworm colonies, if you have a large number of individuals in one container, their movements will produce heat. I experienced this in the form of condensation problems recently, but left half the container open and that took care of the problem. The colony feels warm to the touch still.
I am probably going to go with the heater idea next year. I may even build a wooden cabinet and line it with epoxy resin and install a ceramic heat emitter on each one.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2005
- Messages
- 134
This is how I have mine setup in the garage here in South Carolina.
Two containers with some insulation between them around the bottom. sitting on top of the extra lid to give it an air gap. The ceramic heater keeps the temp up in the container since it is cold out.
Two containers with some insulation between them around the bottom. sitting on top of the extra lid to give it an air gap. The ceramic heater keeps the temp up in the container since it is cold out.
Attachments
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2005
- Messages
- 134
just to update:
my current setup has an internal temp of 82 degrees F near the bottom of the container with the outside temp being 37 degrees F.
A bit colder actual temp inside the garage but I dont have a thermometer inside the garage.
When I opened the container to check on them and add a little more food they were mostly hanging out on top of all the egg crates and containers basking in the emitted heat from above.
my current setup has an internal temp of 82 degrees F near the bottom of the container with the outside temp being 37 degrees F.
A bit colder actual temp inside the garage but I dont have a thermometer inside the garage.
When I opened the container to check on them and add a little more food they were mostly hanging out on top of all the egg crates and containers basking in the emitted heat from above.
TheReptileShop
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2006
- Messages
- 20
Death head roaches don't climb glass. You can purchase them from www.Geckospot.com
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2005
- Messages
- 71
Cool
What is the wattage on your ceramic heater?
How many gallons are those containers?
Are those short plastic garbage cans?
Thanks,
John J Starr Jr
Cool setup, I have been thinking about using one of those ceramic heaters as apposed to the U.T.H. that I currently use. If you do not mind me asking...yuanti said:
What is the wattage on your ceramic heater?
How many gallons are those containers?
Are those short plastic garbage cans?
Thanks,
John J Starr Jr
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2005
- Messages
- 134
The ceramic heater I have is a 100watt version from Bigappleherp.com and the containers are actually Rubbermaid 24gal Max Tote containers that I picked up from Home Depot, used primarily for all sorts of storage needs. About $8 each I think.