Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Getting my first frogs saturday and I was wondering if anyone used lobster roaches with them before. I must have a couple hundred pinhead cricket sized roaches but I have no idea how to collect the fast little buggers. Anyone had any expierience?

What are lobster roaches?
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Patty
Lost River, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos

A very easy to care for feeder roach they are also called speckeld roaches. Reach 2 inches as adults.
Been keeping them for a while now to feed the other animals they almost thrive on neglect. The only problem is if they escape... they dont need much to live. My problem is I have tons of itty bitty newborn ones that are around the size of a fruit fly but I have no idea how to catch them.

I'm thinking no, but that is just a guess. To me cockroaches are too much like beetles. Covered in too much chitin(sp?) that can clog up a little frogs digestive system.

But, I could be wrong.

joe

I've used them before. The frogs liked them, and my Expectata used to take them from my hand. But I got rid of everything that ate the adults, so I froze them all and killed them. The only downside to them is that they're hard as heck to get out of the cage, I think I used an aspirator. They were probably the best feeder I've ever had.

The insect aspirators work pretty well. I sometimes use one to capture the pinheads.

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Patty
Lost River, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos

Yeah, I like mine. Except mine was made by me, so it's most likely slowly killing my lungs. I use it to collect termites, ants, and field sweepings occasionally, mainly termites though.

np
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Nate
1.1 alanis tincs
and some day, if it cools down...
0.0.2 Azureus (soon)
0.0.3 imitators very very soon

What I did was get 20 gallon rubbermaid bin (the deep ones not the long ones) and I cut a huge hole out of the top and glued insect grade screen on to the top. Then I added fluon on the sides so the roaches wouldent walk all over the lid. Fluon is sold by entomology supply companies and is expensive but useful. An alternative would be Vaseline but you would have to keep reapplying it every couple weeks as it starts to evaporate. Then the bottom of the container I used a ton of rabbit pellet type food specifically ones high in protein. The pellets provide a hiding place for the nymphs and food for all of roaches. As for the adults they will do with a few large egg cartons standing vertically in the middle of the 20 gallon but if you have trouble finding those you can always tie a few paper towel rolls together like I did just as long as they dont touch the lid. For water I just take a plastic lid or something and place some carrots , potato basically any fruit or water loaded veggie on it.

Now when you first get them you might want to speed up the reproduction rate by adding a little heat to the bin. But mind you these things can have more than 200 offspring in a month that grow into 2 inch adults very quickly. Another thing you have to consider is how hardy they are , these things dont need much to live and if a few adults escape they may breed and will certainly continue living. If you can give them the proper hosing these roaches can be very rewarding feeders as there is always a constant supply.
Another thing I forgot to add is that eventually the rabbit pellets will become a large pile of odorless roach feces that you can either put more pellets on top or save a couple hundred roaches and kill off the rest with raid , and throw away the bin , then you just start a new colony in a new bin.

here is an idea that might get them out. get a mason jar with a lid. then get a piece of tubing that they will be able to crawl through. poke a hole in the lid of the mason jar put the tube through it and glue or tape it in place. then in the bottom of the mason jar put something they would like to eat or hide in or drink. i'm sure it wouldnt take much for them to be drawn to it. then place the other end of the tube into the main container and make sure it is not pinched anywhere also make sure they can't get out around the tube. give it a few days and see how many end up in the jar. try different lengths of tubing too. if it works well maybe you could just run the tubing into your dart tank for an automatic feeder.