Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

Thank goodness there is a forum for roaches, I'm happy to have found this!

I have a bit of a problem and would appreciate any and all advice.

I got a bunch (and by a bunch, I mean thousands upon thousands) of roaches from someone who didn't want them anymore.

There is a very deep substrate in the bottom of the tanks...and it is nasty! I've spent a couple of days using egg crates to get them to climb on up so that I can transfer them to new, clean quarters...but a lot of the smaller ones I can't get to come up the egg crates!!

I am about ready to lose my mind...I've tried bribing them with oranges...chicken laying mash...etc. but no dice...and this nasty substrate they are living in is about 8 inches deep...

HOW do I get the nymphs out of the mess they're living in?

All I wanted was lobster roaches...but I ended up with 4 different roach species...Giant hissers, orange heads, cave, and one I can't ID (yet)
Cool.

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

depending on their size and quantity you can "pan for gold" or just wait them out. If you find another way I would sure like to know too.
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Bennett

Home of the Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

Hey Bennett you are really missed over on the BD forum. Many of the regulars have not been posting. Well I just wanted to let you know that you are missed and if you have any other good BD forums that you could recommend. Take it easy and I hope I can ask you questions on this board about BD stuff.

One other thing, I am thinking about buying another roach colony for my larger dragons but I am not sure what species I should try, I am considering Orangeheads and Hissers. Have any input on that?
-Randy

thanks for the kind words. you can always call or email me privately anytime.

there advantages and disadvantages to each. climbers will get out of a cage that you feed in unless you but a barrier to stop them. non climbers will dig into substrate making them hard to find, especially babies. I would try both and see how you like it. I don't think Orange or death heads are as long lived as hissers and that is another problem since you dont feed off adults. if they don't live as long they need to be replaced more often therby diminishing your food supply.

If I am wrong on this, please someone let me know. It's just been my experience.
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Bennett

Home of the Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

You would need to get a good colony of adult hissers and wait till the first generation of the babies are at the perfect feeding size for you. Then you will have a generation of babies right behind that. You wont have a population explosion if you do it right and if you start with the right number of adults then you wont have to pay for those costly crickets.

Well I am by no means a Roach expert as I have just recently started breeding them. I was thinking maybe you could get some Hardware cloth and use that to sift through the substrate at the bottom. I would probably curl three edges back and leave one uncurled and use that side to sift. That way the roaches won't be able to run out all the sides. When I say curl I mean several folds back on top of each other on each edge. Just an idea so good luck.
-Randy

hardware cloth wont do it. when you dump a cup on it to sift and have 100 roaches all running in different directions...

they either hang on and run or fall through. Babies are small.
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Bennett

Home of the Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

Roaches are photonegative -- they don't like strong light. You might try "herding" them from the substrate to a darkened enclosure. Stir up the substrate a bit at a time under a strong light and they should migrate to the darkened area.

now that's a thought! need to give that a try.
Thanks
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Bennett

Home of the Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

You have a problem.
Can you get the tank into the COLD? Either fridge or even the freezer for about 10 or 15 min to knock them down a bit???? Then I would use a very small teaspoon or even a stiff credit card and scoop up what you can. Be careful of possible fungus spores( i use goves and mask for messy jobs) CO2 gas will knock them down for 10 min cold. But hard to get hold of of course.

Happy hunting. Yanngo of Mexico..

And...I will never ever house roaches in substrate!!!

The ones I have gotten out are doing just fine with plenty of egg crates in a nice clean rubbermaid. Is it OK to just keep the lid on, or will they suffocate?

...the rest of them (must be 2-3,000) I am going to shine a very bright light on the bottom of the tank and see if it makes them want to take a hike up to the (clean) egg crates I've got in there...I could literally spend days trying to sift through this mess!!

Does anyone keep cave roaches? I've got some big nymphs that are just gorgeous! They were mixed in with the hissers, lobsters and orange heads...and I can't find much information about them.

Wez,
I do not use substrate either, and is so much easier to clean, etc. Tops: I get this plastic webbing used in "rafia" craft classes, cut a big square in the top,( if you have a black and decker saw easier) and glue gun the webbing over the hole. This is for air and dryness so it wont mold from too much moisture. Dont forget our 1 " of vaseline so they wont climb out.

This is a suggestion.... rescue the little ones you think will be enough..... the big ones too, and..... dump alcohol over the rest of the mess, and let it go. Just think. I started with 200 hissers May a year ago, , and now have counted 4,900.
I also put only 30 adults in each 5 gal. rubbermaid container, so they wont overcrowd.

Keep counting! Yanngo of Mexico.

especially since there are SO many!!
As far as humidity...I live in a VERY dry area with little (almost no) relative humidity...my fear is that they will dry out, should I still put screens in the lid? Or jsut open it once every couple of days for air circulation?