Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am trying to slow down breeding, I have WAAAAAAAY to many roaches. How cold can I keep them?

-----
Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com
Home of the Florida Orange

just send some of em to me ;P

It depends on the species. Native North American species (i.e. Parcoblatta spp.) down near freezing if they have protection. Tropicals just under 50 degrees. Cooling to near 50 will slow down reproduction but not stop it altogether. BTW, what species in the picture?

They are true Death heads (Blaberus craniifer). I started with a colony of 50 about 3 years ago. Here's one of my adult colonies, 1000 in a tub.

-----
Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com
Home of the Florida Orange

My colony looks just like yours. And mine aren't giant cave or Craniifers. I've heard that there are light phase Death Heads, but according to your picture, I believe we have the same roach. I think your colony is Fusca's or Fusca/Craniifer mixes.

In your picture there are only a few dark Death Head looking roaches in there. Maybe 1 or 2 out of 10 are dark phased like Craniifers are suppose to be. Mine are exactly the same & they were sold to me as Giant Cave Roaches over a year ago from William Raker in Arizona(not pointing fingers, puting his name out here for tracking purposes). Come to find out they are either Fusca or a Fusca/Craniifer mix. Not 100% sure yet. I have some samples going to an emptomologist for confirmation.

There's alot of confusion out here concerning Blaberus Species. It's been going on for quite some time, & from those you'd least expect in the Roach Selling Buis. I could be wrong, perhaps there is some genetic varitability within each species that I'm just not aware of. Any emtomologist out there want to chime in?

Houston, we have a problem...!

wALDO sLAcK

According to at least some sources, B. fusca and B. craniifer are incapable of hybridization.

I am building my site right now and will have some pictures up soon of all the mentioned species. What you have is most likely a cross of B. fusca and B. craniifer. I can tell you for sure they are not pure bred of either. Fusca have the distinct black band and the craniifer have jet black wings all the way. Here is where it gets fuzzy. There are some that think these two species could not possible cross-breed. So are they a un-identified species (I doubt it). There are Blaberus species like B. atropos that do vary in color, but what get me in this species is the size variations(B. fusca get larger than B. craniifer). I truely believe these are a cross between B. fusca and B. craniifer. I guess the only way for me to prove this theory will be to take a male and female from each pure species and attempt to breed them. I guess I will attempt this soon to try and find the truth to this species so stay tuned.
James

They look like death heads to me - I was a keeper aide, andtook care of a colony for seven years at the national zoo in Washington, DC. If a cross is possible or not, I don't know - but nothing looks out of the norm to me.

I left two plastic cages of hissers out one night, and they survived 45ªF. my adults( before I got rid of all the colonies.- allergies) slowed way down when temps went below 70ºF. Avg. was 65ª. I had counted over 5000 in all, but we both got allergies, even ashma , so they had to go.
yanngo of Mexico

np
-----
Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com
Home of the Florida Orange

Good God! That's a LOT of roaches...
What species is that? Looks like Cave roaches?