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{{{ HISSER MOTHER AND HER BABIES }}}

In these series of articles, I will write about Hisser mother and her babies. The article is quite extensive and long, so I divided into several parts with subtitles stated below.

1 {{{ BIRTH OF LIVE HISSER BABIES}}}
2 {{{ CARRYING A BABY FOR FIVE AND A HALF YEARS }}}
3 {{{ AIR DRYING? }}}
4 {{{ ABORTION OF OOTHECAS }}}
5 {{{ DEVELOPMENT OF BABIES INSIDE OF MOTHER}}}
6 {{{ NO FECES? }}}
7 {{{ DIGESTIVE BACTERIA }}}
8 {{{ HOW TO TREAT PREGNANT LADY HISSERS }}}
9 {{{ COURTSHIP }}}
10 {{{ IF YOU DO NOT WANT ANY BABIES }}}
11 {{{ LIFE GOES ON}}

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

1 {{{ BIRTH OF LIVE HISSER BABIES}}}

After the successful mating, it takes about 60 days of incubation time to see the babies of Madagascar giant hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa) coming out from the tail-end of their mother. Technically speaking, these newly born babies are called “Neonates”. It seems as if she gives birth to live babies like mammal unlike any “average” insects.

Newly born Hisser babies are pristine ivory white except their eyes (black). (Incidentally, the black color of eyes despite the pristine ivory white color of the rest of the body can be observed by many other species of roaches, that are available at pet roach market.)

The Hisser mother usually gives birth to 25-45 babies (about ½” size) at each time. Their tiny soft ivory white bodies are supported by the hydrostatic pressure rather than solid exoskeletons (skeletal plates) at this point. You may also observe the elongated dorsal “heart” of each baby Hissers seeing though in the middle of his/her translucent abdominal cuticle.

The Hisser neonates will turn into grayish brown color in four to six hours after birth. Their exoskeletons also become more solid as they get darker. They stay at, on, below, under and around their mother for a long time unless you scare them. They are capable of running/climbing walls very quickly even immediately after their birth and start munching the foods around them. This is a very well-planned, well-prepared, and well-persecuted process to produce “capable offspring” from the very beginning. Imagine a newly born human baby who is capable of start running immediately and getting food by himself!

(continue)

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

2 {{{ CARRYING A BABY FOR FIVE AND A HALF YEARS }}}

The nature has many truly remarkable mechanisms. For example, the most of creatures (in the wild or captive environment) on this planet (I must need to remind you that 95% of all the animals of this planet is invertible) have an ability to immediately start “running” after dropped into this world from their mother (or simply hatched from a egg) to avoid being captured or being eaten by predators, whether they are giant giraffe or tiny Madagascar giant hissing cockroach. (In this sense, human is not as sophisticated/developed enough to fit in the environment for the purpose of better survival.) What is the similarity and more importantly difference between babies of human and Hissers?

I have come up with an interesting idea, and undertook a very interesting calculations regarding the subject. Here is the summary of this. The life of (female) Madagascar giant hissing cockroach is about two and half years. The 60days of pregnancy period out of 913 days of her life is 6.6%. A human female live about 87 years. Nine months of pregnancy period out of 1044 months of life is 0.9%. What this tells us is that Hisser mother grows her babies inside of her for more than seven times longer than human! Imagine a human mother carrying a baby for 66months or five and half year! No wonder their babies are well prepared and ready to live independently immediately after coming out from their mother’s tummy!

How can Hissers achieve such successful baby-making? Female Hissers lay their eggs (or produce eggs) in a purse-like capsule known as ootheca (egg case). The ootheca is produced one by one gradually in her abdomen section of body (brood pouch) toward her end in “vertical” direction in “two lines”. The brood pouch is basically an empty section inside of her body until it is used for ootheca. (I have dissected the carcass of a newly molted Hisser nymph just before becoming adult, and amazed the large size of its empty space inside. The brood pouch is supported by basically nothing but an exoskeleton!) Producing eggs in “two lines” rather than single line makes the ootheca more solid and stable, thus it is easier for her to re-orient its direction later in the process commonly refer to “air drying”. Producing eggs side by side in “vertical” direction in her blood pouch allows her to uniform the height of each eggs in formation. This is a remarkably well thought out and well-planned smart production method.

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

3 {{{ AIR DRYING EGG CASE? }}}

In this chapter, mechanism of “air drying” is greatly investigated. This biological behavior can be seen by common pet roaches,which you can purchase from professional roach breeders (for your pleasures and/or your pet lizards’ pleasures) such as Gromphadorhina portentosa (Madagascar Hissing Cockroach), Archimandrita tesselata (Peppered Roach), Blaberus discoidales (Discoid Roach, False Death Head Roach), Nauphoeta cinerea (Lobster Roach) etc.

When the outer shell of the egg case (ootheca) are completely formed inside of her brood pouch, the mother Hisser extrude about the ¾ inch the ootheca (not the entire length of ootheca) outside of her body as if she is “air drying” it. In reality, the outer shell of the ootheca does not require extra air to solidify, nor there is absolutely no need to “dry” it. The healthy extruded ootheca viewed from outside is about ½ inch –long, light yellowish translucent white, two-lined and solid. This behavior of Hisser mother often freaks out uninformed amateur pet insect lovers, who just purchased their first Hissers without homework of studying the biology of this remarkable and exotic creature.

The Hisser mother’s “air drying” is actually one of the most vulnerable time for the her in natural life to be attacked by her predators. (Needless to say, the most vulnerable time for any hissers are during their molt.) Many Hisser mothers even conduct this process of “air drying” at a location, where is away from other cagemates to secure her and her ootheca’s safety. Although it seems she is doing this process very slowly to human eyes, in reality, she is doing it “the fastest as she could”. Although it takes sometimes over an hour to protrude the ootheca out of her body, it takes much less time - less than a half hour - for her to retract it to her brood pouch.

Although what she is doing seems like “air drying”, it is not exactly what she is doing at all. In fact, it is very dangerous for ootheca to be dried; most of ootheca would not produce any hisser babies because it dry up. In reality, what she is doing is an ingenious operation of “re-orientation of the direction” of her ootheca. The width of the abdomen of a Hisser is wider than the thickness/height of its body, so, it is much easier for her to store her ootheca inside of her brood pouch in “horizontal” direction, once each egg is formatted in the same hight with proper numbers inside of her blood pouch. Needless to say, for Hisser babies to wiggle out from the each egg of ootheca, it is absolutely necessary for the ootheca to be placed inside of mother Hisser horizontally; otherwise, baby hissers can not come out in orderly fashion if not they can not come out at all from their each egg case.

According to the contemporary professional entomologists who specialize the biology of roaches, this behavior of Hisser mother is actually obtained by them in recent evolutional development. In any cases, the ootheca is protected safely from predators in this way.

On the contrary to this behavior, more primitive roaches such as several species of common pest house roaches found in North America simple drop their “egg capsels”, which babies wiggle out when it matures. The species of pest roaches, which produce the “left alone’ style of “egg capsrls” are Brown-banded cockroach, American cockroach, German cockroach, and Oriental cockroach. I saw all these roaches except Oriental cockroach here in New York City. I saw the Oriental cockroach in New Orleans. They are not pet roach at all, and I will not get into too many details on these annoying parasites here. For more info, please refer following website: http://pested.unl.edu/roachind.htm

This “re-orientation of ootheca” by a Hisser mother can be viewed all year long in captive breeding of Hisser tanks. In another words, they are ready to produce their off springs all year long.

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

4 {{{ ABORTION OF OOTHECAS }}}

Once in a while, a Hisser Mother aborts her ootheca or a long egg case made of dozens of eggs. The aborted ootheca could be a solid and healthy-looking one. It could be full one inch long. Sometimes the ootheca is not even unified in shape – each egg look like a grain of rice comes out from her separately and simply drops on the ground. The aborted ootheca or each egg does not move. (Althoughit is extremely rare but sometimes, you could see some of the aborted eggs gently moving on it ssurface under the magnifying glass.) Needless to say, this “unidentified mysterious and odd object”, which suddenly appeared in the pet tank of Hissers freaks many uninformed pet insect lovers.

The “abortion” is caused by stresses she suffered such as sudden environmental change and/or bad nutrition. It is commonly reported in websites that shipped mother Hissers tend to “abort” ootheca for the first one or two months after arriving to a new “home”. The more comfortable she feels, the faster she starts producing healthy ootheca. (See my other articles about how to prepare their new home more comfortable in “advanced breeding techniques”.)

In either case, the “abandoned ootheca” is usually eaten by the cagemates. After all, it is made of very nutritious substances. (Incidentally, some of Hissers also eat their cast off skins for the same reason if you do not collect them for a display case of science projects.)

There is a remarkable experiment regarding “saving” this “abandoned ootheca” in one of the Japanese Internet roach websites (written in Japanese) by a pet roach enthusiast. He picked up the “abandoned ootheca” (solid form) of another giant tropical roach carefully and placed it on sphagnum moss in a small closed container and keeps it with high humid and high temperature. In this way, in a week, he succeeded hatching 10 babies from the “abandoned ootheca”. He also featured many photographic records of this experiment in his website.

Personally speaking, I tried his methods several times for “abandoned oothecas” (both solid forms and separated forms) of Hisses and Giganteus in the past. Nevertheless, I was not successful.

Here is a descriptions of a variety of style of the Hisser mother’s abortions:

1. It look slike a healthy complete formed eggcase (ootheca) on the ground: Hisser mother faced sudden great mental/physical stress at the end of chid-bearing process such as being shipped from a breeder to your apartment. This is simply unfortunately.

2. It looks like a separated grain of rice on the ground: the each hisser egg was separately aborted. This is due to each egg’s not being attached each other side by side in the hisser mother’s blood pouch with enough amount of substance (chitin), which act as “glue”. You may want to increase more protein-rich food. Giving juicy chicken drum sticks (or at least a pieces of juicy chicken meat) now and them make them VERY happy and put a happy small smiles on their faces.

3. It looks like a thread-skinny long string on the ground: This happened only one occasion --- during my trial to breed giant size hissers in my “Super Hisser” tank. When I gave “insect growth hormone bathing” to hisser mothers, they produced this substance – each egg was not even formed at all. It was extremely strange view to see a Hisser mother protruding a long skinny string of light yelowish substance (the color of egg and ootheca), which is longer than her body length and walking around in the tank.

(continue)

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

5 {{{ DEVELOPMENT OF BABIES INSIDE OF MOTHER}}}

The eggs stay inside of the brood pouch of the adult female of Madagascar giant hissing cockroach until babies eat up the contents of the egg capsules and wiggling out from their egg capsules. When they are wiggling out, they look just like fly larvae – cylinder-shape in ivory white color. At that point, those babies do not have any strong mouth pads to actually bite anything, so, I assume they use “digestive enzyme” to “melt” their very soft foods when they consume it.

Once in a while, you can find a Hisser mother with the ootheca unsuccessfully retracted all inside of her body. In this case, if you are very fortunate, you could actually see some of the hisser babies wiggling out from the egg case of the ootheca. The physical appearance of the baby of Hisser wiggling out from the egg case is very similar to the babies of crickets or praying mantis wiggling out from their large egg cases. (Incidentally, I see a large egg case, which contains dozens of praying mantis eggs inside, firmly attached to the tree branch of the next door house. It is 1-1/4inch x 3/4inch, and was laid by a large 4-inch praying mantis, which I collected her carcass long last winter.)

I also assume that they are not capable to munch the wall of the brood pouch with their “digestive enzyme” to send signals to their mother, but their mother knows what is happening inside of her blood pouch. Hisser mother can detect that her babies came out from their egg capsule by physical sensation of their dramatic movements. When enough number of babies started moving and fills inside of brood pouch, the mother Hisser decides “giving birth” to them by opening the end of her abdominal segment vertically. It appears that Hisser mother give birth to all of them at the same time rather than giving a birth over a few days period. It usually takes less than 20 minutes to complete the process of giving birth to them.

The Hisser mother’s giving birth to babies can be observed all year long in captive breeding environment with favorite conditions to them (foods, humidity, lighting, moisture, air, space, population, etc.).

At this point, I have no data about some of the babies trapped inside of her brood pouch due to their late maturity. But it is safety speculated that Hisser mother would let them out accordingly by sensing their motions inside.

(continue)

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

6 {{{ NO FECES? }}}

Another remarkable thing to be pointed out regarding the babies’ foods inside of her brood pouch is that the content of the egg capsule is not the only foods they eat. They also eat a large amount of “jelly-like” substances almost identical to the component of the “egg capsules”. I personally witness several Hisser Mothers exposed a large amount of this substances after giving birth to babies. I also witnessed an unfertilized Mother Hisser gave birth to this gooey yellowish substances instead of babies. This substances seems shrink quickly when the moisture vaporizes but usually eaten by her cagemates gladly near her.

I have not witnessed the Mother Hisser giving birth to babies and babies’ feces at the same time, although I suspected that they supposed to be kept inside of her same place – brood pouch. I conclude that the babies hatched inside of her did not produce the same kind of feces (solid black) or they did not produce any faces at all when they are still inside of her body. It is easy to assume that these newly born babies do not have to produce fecal pallet immediately, due to their well-balance and highly controlled nutrients provided by the Hisser mother. It is also safely assumed that hisser babies do not produce black fecal pallet until they started eating foods after they come out of the blood pouch of their Hisser mother.

Just for the readers’ information, I want to feature about one of the very common insect who actually control the production of feces for a long time. This remarkable arthropod is commonly called “ant-lion”. The ant lion is a carnivorous juvenile of lace wing, and eat only other small animals alive. They produce corn-shape trap on sandy ground and catch an ant, who happen to passing near by and slip into this deadly trap. What remarkable about this juvenile ant lion is that they do not produce any feces at all what so ever, until they finally transforming into an elegant flying animal almost after one year of underground dwelling life. (I saw the footage on a Japanese TV show.)

NOTE: The fecal pallets of dust mites (microscopic arthropods, imperceptible to naked eye, commonly living in your house) are well-known for causing asthma. Nevertheless, there are no known reports of asthma caused by the tiny mites living on the body of hisser (hisser’s dedicated body cleaning mites). In the same token, there are no reports of asthma caused by hissers.

(continue)

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

7 {{{ DIGESTIVE BACTERIA }}}

Digestive bacteria is a microscopic organism, which helps/enable its host to effectively observe nutrient from foods. Cows do not have ability to digest raw grass at all, but it was a work of digestive bacteria in its stomachs to do miracles.

In the same token, it appears that some Madagascar giant hissing cockroaches have more digestive bacteria in their digestive system, thus able to observe the nutrient than others and grow bigger when being given the same diet.. (This is nothing to do with their genes.) The reason I state this is based on my research of Japanese Kuwagata (stag beetle).

In Japan, Kuwagata breeding is one of the most popular and expensive pet insect hobbies. Unlike in the western civilizations, Easterners bred insects as pets for many centuries. Today, there are several manufactures produce and market special foods for Kuwagata to grow dramatically large size. The product has been tried and tested by many enthusiastic breeders and professional breeders of Kuwagata and produced significant results, and reported in many Japanese websites.

In Japan, they use a bottle of “Kinshi” (fungus of Kawaratake mushroom or Oohiratake mushroom) that grow on “Ogako” (finely grounded wooden chips) to make Kuwagata larvae grow extra large. Some people purchase “Kinsho” (fungus body itself) in large blocks, and place it into small bottles for each Kuwagata larvae. It takes about five years to grow Ookuwagata from an egg to an adult – Japanese insect hobbies are very patient unlike Americans here. (The Cultural Entomology could a very interesting subject matter to be studied for some of the pet insect lovers.) Based on their many years of breeding, they found that some larvae does not grow very well in Kinsho or Kinshi bottles. They declare that it is totally depends on whether the larva has the necessary “special bacteria” to digest the fungus or not. This bacterium is passed down from their mother to babies but it has nothing to do with genetic inheritance. They also found that growing the two generations of Kuwagata in the same fungus significantly increase the size of the adult.

Please inform me the results if you have an experience of breeding Hissers with Kinshi or Kinsho stated above.

In natural habitat in the rain forest (jangle) of Madagascar, Hissers eat decomposed leaves and dead animals. They do not eat dry dog feed, carrots or apples, naturally. I assume they eat mostly rotten and fungus infested organic matters. And I believe these organic matters contains special substance in the form of digestive bacteria, possibly extremely unique and special to the land of Madagascar, that enables multiple arthropods to grow extra large size. The results of this can be identified as a series of giant insects growing all over the Madagascar such as Giant hissing cock roaches (Hissers), Giant pill bugs (golf-ball size giant roly-poly), and over a foot long snake-size millipedes.

(continue)

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

8 {{{ HOW TO TREAT PREGNANT LADY HISSERS }}}

Following is a short review of good breeding tips. (See my other articles on breeding Hissers such as nutritious recipe for Hisser meals etc for more details.)

A minimum set-up consists of a 10- to 20-gallon all-glass aquarium (the bigger the better) with top lid (the top lid cost more to purchase at the aquarium but it is absolutely necessary). Vaseline to apply the top 2 inches of the glass tank to discourage the hissers to climb out from the tank (Hissers can climb the galls surface of the tank easily). Give them a supply of food (mainly dried dog food) and water in a bowl with sponge inside to prevent them from being drowned, available for all the time. For aesthetic reasons, pine shaving could be placed at the bottom of the tank but it is not essential; cedar chips should never be used because the turpines emitted by them may harm the natural growth of nymphs. To prevent mite infestation/out break, some of the professional breeders recommend changing the substrate about once a month.

The best breeding temperature for Hissers are 80F to 95F. Some professional breeders keep his Hisser tank consistently 88F all year long to maximize Hissers’ breeding activities. This temperature is produced by the try and error of professional roach breeders in America. Surprisingly, the temperature of Madagascar never reaches that high in reality. The temperature of Madagascar is between 59 and 71 F degree. Although this setting is not the exact replica of their homeland of the jangle of Madagascar at all, it appears that Hisser mothers love this hotter temperature more. They also love extremely high humidity, even over 90%, if you can control/suppress the mite infestation in their tank. (In Madagascar, the relative humidity is about 75 to 80%.) Make their tank covered with black papers and place it in very quiet place. As always, it is not good idea to pick them up and play with them – they would easily stressed out.

Give your pet Hissers finely ground (this makes easier for they to chew with their tiny mouth pads) dry dog/cat food enhanced calcium powder for daily diet. You may also give them dry Oak leaves as side dish. (See my other article on good diet for Hissers.) There are also well-balanced roach/cricket foods sold at pet stores, too. Do not give them only fresh vegetables and fruits, although they are great treats now and them to vitalize your colony. They truly love carrots among any other vegetables. Protein-rich food is important. I gove drumsticks of chicken now and then. Otherwise, they will get necessary protein by carnivorizing newly born babies and newly molted cage mates. Also make sure to set up “chick water” for them to drink clean water safely all the time.

Be very careful about certain kind of green vegetables bought from a grocery store – they could kill entire colony of small roaches within a day with pesticide on it. I have heard enough nightmare stories in multiple insect websites. Also do not use cedar shaving for substrate because it contains toxic oil to kill your roaches. Use pine woods shavings instead if you wish. Make sure they have enough houses – rolled toilet paper cores or egg trays vertically (not horizontally because they could crash onto hissers sooner or later) – for them to “feel at home”. The more they are satisfied, the more they produce babies, live long and keep active in good health.

(continue)

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

9 {{{ COURTSHIP AND HISSING}}}

Adult female Hissers need adult male Hissers to produce babies. Roaches, generally speaking, are a highly social animals, and they have quite complex social life and social behaviors (although they are not a sophisticated as ants or humans).

For example, according the experts’ close examinations, it is reported that the male Madagascar giant hissing cockroaches are capable of 5 types of different hissing, and each with its own meaning: a male combat hiss, 2 types of courting hiss and 1 mating hiss, and 1 alarm hiss. Males produce all 5 types of hissings. Females and nymphs only make the alarm hiss. In addition, it is believed that each hisser can distinguish other hissers by their hisses.

It is absolutely vital for adult hisser male to own his personal space, where he mates with hisser female. An adult male without his territory (“satellite” male) wonder around and sometimes fight with one with his territory to take over his territory. Only adult females and juveniles can enter such a territory freely anytime without facing any confrontations. If for some reason one of the “territorial” males becomes disabled or dead, one of the satellite males will replace him. Non-fighting males are called "subordinates.", and he is less likely chosen for mating by females; female can tell these three types of males. On the contrary to adult males, females (adult or juvenile) like to be together and don't fight among themselves.

Specifically speaking, to secure enough floor space (the height is not as important for Hissers) it is practiced by many professional hisser breeders that they place multiple egg cartons vertically (not horizontally, otherwise they would crash hissers sooner or later) to increase the surface areas in the hisser tanks. (Incidentally, unlike Hissers, for the Giant Cave Roaches, the height is more important than the floor space.)

More over, roaches bred in a large group produce special hormone that encourage the rapid grow of each roach than solitary roach. This form of hormones and their effects among animals such as grasshoppers and humans were well studied.

Courtship begins with the male serenading the female with his distinctive mating hiss which is then followed by mutual antennae stroking. Then, the pair proceed tender body-stroking carefully. During the time, they continue their antennal stroking each other, accompanied by a subdued mutual hissing. If you are careful observer, it seems that they are examining each other very carefully with affections. Once they mutually acknowledge that they are attached to each other, male and female stretch out, so they are facing in opposite directions to connect the genitals at their ends. They may remain in this position for 20-30 minutes, without moving around.

It is reported that adult female Hissers could produce two to four oothecas a year when their captive environment is favorable (foods, humidity, noise, light, temperature, population density, territorial space, health, pests, stability of environment etc.). Another words, if the Hisser mother does not abort ootheca’s, she produces babies two to four times a year. Hissers are very prolific, and produce about 25-45 babies at each time.

There is also a very fascinating report – an adult Hisser female needs only one mating with adult male to obtain enough amount of sperm to fertilize her eggs for the rest of her life. This author did not test this report by using his hissers in his tanks.

(continue)

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

10 {{{ IF YOU DO NOT WANT ANY BABIES }}}

Not all the people are interested in breeding hundreds of Madagascar giant hissing cockroach in their tank(s) at their home or at school class rooms.

Madagascar Giant Hissing Cockroaches are very prolific animals. Therefore, in reality, it is more difficult for this animal not to breed when they are bread “normally”.

If you really want only one Hisser and do not want it producing any babies, I recommend you not purchasing an adult female Hisser at all. Buy adult male hisser or a large nymph (male or female). Needless to say, adult male hissers do not produce babies. I have head many stories that a newly purchased Hisser started producing many babies immediately – people did not know it was an adult female hisser and she was already pregnant.

Although it makes sense on the paper, financially speaking, this is not a good shopping over internet, because average price of a Hisser is $1-$2 and shipment fee is about $6-$8 with priority shipment. It is better to buy a dozen of them from professional roach breeders (not science supply stores) to make unit price low.

You could also ask them to ship you only adult male Hissers (if you want to keep just a few of tem) so that they do not produce any babies --- these adult Hissers live about two years so enjoy with no headaches of worry about them for their possible multiplications like rabbits.

If you are familiar with treating juvenile insect with “insect juvenile hormones”, then, this is another method to prevent adult females producing any babies. This author tried this method on some of the hissers for scientific experiment, with assistances of one of a major commercial roach control company’s technician. It produced a limited success; it seemed the process gave mental/physical stress to hissers and shortened their life.

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

11 {{{ LIFE GOES ON }}}

The newly born baby Hissers will molt six times (some breeders report that the number of molt change due to their environment) in about five months to become adults and become sexually mature. The period of molt (shedding the exoskeleton to grow about 30% larger) is shorter when they are young, and longer as they grow older. Their average size is 1.5 to 3 inches, depending on their environment/breeding conditions.

The length of time required to be sexually mature is based on the conditions of captive environment. When they become sexually mature, they mate and produce babies. The adult Hisser could live about 2 to 3 years, (but some adults are reported to live for up to 5 years).

Life goes on.

End of articles.

Good luck to you and your pet insects!

Takeshi

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html