Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am thinking of trying feeding roaches to my crew. I have serious conserns because THEY ARE COCKROACHES.. I cant get over the yuck factor.

What do I need to keep just a small colony?

What kind DO NOT CLIMB??

DO they breed as fast as the apartment variety??

What is the easiest species to deal with?? OTHER THAN THE GERMAN..

DO they stink like crickets or silkworms??

ARE they just as good for feeders??

ANY ADVICE IS GREATLY WELCOMED..

Harpy
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Have You Hugged Your Herp Today?

1q)What do I need to keep just a small colony?

1a)This I'm no sure of, don't think you really can keep the colony from growing large if you aren't feeding alot off.

2q)What kind DO NOT CLIMB??

2a)orange head, orange spot and other you really just have to search

3q)DO they breed as fast as the apartment variety??

3a)Not sure on this as i don't keep raoches as of yet, still trying to convince the girlfriend that roaches will be better for the pets. She's got serious yuck issues about any feeder.

4q)What is the easiest species to deal with?? OTHER THAN THE GERMAN..

4a)orange head and orange spot sound like easy species to deal with from James Tu description of them.

5q)DO they stink like crickets or silkworms??
5a)NO they don't if you keep them clean

6q)ARE they just as good for feeders??
6a)YES

Scroll thru the forum and look for post by James Tu for more info.
Here's a link to an earlier post

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Israel

here's the
link

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Israel

1q)What do I need to keep just a small colony?

1a)It is very hard to get a big colony if you are feeding them off. Once you establish a small colony (20-30 adults) it will probably produce 200-300 roaches per month. But remember they are only 1/8". They take 3-4 months to get to adults at around 2". The better constant heat and food you give them the faster they will breed and grow. It your colony gets to big then cool them down and they will stop breeding.

2q)What kind DO NOT CLIMB??

2a)orange head, orange spot, 4 spots, discoids, and death heads

3q)DO they breed as fast as the apartment variety??

3a)Not sure on this as i don't keep raoches as of yet, still trying to convince the girlfriend that roaches will be better for the pets. She's got serious yuck issues about any feeder.

3b)No, but they will breed good if you keep the heat-up. My wife didn't even know I had them for the first year. Then it was easier to convice her that she had nothing to worry about. These roaches are tropical and need care to survive and breed. If one did get loose in your house it would not stay warm enough to breed. The climbers like lobsters are the ones you don't want to get. They can get anywhere and cause some problems.

4q)What is the easiest species to deal with?? OTHER THAN THE GERMAN..

4a)What is a german?

5q)DO they stink like crickets or silkworms??
5a)This is a fun one. If I open one of my roach tub you would not smell anything, but if I lifted the egg crate you would. They put off a defense musk that doesn't stink, but does smell. None of my reptiles seemed to care when they where tearing them up.

6q)ARE they just as good for feeders??
6a)YES, I think they are the best feeder. It just takes some time and care to get a good colony going and you'll be on your way to saving money and providing a great food source for your pets.
James

Germans are the most prolific spiecies of cockroach on this planet. If you get a breakout of these SOB's, just move and burn your stuff, cause nothing will get rid of them completely. Do not even think about trying to breed these as feeders, because they will get out. I had an apt. that broke out in germans, and I got the F out of there pretty fast. They had an exterminator come in, and 3 days later, i had dead roaches everywhere .... that is good, right??? well, they came back a month later, smaller ones, but more than i saw before. I would suggest sticking with foreign cockroaches such as hissers and the like. They have a harder time adapting to the environment.

Later,
Truth

These Germans must fit into the pest version of roaches(about 20 of the 200 are pests). All the types I breed are not considered pests, and you do not have to worry about infestation. What is the scientific name for these Germans? They must be climbers? What type of reptiles are you feeder hissers to? My lizards did not like the harder shells of the hissers, plus It was much easier feeding them the non-climbers.
James

German Roach. Blattella germanica
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Israel

Israel68 got the scientific name for you, and yes, they are climbers and pests. I know that in philly, there are three major types of cockroaches, and if you get a german infestation, you should move. I personally dont see how some people cah take the common household roach and breed them, because that seems like playing with fire to me. This is done by some people, however, and sometimes, the results are terrible.

I feed my hissers to my nile monitor, which is very capable of eating hard shelled insects(they can eat clams when full grown). I am not tremedously familar with the softer shelled varieties, since hissers have the size and containability that i need for my applications. I am somewhat familar with deathheads, and know about the pest roaches from my last apt ...... (sigh).

Truth

THIS IS THE REASON I HATE ROACHES!!! I have lived in Roach infested apartments.. ANd to delibrately breed the damn things is just insane.. But I will think about trying the hissers or something like that.

Harpy

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Germans are the most prolific spiecies of cockroach on this planet. If you get a breakout of these SOB's, just move and burn your stuff, cause nothing will get rid of them completely. Do not even think about trying to breed these as feeders, because they will get out. I had an apt. that broke out in germans, and I got the F out of there pretty fast. They had an exterminator come in, and 3 days later, i had dead roaches everywhere .... that is good, right??? well, they came back a month later, smaller ones, but more than i saw before. I would suggest sticking with foreign cockroaches such as hissers and the like. They have a harder time adapting to the environment.

Later,
Truth
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Have You Hugged Your Herp Today?

It is true that some people don't like lobsters because they are climbers.

However, unless you live in the most tropical areas, they will not become pests. In my experience with lobsters, escapes cause no problems whatsoever - certainly less than crickets.

Many people keep lobsters with no problems.

Just my view.
Joel Fish

"My wife didn't even know I had them for the first year. Then it was easier to convice her that she had nothing to worry about."

James,

That's so funny, seems your wife doesn't take interst in the reptiles then if she didn't know you had roaches in the house for a year.
My girlfriend is alot more intersted in the lizards, she likes to watch them eat the "vile bugs". so she'd know that there were roaches in the house.
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Israel

My wife is afraid of just about everything reptile related. I built a house on the side of my house for all my reptiles. I use to keep them all in the garage. Still think in the California climate the garage is the best place for breeding reptiles. Any snake or lizard I ever kept always would breed out there. You can pretty much breed any Aussie reptile out here. My friend down the road just got two clutches of pure diamonds and almost nobody can breed them, plus he breeds other carpets and womas every year. My first year with frilled dragons I produced over 70 babies. It's to bad God couldn't make those lobsters not climb. They would be the best food source. My colony is almost doubling ever month. If you hand feed or fed one at a time they arn't bad, but if you have large breeder cages or baby cages where you are dropping 50-100 in at a time they suck. Even if you use bug stop in the food dish the just climb on your lizard and get out. My 4'x4'x4' cage had 1000's of babies lobsters in it after just a few months. They would hide in the logs and plants and then escape through any crack they could find. I have said many times on this forum that I prefer the non-climbers. I am not trying to discourage people from lobsters or hissers if they feed very carefully, but just giving everyone a fair warning. The good news is even with all the escapies they never bred outside the warm reptile cages. They really need the constant heat and food to breed. If my wife who jumps over a cricket or pincher bug can live with me having roaches, your girlfriend will survive. I think I will finally get a digital camera next month, and will then be able to post some pictures of my lovely bugs.
James

I live in the San Fernando valley (Los Angeles)and my garage is unvented. I'm afraid to leave anything alive in there in the summer. But if I vented it with a thermostatic attic vent, then maybe I could move my snakes in there and have more room for rats and snakes!

What an idea.

DeMak

I wish I could keep thing in my garage. Summer would be perfect for the roaches in my garage. But no matter what I do, tree climbing brushy tailed rats (aka. squirrels) keep getting in to it. they make a mess out of everything.

And the fall and winter in the garage would be a no go here in buffalo.
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Israel

James,

I totally agree that it has to do with how you feed the lobsters. If you're dumping that many in, I can see where there would be issues.

I have a feeding cup coated on the inside with bug stop that works pretty good for me, but again, I'm only putting a few sub-adults in there and I feed a lot of other stuff too.

I'm still waiting for my orange-headeds and discoidales to get going - then I have a feeling that I won't have as much use for the lobsters .

Joel Fish

Yeah I can't wait to get rid of my lobsters. Both my orange head and orange spot colonies are about 30 days away from getting huge. I have 50-100 adults, but both colonies now have hundreds of nymphs that are close to turning into adults plus hundreds of babies close behind. My 4-spots colony is growing and the death heads are starting to breed. I need to get a few more discoids. I am going to get back into bearded dragons so not buying crickets will be a big plus.
James

Where do you get the red bran that you use.
And what do you keep your roaches in.

I'm thinking of get a 96 quart or 116 quart sterilite container.
I'm seriously considering ignoring the girlfriend's protest about roaches. Bought more crickets yesterday, the price of those stupid things. And they're just to much of a hassle to breed.

Only thing that is sorta of bothering me about the roaches is i don't need thousands of roaches, i'm only feeding one bibron.

Been thinking of getting into leopard geckos, and the girlfriend really loves the look of some of the uro's. Those uro's are alot of $$$ though. If i do get her a uro's it's going to be a pair.
make my money back on the babies.

ok enough i'm starting to ramble.
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Israel