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Tarantula Forum Topics
Tarantula Feeding and Feeder Insects
How To Start A Roach Colony
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<blockquote data-quote="Tortoise Tom" data-source="post: 134274" data-attributes="member: 27883"><p>I've been working 15 hour days, but as soon as I get a minute, I'm going to do a post all about cleaning and long term maintenance. All of my colonies are due for some cleaning.</p><p></p><p>In one of my shipments, some dermestid beetles hitchhiked in, and those do a good job of eating up any dead ones, but that is all. The dermestids can fly and over time the migrated into all of my colonies. </p><p></p><p>I clean the bins only once or twice a year as needed, but it does depend on the number of roaches. The egg flats will last for more than a year in a new colony in an 18 gallon bin. Over time the roaches poop on them and they begin to break down. I knock all the roaches off the dividers and egg flats into an empty bin, and then I dump them into a clean bin with new egg flats. This shocks and disturbs the colony, but its necessary once in a while. I have so many, that I don't notice a big difference in production, but when I had smaller colonies it was more obvious.</p><p></p><p>Another technique I will sometimes use is splitting the colony. I will get another bin and take half the full egg flats from an overcrowded bin and move them into the new clean bin. Then I fill in the empty halves in each bin with new egg flats. Sometimes I'll take half the flats out and give them to the lady at my local pet store. She sells them as feeders and I'm happy to see them going to good use. Then I just replace the missing flats with new ones.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tortoise Tom, post: 134274, member: 27883"] I've been working 15 hour days, but as soon as I get a minute, I'm going to do a post all about cleaning and long term maintenance. All of my colonies are due for some cleaning. In one of my shipments, some dermestid beetles hitchhiked in, and those do a good job of eating up any dead ones, but that is all. The dermestids can fly and over time the migrated into all of my colonies. I clean the bins only once or twice a year as needed, but it does depend on the number of roaches. The egg flats will last for more than a year in a new colony in an 18 gallon bin. Over time the roaches poop on them and they begin to break down. I knock all the roaches off the dividers and egg flats into an empty bin, and then I dump them into a clean bin with new egg flats. This shocks and disturbs the colony, but its necessary once in a while. I have so many, that I don't notice a big difference in production, but when I had smaller colonies it was more obvious. Another technique I will sometimes use is splitting the colony. I will get another bin and take half the full egg flats from an overcrowded bin and move them into the new clean bin. Then I fill in the empty halves in each bin with new egg flats. Sometimes I'll take half the flats out and give them to the lady at my local pet store. She sells them as feeders and I'm happy to see them going to good use. Then I just replace the missing flats with new ones. [/QUOTE]
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Tarantula Forum Topics
Tarantula Feeding and Feeder Insects
How To Start A Roach Colony
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