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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dave Jay" data-source="post: 129620" data-attributes="member: 27677">I read an article on using them and mealworms as cleaners in roach colonies, it suggests using both. The only provision you need to make is to add Styrofoam for the larvae to burrow into to pupate. You can use cardboard but sometimes it has a hormone added that inhibits their development. If the roach colony is small you may have to add some type of dead food to kickstart the beetle colony, once established as long as one or two roaches die a week it will be self-sustaining. It seems that both beetles and larvae are completely harmless to living creatures so you can keep them with pretty much anything. I plan to set up a little colony tonight with the few beetles and larvae I have atm and just add more as I find them in cricket tubs. Some articles say you can feed them kibble, some go so far as to say use kibble as the substrate. This thread sparked my interest, I usually just put them in the bin with the rest of what's left in the cricket tubs, but I've always felt guilty about it, they are live animals after all.</blockquote>