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I started keeping roaches in 1992. I bought 3 hissers from the big San Diego Reptile Show. I was told they were WC, but can't verify that. I still have a colony from those original 3. I kept them just as pets back then. I also used to have tarantulas, scorpions and quite a few insectivorous lizards back in those days, but I fed them all crickets and super worms like everyone else. I hate crickets. I stopped keeping insectivores for a lot of years due to my dislike of cricket keeping. When dubias hit the scene, I decided to try them. While researching dubia, I discovered a whole host of other pet species and feeder species and had to try them all. I was pretty into roaches for a few years there. At my peak I had 18 species in 40 bins in my reptile room. I used to go the the reptile shows to sell off the excess. I read all the care sheets, and much like our tarantulas, some of it didn't make sense and conflicted with what I was seeing in my own colonies. I went through a period of years where I tried a lot of side by side experiments and I discovered a lot of those firm care sheet assertions to be myths. I thought I would start a thread here to show how I do it, how easy it can be, and how to maintain them long term. I'll do this in several posts in order to get all the pics and explanation in. I hope this information will be useful and encourage other people to start up their own colonies.
First thing you need is a bin. Any size can work, but since I use the 12x12" egg flats inside my bins to house my roaches, I need something big and tall enough to hold them. 18 gallon bins fit the bill nicely. In the past I used dark colored opaque bins because everyone says the roaches feel more comfortable and breed better in darker bins. At one point my dubia colonies were getting way too over crowed and the store didn't have a bigger bin in a dark color, so I just bought some 40 gallon clear ones thinking I'd find dark ones later. I set my roaches up in the clear bins and they kept right on producing. After a few months, the bottoms of the clear bins sagged under the immense weight of pounds of roaches. Hmmm… I decided to do an experiment. I went out and bough a new dark 18 gallon bin and a new clear 18 gallon bin. I set them up identically and tossed 200 randomly selected dubia from a larger bin in each one. Fed them the same and kept them side by side on the same shelf. No discernible difference even after a year or more. Same thing with Blatta lateralis. Same thing with Baltta orientalis. After that I started buying only clear bins for roaches because they are smoother inside and prevent some of the lighter species or their nymphs from climbing the sides. So here is our clear bin. Got it at Lowes for about $6:
The roaches need ventilation. They can get by with none when the colony is small, but as the numbers grow, they collectively give off amazing amounts of moisture and humidity. Mold and mildew can kill a colony. For people who are going to stack their bins, side ventilation is required. My bins are side by side, so I do front and back ventilation or top ventilation. All of it works, so put the vents wherever you want, but put them up high. First I mark them:
Then I cut them with a Dremmel tool with a cut-off wheel:
And the top screened one:
Next we have to measure and cut the aluminum window screen. They can chew through the plastic/vinyl screen, so only use the metal type. I like to make the screen about one inch longer than needed, so I can get about a half inch of overhang on each side to allow for any imperfections in my cutting or calculations. The screen cuts very easily with regular scissors.
Next we hot glue the screens in place. I prefer to glue them on the inside for a cleaner look on the outside.
All finished:
After I finish this stage, I wash the bins out with warm water and my hand to rinse out any residue that might be in there from the factory or transportation of the bin to the store.
More to come...
First thing you need is a bin. Any size can work, but since I use the 12x12" egg flats inside my bins to house my roaches, I need something big and tall enough to hold them. 18 gallon bins fit the bill nicely. In the past I used dark colored opaque bins because everyone says the roaches feel more comfortable and breed better in darker bins. At one point my dubia colonies were getting way too over crowed and the store didn't have a bigger bin in a dark color, so I just bought some 40 gallon clear ones thinking I'd find dark ones later. I set my roaches up in the clear bins and they kept right on producing. After a few months, the bottoms of the clear bins sagged under the immense weight of pounds of roaches. Hmmm… I decided to do an experiment. I went out and bough a new dark 18 gallon bin and a new clear 18 gallon bin. I set them up identically and tossed 200 randomly selected dubia from a larger bin in each one. Fed them the same and kept them side by side on the same shelf. No discernible difference even after a year or more. Same thing with Blatta lateralis. Same thing with Baltta orientalis. After that I started buying only clear bins for roaches because they are smoother inside and prevent some of the lighter species or their nymphs from climbing the sides. So here is our clear bin. Got it at Lowes for about $6:
The roaches need ventilation. They can get by with none when the colony is small, but as the numbers grow, they collectively give off amazing amounts of moisture and humidity. Mold and mildew can kill a colony. For people who are going to stack their bins, side ventilation is required. My bins are side by side, so I do front and back ventilation or top ventilation. All of it works, so put the vents wherever you want, but put them up high. First I mark them:
Then I cut them with a Dremmel tool with a cut-off wheel:
And the top screened one:
Next we have to measure and cut the aluminum window screen. They can chew through the plastic/vinyl screen, so only use the metal type. I like to make the screen about one inch longer than needed, so I can get about a half inch of overhang on each side to allow for any imperfections in my cutting or calculations. The screen cuts very easily with regular scissors.
Next we hot glue the screens in place. I prefer to glue them on the inside for a cleaner look on the outside.
All finished:
After I finish this stage, I wash the bins out with warm water and my hand to rinse out any residue that might be in there from the factory or transportation of the bin to the store.
More to come...
