Some Hisser Pictures

Here is a very short post about my Madagascan hissing roaches, they are all doing well, no babies yet. I took some pictures of my female today that I wanted to share, so here they are!

Well, hope you guys enjoyed, see you next time! :)

Ergaula capucina Update!

After many months of waiting, my Burmese beetle mimic oothecae have started to hatch! There are a few hatchlings crawling around the enclosure, and they are so darn cute! These are officially my second Polyphagid species that I have bred successfully! 

Here are some pictures of the cuties!

I love this species, and I am very glad they are doing well! 

That's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post! :)

A Small Hemiblabera tenebricosa Update

Just thought I would give you guys a little update on my horseshoe crab roaches, Hemiblabera tenebricosa. They are doing very well, they are breeding steadily and the tiny nymphs are growing. I recently moved them to a much larger enclosure, so they will have a lot of room to expand their population!

Here are some pictures I took of the adults last month.

Adult female

Adult male

I love that male, he has a nice light brown border on his pronotum. This species had been fun to work with, and they definitely make a nice pet roach!

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I will see you all next time! :)

My new Parcoblatta bolliana And Parcoblatta Unknown fulvescens like caudelli!

These are the last of my new roaches from my Christmas roach overdose! I have about 3 or so of the Parcoblatta unknown fulvescens like caudelli. These are either P.fulvescens or caudelli, but it is hard to tell exactly which one. With such a small number, I may have to get more to breed them, but we shall see.

I am keeping them in a small plastic container with moist coconut fiber as the substrate and a piece of cardboard and dead leaves as the hides. They are eating dog food, fruits and veggies. I had a couple more, but they died of unknown causes.

Here are some pictures of the nymphs:

Here is the cage

Hopefully I will be able to breed this species, I may be getting some in the summer if I need more to start a colony.

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I have 5 nymphs of the Boll's wood roach, Parcoblatta bolliana. I had more, but a few of them shriveled up and died, as if they were drying out. The enclosure was moist and humid, so I do not know why they died. One was also parasitized by a Tachnid fly, unfortunately I fed it to a Steatoda sp. spider without snapping a picture of it.

I am keeping my remaining nymphs in the same enclosure as my Pynoscelus nigra, I am using moist coconut fiber as the substrate and cardboard pieces and dead leaves as the hides. They are eating the usual roach fare, dog food, fruits and veggies. I really hope they stop dying, this species is a very cute one.

Here are some pictures of the nymphs:

Here is the enclosure, (which is the also the enclosure for my Pycnoscelus nigra)

I now have 26 species of roaches, which is amazing considering before 2015 I had 2! I hope to continue to dig into this hobby, and I am very excited for what this new year may bring!

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, I will see you all soon! :)

My New Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches!

Ever wonder what happens to hissers used as school pets? Well in this case, they go to people like me! A school teacher posted an ad on the Allpetroach forum, wanting to give her 5 female hissers away, mostly due to the fact that one of them was pregnant. She kindly sent them to me for free, they all arrived yesterday and are now in my care. All seem healthy as can be and hopefully I will have some babies crawling around soon!

I am keeping them in a large cage with coconut fiber as the substrate and for hides I am using toilet paper rolls, dead leaves and a fake leaf vine. I will be feeding them dog food, fruits and veggies. There is a heat cable underneath half of their cage, as these guys require temperatures higher than 70F to gestate properly.

Now, these guys are probably hybrids, most Gromphadorhina "portentosa" in the hobby are. So I will be calling them Gromphadorhina sp. "Hybrid", to avoid any confusion.

Here are some pictures!

Here is a species of mite that is symbiotic with these roaches. They do not harm the roaches, and as far as I know the only place they can live is on the hissers themselves:

And here is the cage, though if you saw my recent post, then you will be familiar with it:

I am very happy to have these in my collection, it had been a while since I have kept any hissers!

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I will see you all next post! :)

A Little Blog Update

Hi guys, as you may have seen, I have added a couple new features to my blog.

The first is the For Sale page. This is where I will be showing some of the invertebrates I have for sale. I will tell you right now, it will mostly be roaches, but I may have certain beetles or isopods available from time to time.

Next is the Popular Posts on the sidebar. It's purpose is self explanatory.

I changed a few small things as well, improved My Links, got rid of the Subscribe button, changed the background of my blog, etc.

I hope you guys enjoy the new features, and I will see you all next time! :)

How I Setup My Cockroach Enclosures

Upon request I am doing a post on how I setup my roach enclosures! For my first setup I will be doing a terrestrial enclosure, this style of caging is for the typical roaches, Parcoblatta, Pseudomops, etc. This cage in particular is much larger than most of my other cages, it is for my incoming Madagascar hissing roaches!

First we start with a boring old plastic container:

Now we need to drill some holes into this thing. I used to use a Black and Decker electric drill, but sometimes if I drilled into thin plastic the drill would make cracks in the container and I would have to get a new container. Now I use a soldering iron/gun, it melts holes in the plastic, and does not cause cracks!

Then I get poking! Here is the finished product:

Now we add substrate! I use coconut fiber as the base substrate, then add other things like moss and mulch if necessary. I am just using the coco fiber this time. For this kind of setup I use about an inch of substrate, maybe less:

Now I add the basic hides, toilet paper rolls, cardboard egg cartons, etc. I also add a food bowl:

Then I add the natural decor, dead leaves, bark etc., I am putting dead leaves in this enclosure:

This is where I usually call it finished, but hissers hold a special place in my heart, so these guys get a fake leaf vine in their cage!

There we go, all done! Now all we need are the roaches, which should be arriving tomorrow!

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Now let's do a burrowing roach enclosure. This enclosure is for my Byrsotria sp. "Cuba", I took out all the roaches and re-setup their cage, this time taking pictures. As a rule, burrowers like a much deeper substrate than terrestrial roaches, about 2-3 inches of substrate. They also don't utilize hides as much as non-burrowers, though they do appreciate something to hide under.

First I put in the substrate:

Then I add some dead leaves. This is not needed for most roaches, but all roaches will appreciate a layer of dead leaves as a secondary food source, as well as to hide in. Polyphagids however, (Therea, Ergaula, Polyphaga, etc.), absolutely need dead leaves in their enclosure, it is their main food source. A inch or so of dead leaves is required for those roaches. Byrsotria do not need leaves, but it is a good aesthetic:

And now I add a simple hide, in this case a piece of cardboard eggcarton. I also add the food bowl:

And ta-da, we are done!

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial-like post, and I will see you all soon! :)

Pterostichus sp and Hooded Pitcher Plant Update

I have 7 of my Pterostichus sp. larva left, all seem to be mature, due to the fact that they have stopped eating and growing. I have changed out their substrate and have given them a deep compressed layer of moist coconut fiber. It seems one of them has already made a pupal cell!

See here:

I really hope they make it to adulthood, it will be my first time raising a Carabid from egg to adult!

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My Sarracenia minor seedling has been doing very well, and has put out many new pitchers! I apparently don't have to give it a cool period until it is three years old, unlike my Venus flytrap, which is enjoying a nice diapause in my fridge. 

Here are some pictures of my pitcher plant:

It has caught a couple of fungus gnats so far, will try feeding it a small mealworm sometime soon.

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog post, any suggestions for what you want the next one to be about? See you all later! :)

Oniscus asellus Update

Hi guys, I just wanted to do a short post on my Oniscus asellus.

They are still doing good, and have been breeding just fine. These guys go through so many leaves! I have changed their enclosure a bit, they have a nice piece of driftwood in their cage instead of a piece of cardboard.

Here are some pictures I took today:

The cage

Sorry for the really short blog post, next one should be longer and more interesting. Hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! :)