Roaches a viable alternative?

[Rich.Harrington]

Just been talking to a friend who breeds roaches as a food source for their geckos as aparently they are better nutritionally and also dont jump/fly/bite etc. Also he says they breed much easier that crickets do and dont make any noise (a blessing). I know that T's in the wild will eat just about anything they can overpower, but has anyone ever tried using roaches as an alternative, and what kind of results did you have if so?

[Neil Richardson]

Yup, i've used lobster roaches for over a year now. Not had any problems with them at all. None of my specimens have refused to eat them.

As you say, they dont fly, and dont bite moulting Ts, so are safe to leave in long term.

Easy to feed, just put in dry cat/dog biscuit, cereal, carrot/apple for water and leave somewhere warm.

I've set up a deathshead colony recently for feeding to my larger specimens, but they still eat lobsters happily.

[Marko Sajovic]

I'm cutting off my cricket colonies too.
I've been using roaches for quite some time, since I had many lizards that liked them. But now I only have a couple of collared lizards for which adult roaches are too big. But since there is not much efford needed for keeping the collony I still have them for my tarantulas.
As for lobster roaches... I bought bigger collony in october last year. Easy to breed, they are proper size for my collareds and spiders like them also.
I'm, thinking of getting rid of all the crickets and using roaches only (and occasionaly superworms).
The only problem with lobsters is they climb on glass and plastic. But with using vaseline and sticky tape I had never an escapee.

[Neil Ashby]

Can you buy roaches in the uk ?

[Rich.Harrington]

Thanks for the replies, just before I go and do a quick bit of research whats the general breed cycle times of the roaches your using?

[Guy Tansley]

A good link http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/Roaches/ for roaches.

Lobster roaches are my recommendation.

[Neil Ashby]

Cheers Guy ...... but do you have a link where to buy them from ?

[J M Clegg]

Roaches

I have stopped buying crickets now full stop. All my spiders are now fed on roaches. I have 4 colonies, Lobsters, Deaths Head, Orange heads and some stunning green ones that look like lace wings. I don't know what species they are. As a few people have noted already their quiet, they don't bite and they breed like - cockroaches.

The Lobsters are the only ones that climb, but a 2cm ring of Vaseline round the top of their tank, plus an old pair of tights stretched over the lid ensure no escapees. Plus the hatchling nymphs will do for even the smallest slings.

The Orange heads and Deaths heads will sufficiently fill an adult spider and you don't really need more than 1 of each maybe once a fortnight.

I feed ours on ready brek and the odd salad leaf and occasional fruit cores. Keep them warm and they breed for fun. They are in my humble opinion the easiest and best food source for Tarantulas. Also as you are feeding them yourself you can control what they are eating and therefore what your spids eat.

£2.50 per week on nutritionally poor crickets that can harm your spiders, or £1.25 every month for a box of ready brek - it's a no brainer really!!!!

[Warren Beattie]

I gave up lobster roaches in favour of non-climbing Blatta lateralis/Shelfordella tartara, and now I almost regret it. After waiting months for any to mature, I figured I had another three weeks before the oothecae started hatching. Must be 5-6 weeks since the first ooths appeared, and nothing yet...

I once got some Trichorhina tomentosa cultures from Richard Gallon, and a bunch of what I think are Pycnoscelus surinamensis nymphs had smuggled in with them. Bonus! Oviviviparous and parthenogenetic - once they mature they might take over from the lateralis, in turn.

Neil: Virginia Cheeseman sells a bucketload of different roach species. No lobsters, though.

[Richard Gallon]

I've got starter cultures of both Death's head & lobster roaches available (£5 a culture +£3 P&P); e-mail me if you're interested.

Death's heads are great for large adult spiders (e.g. adult Poecilotheria, Acanthoscurria etc.), lobsters are good for everything else (except for dust-mite spiderlings like Yamia, Meteriopelma etc).

Richard

[Phil Rea]

I'd have to agree. Roaches are definitely better. I have a colony of Death's head roaches (started from Richard's stock), and they're fantastic for the bigger spiders.

I also have an enormous colony of Lobster roaches which make up the staple diet of most of my spiders

[mike halewood]

How do you look after them, and grow them up??
What sort of size tank, bucket or enclosure would you need to setup for a Roach colony??

Mike

[Guy Tansley]

Keep similar to crickets but watch for the glass climbing species and take precautions to prevent escapes. Keep them warm and well fed and they will breed without any problems. Read the previous link I posted for specifics.

[sarah Smith]

I've got starter cultures of both Death's head & lobster roaches available (£5 a culture +£3 P&P); e-mail me if you're interested.

Death's heads are great for large adult spiders (e.g. adult Poecilotheria, Acanthoscurria etc.), lobsters are good for everything else (except for dust-mite spiderlings like Yamia, Meteriopelma etc).

Richard

That's wired then as I have used hatchling lobsters for our Yamia and other tiny slings with no trouble occasionally if a sling is extra fussy I pre kill the roach but 9 times out of ten I don't have to do even that. Guess I got lucky or something?