Roaches in the UK

[Kate Arbon]

Hi everyone.

I hear a lot about T keepers in America who keep roach colonies to feed their Ts. I'd like to give it a go as I hate crickets, and when I buy locusts they always seem to die before I've used them all up.

I have 16 Ts, 9 of which are slings. Is it worth having a roach colony or will I have way too many roaches to feed that many spiders? If it is a good idea does anyone know where you can get roaches in England? I've had a look around at some places such as livefoods.co.uk but nowhere seems to sell them.

Thanks.

[James Box]

i'm also thinking of starting using roaches. crickets are awful.

i saw some for sale at the last show in Newark, but didn't pick any up then. will probably do it at the Kettering one, if there are any to be had.

just had a quick look at the tarantula shop and the spider shop, and neither carry feeder ones.
i know a few on here use them, though, so they'll probably be able to help.

as for quantity, you do want to have a good number of roaches so you can use them without depleting the number damagingly, and thus you'll have feeder animals indefinitely.
as far as i know, they're very easy to keep. the two kinds recommended to me were the Turkestan roach and the lobster roach.
i think one or both of those cannot climb glass.
from what i understand, the nymphs are small enough to feed to spiderlings, while the adults are large enough for the big T's, so a good feeder insect all round.
apparently they're very fast, so no gains there.
i don't know about them attacking T's in moult cycles like crickets do, i've heard both yay and nay on that.
that's all i've managed to glean, though unfortunately i don't know any sites to order from.

[Kate Arbon]

I think they sound much better than crickets/locusts all round. I despise crickets for the smell, noise, and tendency to escape. Locusts are ok but the place I get them from it's £2.50 a box and you only get about 7 locusts. Plus they tend to climb up to the lid as soon as you put them in a tank so the spiders take ages to find them.

Oh well if I can't find somewhere to order them from hopefully I can get some at the BTS show. But I will keep looking, and I'll let you know if I find anything.

[James Box]

thanks! i'm hoping someone will chime in here, cause i know a few use them.

yes, there are loads of reasons crickets are awful! the jumping to freedom is a big pet peeve, for example. i have lost so many...i can only hope the house spiders are devouring them, cause the brown crickets i end up having to use due to my shop only selling them at the small sizes i need are pests here.

locusts are another world of fun! i open the lid just a bit, and 4 or 5 fly off in separate directions, and sometimes i find them days later. great!

i'm having some success with maggots, but of course they're just minging

[Peter Lacey]

The appropriately named Peter Roach has colonies which he sells at our local exotic pets shop. Perhaps by sending him a pm he'll be able to sort something for you.
You can find a thread he recently created here:

http://www.thebts.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3322

I purchased some of these recently to feed my Klugi and my CWD. Yesterday morning the cat found an escaped roach which must have come from the CWD enclosure (I'm hoping the four remaining were eaten). They can fit through the thinnest of gaps and although most breeds can't climb smooth surfaces some can fly and climb branches.

You may wish to try earthworms too. These are a great food source, check out the thread within this forum:

http://www.thebts.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3131&highlight=earthworm

[Richard Shah]

I think they sound much better than crickets/locusts all round. I despise crickets for the smell, noise, and tendency to escape. Locusts are ok but the place I get them from it's £2.50 a box and you only get about 7 locusts. Plus they tend to climb up to the lid as soon as you put them in a tank so the spiders take ages to find them.

Oh well if I can't find somewhere to order them from hopefully I can get some at the BTS show. But I will keep looking, and I'll let you know if I find anything.

Hey Kate,
What is wrong with the smell exactly? Sorry, it's just that I don't yet have a tarantula to feed, thus have no experience with crickets! In the pet shop near my school, they sell 'silent' crickets; are they really silent, or just during the daytime (as they seem pretty silent)?
Also, I'm buying a plastic tank for my crickets (if I get a tarantula after attempting to convince my mum lol) and the guy at the store said they don't tend to jump that high, and if I put the container of crickets in the tank, then let them out inside, they shouldn't be able to escape! When does youur ones usually escape?
Sorry for all the questions, but I really want to get to know as much as possible before I buy a T., so please answer these que.s for me?
And these que.s are OPEN TO EVERYONE else btw!
Thanks a lot,
Rich.
And I know it isn't exactly the most fantastic thing to offer you, but I will +rep if you help me on these!

[KJ Vezino]

FYI…

These are some of the most common feeder roaches in the US.

Naupheta cinerea (lobster roach) – fast breeding, small roach (up to 1") but very fast and can climb glass. Lives about 1 year.

Blatta lateralis (Turkistan roaches) – just like lobsters but can't climb glass. It can however climb up the silicone of an aquarium tank, so consider keeping them in a plastic tub instead.

Blaptica dubia (Guyana orange spotted or dubia roaches) – large roach (up to 2"), can't climb glass, lives 2+ years, and easy to tell males from females (wing/nowings).

Blaberus discoidales (false death head or discoid roaches) – Just as good as B. dubia, but harder to tell males/females apart as they both have wings.

When I ever get around to getting roaches and starting a colony, I'll be getting B. dubia!

[Ray Gabriel]

Kate,

You are barking up the right tree here, i use mostly roaches and maggots for feeding now (only got about 30 spids left) but i know Richard Gallon uses virtuallu nothing else for feeding.

As i posted somwhere else dont use adult locusts as once the hind legs and wings are gone you are left with something the same size as the stage smaller, and lower than that stage is the same as adult crickets.

A s/a Peruvian roach thingy that we breed and use for food is the same as about 4 locusts, and free, as all e do is add vegie peelings and dry fish food and an almost never endign supply of food.

Wwe also use Lobster roaches, Blaptica dubia (well that is what the label says) and a couple of other species.

I buy crickets once a month to feed some of the medium sized spids if i have no roaches the right size.

Squatt maggots weekly for the slings, and juvs and thats about it.

much easier than Crickybats, and cheaper........................trouble is you dont have a regular supply of cricket tubs anymore LOL

Ray

[Kate Arbon]

Hey Kate,
What is wrong with the smell exactly? Sorry, it's just that I don't yet have a tarantula to feed, thus have no experience with crickets! In the pet shop near my school, they sell 'silent' crickets; are they really silent, or just during the daytime (as they seem pretty silent)?
Also, I'm buying a plastic tank for my crickets (if I get a tarantula after attempting to convince my mum lol) and the guy at the store said they don't tend to jump that high, and if I put the container of crickets in the tank, then let them out inside, they shouldn't be able to escape! When does youur ones usually escape?
Sorry for all the questions, but I really want to get to know as much as possible before I buy a T., so please answer these que.s for me?
And these que.s are OPEN TO EVERYONE else btw!
Thanks a lot,
Rich.
And I know it isn't exactly the most fantastic thing to offer you, but I will +rep if you help me on these!

Hi Rich

I don't know what it is exactly, maybe their urine, but I find crickets really start to hum after you've had them for a few days. I haven't found this problem at all with locusts.

As far as 'silent' crickets goes, I think if you get the black ones they are actually silent. You can buy brown ones which are often labelled silent but I've had batches which ended up making noise so I'm not sure about that. I don't really mind the noise, it reminds me of being in Africa, but it can get annoying sometimes. Again, if you go for locusts they don't make any noise.

Crickets are masters of escape in my experience! It usually happens when you're getting them out to put in a spider tank. Locusts are so easy, they tend to just sit there and once you have them in your hand they don't struggle. Crickets hop like mad and wriggle in your hands. If you have big ones it's not quite as bad because they're easier to catch, but if you go for small ones it can be mental. Especially as you get so many in a tub of small ones, so there's a lot more to try and escape. In my old house I had the boiler cupboard in my bedroom and escaped crickets would always head there because it was warm and dark, and then climb up into the walls along the pipes. Once they were up there you could hear the chirping echoing around the whole house I thought it was funny, my housemates didn't really agree, lol.

[Kate Arbon]

FYI…

These are some of the most common feeder roaches in the US.

Naupheta cinerea (lobster roach) – fast breeding, small roach (up to 1") but very fast and can climb glass. Lives about 1 year.

Blatta lateralis (Turkistan roaches) – just like lobsters but can't climb glass. It can however climb up the silicone of an aquarium tank, so consider keeping them in a plastic tub instead.

Blaptica dubia (Guyana orange spotted or dubia roaches) – large roach (up to 2"), can't climb glass, lives 2+ years, and easy to tell males from females (wing/nowings).

Blaberus discoidales (false death head or discoid roaches) – Just as good as B. dubia, but harder to tell males/females apart as they both have wings.

When I ever get around to getting roaches and starting a colony, I'll be getting B. dubia!

Thanks for the info Kevin. I think B. discoidales and B. dubia are the ones I usually hear about, and they're the ones I'd like to try breeding if I can get hold of some.

[Nick L]

I’ve used roaches on and off for a year. Started with Lobsters (Naupheta cinerea) – breed like crazy and bl**dy fast! They are also escape artists (still finding the odd one around the house). Decided to feed that colony off to the Ts because of these ‘characteristics’ and start an Argentine (Blaptica dubia) culture as from what I read these seemed more suitable. These are much better in these respects (slightly less prolific though), the only problem being that the newborn nymphs are quite big (= small or size 2 crickets). Also started a Madagascan Hisser (Gromphadorhina portentosa) culture at the same time – painfully slow growers/breeders but large ‘past it’ individuals make a very meaty treat for the even the largest T. Have bought starter cultures from Mark Webb (markwebb@peakecology.co.uk) -- excellent quality and reasonably priced (advertises on www.reptileclassifieds.co.uk -- search for “dubia”).

Nick

[Kate Arbon]

Brilliant, thank you Nick!

[Phil Rea]

You are barking up the right tree here, i use mostly roaches and maggots for feeding now (only got about 30 spids left) but i know Richard Gallon uses virtuallu nothing else for feeding.

My colony of Blaberus sp. 'craniifer' roaches started out with individuals from Richard's stock. They're fantastic for feeding to larger spiders.

I also have a large colony of lobster roaches

[Ray Gabriel]

Blaptica dubia (Guyana orange spotted or dubia roaches) – large roach (up to 2"), can't climb glass, lives 2+ years, and easy to tell males from females (wing/nowings).

Do you have a pic of these?

We have "Balptica dubia" from Argentina (thats what they came as) but they dont sound anything like yours with the orange spots........i havent got a clue what we have, i know they are not the same as the otehr roaches we have and that is about as far as it goes LOL

Ray

[Richard Shah]

Hi Rich

I don't know what it is exactly, maybe their urine, but I find crickets really start to hum after you've had them for a few days. I haven't found this problem at all with locusts.

As far as 'silent' crickets goes, I think if you get the black ones they are actually silent. You can buy brown ones which are often labelled silent but I've had batches which ended up making noise so I'm not sure about that. I don't really mind the noise, it reminds me of being in Africa, but it can get annoying sometimes. Again, if you go for locusts they don't make any noise.

Crickets are masters of escape in my experience! It usually happens when you're getting them out to put in a spider tank. Locusts are so easy, they tend to just sit there and once you have them in your hand they don't struggle. Crickets hop like mad and wriggle in your hands. If you have big ones it's not quite as bad because they're easier to catch, but if you go for small ones it can be mental. Especially as you get so many in a tub of small ones, so there's a lot more to try and escape. In my old house I had the boiler cupboard in my bedroom and escaped crickets would always head there because it was warm and dark, and then climb up into the walls along the pipes. Once they were up there you could hear the chirping echoing around the whole house I thought it was funny, my housemates didn't really agree, lol.

Hehe lol!! Did they realize that they came from you?
There are advantages and disadvantages that I can see, all them you have mentioned. At my pet store, those crickets are only about an inch/just over an inch big, and there are a good 40 or more of them. I know they have a tendency to jump about and wriggle away a lot, I used to catch them when I was younger. Does the Chile rosea like to eat black crickets, if you'd happen to know that by any chance?
Locusts, as you said come in low quantity, which in some aspects is quite good, but you said they like to climb up on the sides, and I feel that my T will have a hard time trying to find it and then catch it.
I'm going to head down to the store tomorrow and check if they sell locusts.
Thanks,
Rich
+++++++++++++rep!