Which roach should I buy and breed?

Mike, if you absolutely can't have escapees I would be very wary of lobster roaches.

First of all do not trust that Bug Boundary/Bug Stop stuff. I had a serious Bug Boundary FAILURE for reasons unknown, a couple weeks ago. It was working fine for several weeks, then suddenly they were crawling out and all over the place. There was no scratch or change in the strip of Bug Boundary that I could see, just they were able to climb right over it. Since then I have been finding them everywhere and now I'm considering just selling my house and MOVING! ick ick ick...

Here is someone else with escapee problems: read posts #39 and #44 BEFORE YOU BUY LOBSTERS
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...32&page=8&pp=5

Vaseline works but at the high temps you want the bins at, it melts and runs down. I fear its only a matter of time before that fails too.

Then there is the actually feeding them to things problem. They can climb anything and escape thru the smallest crack in any tank or cage. Do you vaseline the top 3 inches of every herp cage? That cant be good for the herp. Do you hand feed them one at a time to be sure none go uneaten and possibly escape the cage later? That's a fun way to spend every waking hour of your life from now on.

Someone else posted (sorry I can't find the thread) that some uneaten lobsters hid under a potted plant in a gecko cage, bred and had babies. If the adults can't escape the herp cage, the babies (very tiny) surely can. And then again, infest your house...

But, if you still want to buy lobster roaches, I will sell you mine cheap

After careful consideration I have decided to hold off on the roach idea for awhile. Maybe in the future but for now the escapee issue it top priority. I can't even risk it. I have a large apartment that handles my dragons well but my neighbor would die if she knew I had roaches. God forbid one escape. She found a cricket ONCE and freaked.

I've been breeding lobsters on a large scale for 4 years or so. At one point I had in excess of 20,000 of them on hand at any given time.
Escapes will happen. I'd drop a few when packing an order, or a couple would crawl out of the monitors cage when feeding, but NONE have survived or reproduced outside their tubs.
I don't know what is different in my house and the vast majority of other houses where lobsters are kept but infestation is an extreme rarity. If that were not the case my house should have been infested years ago.
I once turned over a cup of over 100 of them when packing an order. The majority of course scurried off before I could grab them. They all apparently died because I still never see any in the house, and that would have been far more than necessary to begin a colony.
I also keep their dry feed in open containers and a box of apples on the floor so they would have ready access to food and moisture, but still they do not infest my house.

Any feeder insect you keep in large numbers, except worms maybe, will escape. It's an unavoidable part of it. When I used crickets though they had a far higher instance of escape than the roaches ever have. Hardly a day went by that I didn't catch a cricket in the house.

Try the discoids. They can't climb and they will breed very well at temps lower than 90 and. Mine Usually run 80 - 85 and I have plenty.

Steve

try http://www.blaberus.com/ he has discriptions of all his roaches and reasonable prices.

Lobster roaches are apain to deal with. They have a very good meat to shell ratio and breed very fast. However they can escape and are difficult to catch. They are cheap for a reason. Also people who have experience and availability of a wide variety of roaches dont use lobster roaches. Orange head roaches are the least popular of the non climbing species. THey have a tendency to stink and are notorious wing biters. They have a high need for protein compared to other roaches. Discoids get pretty big actually and some people have allergic reactions to them as opposed to other members of the genus blaberus. For geckos and other similar sized lizards Blaptica dubia are by far a superior feeder. They are a non glass climber and slower moving then other species such as Blaberus and Eublaberus. Roaches are easy to breed and superior in everyway to crix. Also lobster roaches have no advantages that other roach species dont. There are faster breeding non climbers then lobsters. Basically people who recommend lobsters or discoids or orange heads either have no experience with other roaches or just look at the initial low cost. No one who has access to several species prefers them for any reason other then their cheapness. For geckos Blatta lateralis, Blaptica dubia and Byrsotria fumigata are much better and are non climbers. For larger insect eaters Blaberus fusca and Blaberus craniifer are very good.

Roaches are expensive to buy as feeders. So they should be bought as breeders then feed what you breed. You need to buy a minimum of 100 to get a self sustaining colony in a reasonable amount of time. You let them grow up have babies and then let their babies grow up and have babies. Once the second generation starts to breed then you can feed them off as part of a self sustaining colony. Also roaches like crowds 200 roaches will be more than twice as productive 100. You spend good money on your animals dont be cheap when it comes to feeders. For more detailed information beyond the scope of this post please contact me at DigbyRigby@exoticfeeders.com. Where my feeders are cooler then most peoples pets. Also there are things besides roaches that are very good also.

DigbyRigby@exoticfeeders.com The feeder forums

Wow, great post. Thank you for all the great information. I will certainly look in your direction when the time is right for me to get roaches.

Thanks,

Yes, please don't forego buying roaches because of the horror stories of lobster escapes... if escapees are a must not have for you, then simply get the non-climbers. They literally can not reach higher than their full body length on any container wall. I started with 100 B. dubia nymphs last November, and I know have in excess of 5 or 6 hundred, with 30-40 adult females, which is key to establishing a colony.

We are moving on June 4th to new a place out of state. We will be able to have roaches there without pissing off the neighbors. BECAUSE THERE WON'T BE ANY I plan to develop a couple colonies once I get to our new place.

There ya go! Don't blame the roaches - it's the neighbors that are the real problem!