Guess what I breed??

Ok, I was so going to come visit you, but now I'm changing my mind! GROSS!

The roaches kinda creep me out, too! Ick! (But I still like you!)

Those look a lot like the giant gokkuburi (cockroaches) we have here in Okinawa. About the same size too, minus the stripes.

Aya used to think they were a tastey-cunchy midnight snack-y thing at my old apartment where they would pop up from between the tatami every now and then.

I was glad she was after 'em because they were damn hard to catch or squash, as the case might be.

A bit creepy but very fascinating. I don't generally like anything which has more than 4 legs but I can see why you breed them. Would propably do the same if I had lizards. Maybe a snake will find it's way here some day, could feed it with mice and give some for the kitties too...

I do too. LOL. It just was a natural choice when you want to save money and have reptile mouthes to feed.

Where's the RAID spray smilie? JK!

I actually like the big forest type roaches. So much so I really wish they had a different name, so they wouldn't be guilty by association.

What truly freaks me out though are the little slender flying super fast house roaches. I don't know what it is, but after having one fly right at my face and grab onto my head and then when trying to get it off have it stuck in my collar just traumatized me to where I want to pull out my glock and take em out with extreme prejudice.

Interesting group of pets you've got there.

I'm sure the Okinawa ones are some sort of tropical variety too　that's just more spry on its feet.

Oh my life!!!

ah yes the lovely dubias. I used to breed them when I was breeding bearded dragons.

lovely lil creatures aren't they? No smell like crickets thank goodness.

Great pics.

Aw! So cute

I have some too! I had some small ones I got for $8 (for 50, free shipping) on ebay. I got some lobster roaches too about that time, and man, they were nasty! They stunk (because they kept dying), and were creepy and fast and ugly. So I took the heat off so they wouldn't breed and fed them all off.

I'm finally less creeped out, and was getting ready to put heat on the dubias again and someone posted on a gecko forum that he was overrun with dubias and wanted to know what to do with them. I jokingly (sorta) told him to put them in the mail and send them to me. And he did! He sent me about 150, mostly adults, for the cost of a flat rate shipping box! It helped him out too, since now he knows how to ship them to sell them.

They are gigantic! The lobsters are cricket sized. But still, even the male dubias with wings are much less creepy than the lobsters.

I have them on a heating pad and feed them a mix of stuff I found in my freezer, it's chickpeas, pumpkin, carrots and mixed veggies, all blended up. They're happy. And soon my leopard gecko and frogs will have an all you can eat roach buffet. And my sister has a "roach disposal" (bearded dragon) if they get out of hand.

What lizards do you have?

Even though they're not my cup of tea, thanks for sharing the pics. And I didn't know crickets bite. Learn something new every day.

Have you ever tried blattas? I've considered them since I have geckos, though I had stupid geckos that may not be able to handle something that fast. Being a quick breeder is a plus in the summer since I have turtles up then, too.

The only thing stopping me is that they look identical to the ones I see outside (western Oklahoma) and I don't know if they've made it this far north (they're an invasive species in parts of Texas). I don't want something that could live here.
On a positive note: the ones outside prefer to be outside. When one slips in (as they do when it rains a lot) they don't behave like a house roach does... which means they're dead in seconds from the cats. I have in the past caught one of the nymphs and kept him for a while, he did mature into a blatta looking adult roach.

Dubias are nice, though, a little slower.

I occasionally breed crickets in the summer... I hate the things. I don't think non-cricket keeping people realize how nasty they are. Never been bitten, though I have tough skin on my hands.

I plan to go centipede hunting when it warms up a bit, so I'll need to breed something non-larvae or worm again if I catch any. If I'm lucky and get some S. heros I'll have to share some pics... that'll bother people far more than roach pics.

I hate roaches they are about the only thing that really make my skin crawl

But i fully understand why you breed them

As long as they're not infesting my home, I don't care. An insect is an insect.

I've bred supers before but never had much luck with them. Too much work, and too much smell, for too few larvae in my case. I had a leo get impacted on supers before, too. ... That was fun to deal with.
I always keep a colony of mealworms going. Since you don't regularly use them you probably don't remember the mealworm shortage that happened around 2006? I think it was. I was set because I had a nice healthy large colony going for a few years already. My geckos like them because, all but one, are food dish trained - even the golden geckos. They're a bit useless for turtles.
I have a worm bin outside for raising worms for the turtles. They will not eat any sort of store bought worm, aside from nightcrawlers, because of what worms get raised on (manure/poultry feces, etc). I kept a colony of pill bugs for the turtles when they were hatchlings, too.
I've bred waxworms in the past just to see if I could. They're a bit too delicate for me.

Now I'm trying to figure out what those roaches are outside, again. I've never had any luck identifying them. They look sort of like the german and orientals do body shape wise, but match up to the b. lateralis much better. They can't climb smooth surfaces so maybe I should just collect some up since the rain will have them out? I wouldn't trust feeding them to my geckos (not exposed to local outdoor pathogens), but they could be fed to my turtles..

Oh no, a cricket shortage.

So two is all you have? I'm surprised you're not overrun with roaches! I have 2 leos, 4 goldens, and 9 juvenile box turtles. The turtles plow through food, insect and veggie alike. If they didn't hibernate I don't know what I would do for the winter.
I did have more geckos, but lost some to old age. I don't even know what # owner I was for a couple of the female leos - maybe the 4th or 5th. I remember when the guy (old family friend, RIP) I got my male from bought him at a show back around '95-96. With the exception of the my female leo, who has to be hand fed..., everyone else will grab anything that moves. Male leo has even grabbed me a few times because he doesn't get the whole fingers =/= food.

I finally figured out what the wild roaches around my house are. They're banded wood roaches - related to the b. lateralis (or if you want to get techincal parcoblatta lateralis, these being parcoblatta zebra). I wasn't wrong in thinking they looked almost exactly alike. Same care requirements, wood roaches are slower, and maybe a bit hardier. I'm going to set up a colony for the turtles out of the wild caughts.) ... if I can find enough roaches.

I am so terrified of those things... even though I know they can't hurt me. o.o;;;;; It's really irrational!

If you were in the US I'd say keep me in mind the next time you're overrun with them.

Do you belong to any roach forums with people that do sell out of their colonies from time to time? I've wanted orange heads for years but they're less common. Even less commonly kept are the green bananas, which I think are quite beautiful.


I guess they don't bother me because I see the non-pest species as just another insect outside, like the P. zebras. Some of the rarer kept roaches look nothing like the roaches we deal with - like the zebra striped roaches or the dominos.