The Raddest Roaches

A blog for my cockroaches!

[sunkensubtext]

I bought some dubia roaches for the gecks yesterday, and when I opened them up today I found this guy!! I’m not sure what to do now, though, because I feel like he’s too cool to become a treat.

[cock-a-roach]

Don’t worry- that’s not albinism! He’s just molted. When they shed their exoskeletons, they get all white and soft like that. In a few days, he’ll be back to full pigment. Feed away! :D

[bisopod]

i can't help but be super grossed out by roaches n it's something i want to work through, can you tell me some nice roach things and reasons why you like them? i feel like it'll help me see them in a better light hearing a different perspective

sure!! this is mostly based off my experience with madagascar hissers, i totally get why people would have trouble with american cockroaches and the more ‘scuttly’ breeds. but here’s some nice stuff about mine:

a lot of the time they don’t really hiss unless you disturb them?? they just make little chirrups and wheezy sounds, most nights i go to sleep to the sound of them chattering gently among themselves

they’re so slow! (at least as adults) like if they’re on your hand and you don’t startle them they’ll just plod along inquisitively

from the top view they look like silly fat ovals with feelers sticking out the top and it’s the least threatening thing i’ve ever seen

the females love to huddle together and cling to stuff! especially if one of them has babies they’ll all just snuggle up on a piece of wood in a little buggy bundle

you can get them to eat from your hand if you persevere and find a sufficiently hungry roach, one of my mutuals described handfeeding a bug like being ‘chosen’ by a cat, they’ll only do it when they want to but it’s the cutest thing

sometimes they like to bury themselves in their substrate with just the feelers poking out and honestly Big Mood

they have funny little anime button-eyes that look sorta melancholic bc of how their heads face downward, even when they molt the eyes stay black so they look like little sad-eyed ghosts for a few hours

they have favorite foods like any other pet (mine are particularly into banana, apple, pear and chicken) when i change the food they all start shuffling around and swishing their antennae so i guess that’s the closest a bug gets to excitement

generally i ‘get’ why people would be afraid of them though so thanks for phrasing this respectfully instead of being all ‘ew ur pets are gross lol’, it’s kind of an each-to-their-own thing ykwim? i know from experience it’s hard to get over bug phobias bc i still have trouble with certain spiders and anything with really long legs (and this is coming from one of the Official Bug Guys of Tumblr lmao). but i hope you can be less troubled by them eventually! and hey if not just blacklist my #roachblogging tag even though i tend to keep most of it to a sideblog these days ✌️

[cock-a-roach]

I just got some dubias, and would like to know the best foods for them, and if they need humidity! They don't seem to like fruit like strawberries or pears, but I gave them a small piece of leftover steak and they LOVED that,, I can't give them steak everyday and I'd like to give them more than just oats.. any suggestions?

Give 'em your tasty leftovers! Mine dig apples quite a bit and they LOVE sweet potato peels. I also gave them a graham cracker once and it was gone the next day. Experiment and play around- but avoid things like garlic and onions. Those are no bueno, especially if you're feeding them off to a reptile!

[cock-a-roach]

The cockroach from wall•e made me love roaches and when I have my own apartment im 100% getting hissing cockroaches, they're so cute

A wonderful decision! I love the roach in Wall-e; so rarely do you see roaches getting depicted positively and here’s this little guy being the most charming bug Disney and/or Pixar’s ever done (looking directly at you, Jiminy Cricket and the entire cast of A Bug’s Life).

[cock-a-roach]

I saw the first ever babies from my new dubia colony today! They're very small!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINY FRIENDS

[cock-a-roach]

why do buggos flip on them back when die?

It’s a combination of things, usually; if a bug gets flipped over on a very smooth surface (like a tile floor), it can be very hard for them to right themselves. Pesticides can also cause neurological reactions- basically neurotransmitters get inhibited and the insect loses its muscle control, causing it to flip about and (typically) end up on its back. The New York Times actually did a very brief write-up about this just the other day!

I rather liked the cartoon.

[cock-a-roach]

Pearl is so dainty and pretty! Look at her delicate little face.

[charlesfosterofdensen]

One of my cockroaches spawned today.

[npr]

Cockroaches are widely despised. They’re attracted to filth. They frighten people, even give them nightmares.

But for a team of scientists at Texas A&M University, the roach is a hero: the first animal that humans might successfully transform into a robot, a hybrid of insect and machine that we can send anywhere to be our eyes and ears.

Professor S. Bradley Vinson is an entomologist — an insect expert. Professor Hong Liang is a mechanical engineer. The point of their work is to build the perfect cockroach cyborg: an animal that can crawl into tiny holes and around jagged edges with recording equipment, for surveillance, for example. Or, if there’s an earthquake and a building crashes, Liang says, deploy them to the second floor for search and rescue, “so when they reach there, they can work as a vehicle. If they can carry any sensors, cameras, they can collect information for us.”

What Cockroaches With Backpacks Can Do. Ah-mazing

GIF: Courtesy of Texas A&M Engineering

[astronomy-to-zoology]

“Six-spotted Cockroach” (Eublaberus distanti) 

Also known as the Four-spotted Cockroach or Trinidad Bat-cave Cockroach, the six-spotted cockroach is a species of Blaberid cockroach that is native to Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Brazil, and Peru. Six-spotted cockroaches typically are observed in relatively dry guano-rich areas in caves (thus the name “bat-cave”) but are also found in rotting logs, decaying litter and epiphytes. Like many other cockroach species, E. distanti is a scavenger feeding on any animal or vegetable matter readily available. 

Classification

Animalia-Arthropoda-Insecta-Blattodea-Blaberidae-Eublaberus-E. distanti

Image: Ltshears

[harpij]

Blaberus discoidalis, freshly molted to adult.

[amazingpetenclosures]

Do you know of any caresheets for Madagascar hissing cockroaches?

I don’t, sorry… Aside from googling it, but I wouldn’t know what to look for in a good caresheet for them.

Anyone have suggestions?

[bugblog]

good hisser care sheets can be a bit hard to find because, even though they’re very common pets, there are a myriad of ways to keep them depending on your goals & desired outcome. many people keep them to breed as feeders or simply as a fun science project for themselves; those people are going to have much different set ups & ideas of what constitutes “good” care than people who keep them as display pets (like we do). so one care sheet will vary very wildly from the next. it’s quite frustrating, honestly!

fortunately hissers are extremely hardy & can handle a wide range of environmental conditions. they are very low maintenance & don’t require much space. i have mine (9 in total, all adults) in a 10-gallon tank, which is probably more space than they need, but since mine are all males (which are known to be aggressive towards each other) it’s better for them to have excess space. they are kept on a mix of coco chips & coco coir for substrate, with some oak leaves on the surface (which they occasionally like to eat as well). my setup is bioactive, which means it includes a “cleanup crew” of giant springtails & dwarf white isopods; these teeny inverts eat roach poop, rotting food & basically make it so the tank is self-sustaining & i never need to do more than spot clean. however a bioactive viv for roaches is a little bit of overkill & not necessary, just something to look into if you really get into them, especially as display pets!

for diet, my bugs eat fresh veggies like carrots, chard, bok choy, collard greens, kale, romaine lettuce, cilantro, & even bananas sometimes. many people feed them dog food which is fine, but tbh it stinks up my room & is susceptible to mold. they’re good for taking care of your leftovers! carrots are my go-to just because i can put 2 big pieces in there & don’t need to feed them again for a week or even two. i have also tried repashy’s bug burger (comes as a powder & you mix & cool it into a jelly) & they really love that.

what level of humidity they need seems to be a big contention in the hisser community, as i have looked at a lot of sources & asked many professionals & STILL can’t get a straight answer. i’ve heard as high as 90% & as low as 20%!! they are obviously from a tropical part of the world, but i have also heard they live in the drier regions of that area. i have a small humidity gauge in my tank (the crappy stick-on kind, so probably not very accurate, but gives a good enough estimate) & try to keep them between 50% & 75%. i do so by misting the tank with BOTTLED water from the store; in my experience they are less picky about the level of humidity than they are about the actual water i use. using purified water also helps keep the tank glass clear. something i like to do is keep one side of the cage misted & the other dry, to give them a bit of a choice. you can use a piece of acrylic, glass, or plastic over part of the screen top (if you have one) to help keep some of the humidity in.

ideal temperature also isn’t something i’m 100% sure on. i did buy a small UTH for mine to see if it made a difference; some like to hang out over in that part of the tank & some don’t. heat needs will vary depending on if you’re attempting to breed them or not. generally warmer is better, but i’ve heard not over 90°. if you do get a UTH, get a thermostat with it so you can monitor & control the temp!!!

i don’t breed mine so i don’t want to give advice on that yet. many people seem to have trouble with it, but before we separated ours by sex we had plenty of unplanned babies! i can explain more about the breeding & gestation process if you want (including how to ACCURATELY determine their sex even if they don’t have their full horns yet) but i won’t now.

one other thing that i need to mention is that they like to hide, & also climb. i have some medium pieces of cork bark in my tank, some for climbing & some for hiding under. they can climb anything, including glass, so if you use a tank you’ll either need to smear vaseline near the top section (so they can’t climb out) or pre-treat it with food-grade silicone, which comes as a spray but dries invisible & is impossible for their feet to stick to.

that’s all i can think of for now. i’m sure my co-mod & plenty of my followers can add to this or give alternate methods, & i’m perfectly happy to answer any questions anon may have! (hoping they see this)

[amazingpetenclosures]

I somehow missed this… Thanks for alerting me to it!

[gaylarva]

sun’s out, bugs out!

[gaylarva]

menace to society

[cockroachsuggest]

[indefinite fffffft sounds]

[typhlonectes]

A few days ago, one of our Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) shed its exoskeleton, and several of our visitors asked if it was made out of plastic. I had to open the cage so they could see it more clearly.

[petcockroaches]

Project “Fancy Cockroach Photography” take one! I plopped Sonja down on her throne and she just kind of… anchored herself in that awkward position and refused to move. I’ll try again later!

[tser]

Children of earth. Blaberus fusca (nomen nudum), Dusky or Dwarf Cave Roach