Winter survival and breeding

macbrush

macbrush

Fifth Instar
I have had my first batch of adult Pepper Roaches and Giant Cave Roaches at last december, during the winter (5C - 15C outside, 10C - 25C inside) half of the pepper roaches died off, and breeding was horribly slow, I only discovered around 10 nymphs last check. But the Giant Cave Roaches were breeding like wild fire spreading, I tried but lost count, when I throw food in there, a swarm of nymphs rush out to riot!

Can I expect my Peppers to pick up after the weather warm up a bit? Just wondering, since I hate to lose that colony, I had to import them from UK.

Cheers

Kenneth

 
Very interesting... My peppered colony used to have a lot more vigor until about a year ago. They used to produce much better than my giganteus without a single doubt. I wonder if there is some kind of pathogen going through peppered roach colonies that causes this kind of reduced fecundity.

 
That sounds a possibility. I have tried keeping them hot, warm, and room temp., also very high humidity, high humidity, moderate humidity, and low humidity. But they seem to die off at a steady rate.

Zephyr said:
Very interesting... My peppered colony used to have a lot more vigor until about a year ago. They used to produce much better than my giganteus without a single doubt. I wonder if there is some kind of pathogen going through peppered roach colonies that causes this kind of reduced fecundity.
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I have Dubia and use no heat or lighting. The tank is in my room so at the coldest part of Winter minimum temp is at least 68 F. I notice they breed slowly, but offspring are larger and my roaches live longer than average lifespan. They mate when temps get near the high 70s.

 
As embarrassing as they are, I may as well report my results since they sound a lot like yours!

First generation reproduced just fine, except for a fairly long gestation period. The nymphs and adults I have now experienced significant die-off over the winter and now have a disproportionate number of males to females. Could be husbandry issues since it's my first time with the species and they're at room temp. Hopefully the remaining females will mature in time and I'll be able to get more nymphs this summer.

 
This is the first batch in 3 colonies of peppered roaches that have successfully molted and started breeding for me. I keep them literally 4 inches from a 75 watt red heat bulb and spray the enclosure once a week, flooding the substrate once a month. I keep dogfood in at all times and make sure to give them fruit from time to time. I keep them the same as my last two failed attempts save one difference. I keep their lid propped open to reduce the humidity every few days. I leave it propped open for a few days and close it again for a few. This variation in humidity has gotten success with both my peppereds and giant cave roaches. The giant cave roaches have bred and the adults have kicked it, but about two dozen nymphs are left alive. The peppereds are just now producing ootheca.

 
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