Blatticomposting

Briene

Briene

Third Instar
I just noticed Kyle mentioned blatticomposting on his site. Which I think is awesome! Since I'm huge into giving all of my table scraps to my roaches and it works out beautifully. Was wondering who else is into blatticomposting. He posted this link as well with more information if your interested.

 
I use wood chips and rotting wood for substrate. In a month there is enough feces and broken down wood the substrate could make great fertilizer for small pots or gardens.

 
we actually just purchased a bunch of Ivory nymphs from Herpetologyfrk to grow into a colony with plans of donating some to the research

we have other plans for them also but part would be donated

 
We are doing this with our household fruit and vegetable waste. It is working good but I put too much into one of my colonies and they did not eat the dogfood. It sat on the bottom and a MASSIVE grain mite explosion occurred and took out half the colony before I knew what was going on. Live and learn. Now I add small amounts.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hahaha I love the aspect of composting with roaches and I think most keepers here have been blatticomposting for years without even knowing it.

Before I gave away most of my reptiles I was feeding canned dog food to my lizards and I would throw the cans in my blaberus bins and find them the next day spotlessly clean with the paper and glue eaten off completly.

Aswell as spare mangos and avacados are eaten to the seed and then the fibers on the seed are chewed off completly.

"Yes I know that is a sign of poor husbandry"

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Everyone talks about ivorys for this but I'm just starting my ivorys however my blatta lats seem to eat everything i throw in there. Why wouldn't they work for it? Has it been studied? I know they are considered a pest in some areas. Just questions.

 
I don't think the species that you use matters I dont even own any ivorys I use mainly my portentosa's and other big colonies that I have : )

 
i actually asked kyle why he chose the ivories, he said "I picked the Ivories for their crowding tolerance, voracious appetite, and their keenness for eating their own dead."

all roaches species would be suitable for blatticomposting, some just better than others.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I hope some ivories are available soon. I love the clean up skills of my portentosas . I will put a ton of food remnants in their container and they will devour it oh so quickly.

 
Just fed too-brown bananas to a few species and they're devouring them. My wife was peeling potatoes the other day and saved the peels for me. My bugs love yams at Thanksgiving! And pumpkin, actually, too! My kids leave their watermelon rinds and apple cores in plastic bags sometimes. They know these things will all be put to good use. We're Costco shoppers. Lots of mouths to feed in this house!

 
I did rotting carrots yesterday. They loved it! I almost did rotting cucumber. I always google anything I'm iffy about and ask fellow roach gurus. I'm happy I did! Turns out cucumber isn't very yummy to roaches I guess.

 
Briene said:
I did rotting carrots yesterday. They loved it! I almost did rotting cucumber. I always google anything I'm iffy about and ask fellow roach gurus. I'm happy I did! Turns out cucumber isn't very yummy to roaches I guess.
Click to expand...
Yes, in fact I read that cucumber peal is actually a roach-repellent.

 
I'm completely interested in Blatticomposting. If you have any other sites to reference more about it please let me know!

 
It's a great thing to do if you have enough roaches. I'm going to be doing it in the summer with N. cinerea. It's not hard to do either. And a plus is that if you hve enough roaches you can use the poo as fertilizer for your plants and stuff.

 
MrCrackerpants said:
We are doing this with our household fruit and vegetable waste. It is working good but I put too much into one of my colonies and they did not eat the dogfood. It sat on the bottom and a MASSIVE grain mite explosion occurred and took out half the colony before I knew what was going on. Live and learn. Now I add small amounts.
Click to expand...
What do you mean, "took out half the colony"?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
He is saying that the grain mites killed off half of the colony before he knew what had happened. Grain mites suck so bad.

 
Don't even get me started on my mite problem! I have these mites that are 2-3 times larger than grain mites, hard shelled, and quite fast. Grain mites do not do well in dry containers, but these mites breed best in dry containers, and most of my bugs are darkling beetles, which I keep on the dry side. Plus, these things spread to other cages like wildfire. However, I am currently breeding a variety of springtails, and I am introducing them to recently sterilized cages to prevent mites from re-infesting them. These mites came from potting soil, which I had been using in place of coco fiber a few months back. Bug keepers be warned, do NOT use potting soil, or you might have a really bad mite problem very soon....

 
Grain mites kill roaches? Seriously? I guess they have very catholic little appetites. My original question was going to be different but i thought it would sound stupid if i said "You mean the mites kill them?" Yikes.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yea, if grain mites run out of food, they attach themselves to the roaches, and can block up their breathing holes thus suffocating the poor roaches.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top