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This is a minor milestone, but the second generation of my B. Orientalis have started hatching. There are now about 25 little nymphs running around, maybe more as they are too quick to count accurately. With more than forty oothecae yet to hatch I should end up with quite the colony; the adult...

I ran out of other sources of protein for my B. Orientailis so I decided to give them a piece of the hard boiled egg i was eating (no salt). Although there was plenty for all of them they didn't want to share; first time I've seen them fight over food. The adult females were especially...

All of my B. Orientalis sub-adults reached maturity at least 5 weeks ago except for two. Is there such a thing as roaches never fully reaching maturity?

I just observed one my adult female B. Orientalis eating an ootheca. She is ready to drop one herself. There are five adult females in the container, all seeming to drop oothecae at the rate of one per week each. There is plenty of food, including dry cat food which should provide enough...

There is a white mold growing on some of the oothecae (B. Orientalis) that I've transferred to a separate container. This cannot be a good thing. What is the proper incubation environment for oothecae? Too little humidity and they dry out, too much and you get mold. I am perplexed. Is there...

I didn't think the critters were getting enough exercise in their little vivarium so I made them an exercise wheel.

About three days ago I found an adult female B. Orientalis on her back, with slowly moving legs. I placed her in a separate enclosure for observation; she moved around a bit, but very infrequently. She remained immobile most of the time, with slight movement of antennae and palps. Her last...

I just made a series of plastic rings to create ventilated lids, using commonly available empty containers. You can use aluminum foil and use a pin to make a bunch of tiny holes for those really small critters. The digital files are available here: http://www.thingiver...m/thing:1608190

When my B. Orientalis finally die of old age I'd like to preserve them for further study, mostly via photography. What are the best practices for such a process?

Two of the adult females dropped their oothecae a week after insemination. Does that seem like a normal (and healthy) length of time? These females took a little more than six months to reach maturity.

Although interest in time lapse photography of cockroaches is almost non-existent, I thought I'd post this warning anyhow. Be very careful if you use a DSLR camera. The shutter life can easily be exceeded by frequent time lapse sequences. 100,000 to 300,000 shutter clicks may sound like a lot...

This is a spiral "hotel" which they seem to enjoy. Time lapse video here:

In case you missed it, here's an interesting article about what's going on in those little bug brains: http://www.independe...n-a7002151.html

This is a bit different, in the ongoing experiment to provide the critters with an interesting and stimulating environment. The plastic is still a little bit slippery for good traction and needs to be roughened up a bit.

The vivarium I'm using for B. Orientalis nymphs does not have a substrate; I don't mind cleaning it every week or so, just to get rid of the frass. But I have some potting soil (4 years old, very dry) and I thought it would be interesting to observe them with the substrate, and I would need a...

Just completed a 24 hour time lapse series (one frame every 5 minutes) of the B. Orientalis nymphs doing their thing. Very interesting to see them moving around the different chambers, climbing the stick in the background, but mostly sitting still and doing nothing. I used Irfanview to create...

This is a proof of concept for a device to safely pick up small roaches. Using small zip-ties, short strips of silicone were attached to a pair of self-closing tweezers. The silicone strips may need to be replaced by rubber; the surface is very slick and provides poor grip. No roaches were...

This is the latest housing structure for my B. Orientalis nymphs, and is the best (so far) for observation and study. The walls are 2mm thick and 8mm apart, which is a good indicator of their size.

The design of my enclosure (http://www.roachforu...?showtopic=6118) requires me to relocate the critters when I clean the enclosure or replace the internal structures. But these little guys are frisky and very quick, which makes their relocation tricky. Because B. Orientalis are tolerant of...

I've read that beer is a great attractant for roaches, supposedly they love the stuff. But I've also read that too much can kill them; is it the alcohol? I'd like to give my little guys a treat of Guinness, which is less than 4% ABV. Any thoughts? Thanks.