Impermable alternatives to Egg Crates

Next week I will try to use plastic letter trays sanded with finer grit sand paper on both sides (I hope they arrive next week).

I will post photos in the near future.

I have found letter trays below 2 euros each on internet. In a street shop is like 11 euros each !

 
Next week I will try to use plastic letter trays sanded with finer grit sand paper on both sides (I hope they arrive next week).

I will post photos in the near future.

I have found letter trays below 2 euros each on internet. In a street shop is like 11 euros each !
Yes, let us know.

 
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Top box: insignis, below it is the Portentosa/Princisia box and the other one below is the Javanica box.

The one that is at the base is a Millipede Gigas colony.

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The javanica box

 
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Each box is equipped with a "temperature/hygometry" measuring device.

 
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The letter trays are holded with tape.

No tape has an exposed gluing area so the roachs will not accidently get caught.

 
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Some conclusions about it:

I used plastic letter trays, I sanded it with a metalic brush (what a work !).

The plastic letter trays were cutted with a soldering iron.

Each letter tray has an "entrance" that I made with the soldering iron so a roach can go from a letter tray to another.

---------- A bad point:

I putted them vertical because when the roach is vertical on the wall it poops towards the ground.

That way in teory will create a distance between the poop and the roach

(I think that is the teory about putting the egg crates vertically and not horizontaly)

So what is the problem ? Well...even hard sanded plastic is hard to climb.

Only Insignis climb it well and small Princisia roaches.

Altough a small Princisia roach made it, it seams that it doesn´t do any more because it leads to nowhere (instead of a hidding zone like the cup section of an egg crate).

I think that if I glue a cork panel or a rubber panel it will be more easy to climb.

Why I didn´t used only cork panels ?

Well...they bend very easly and they are fragile, I think that the plastic will make a nice holding frame for it.

The vertical position reduces the area that a roach can move but it allows to create separated sections that males roachs can defend...an open horizontal territory would create to much conflit because it´s more hard to defend.

------------------- Improvements to make:

I am thinking on gluing a plastic horizontal structure between each letter tray so it will make a new floor.

The plastic structure will be a cutted letter tray (with a rion soldering).

The roaches will have a cork panel to help them climb.

I must test the roach ability to climb a cork panel before I implement it.

------------------ Alternative to cork panel

A nice alternative to a cork panel is a sound sponge, it can be glued to the plastic.

And it even has the same structure as an egg crate...but I wonder if it will resist less time than an egg crate...

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------------------ Plastic VS plywood:

Plastic is impermeable.

Plastic is more easy to cut (a soldering iron cuts it more easly than a saw cutts a plywood board).

A plastic letter tray is more cheaper than plywood.

But plywood is more easy to climb and it allows for a certain micro-fauna to grow (like the egg crates).

 
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-------- About the climbing ability on plastic:

Mr CrackerPants:

I belive that sanded plastic egg crates are easly climbable.

The hissers don´t use a sanded surface to climb, they use a irregular (non flat) surface to climb.

I have seen them climbing and in fact they "hug" 2 vertical irregular zones to climb.

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I know this is old and I don't have an alternative to egg crates but I do have a source for free ones. If you can find any local restaurant that does a booming breakfast business and you ask nicely you may be able to score a bunch for free. I had a cook from a local diner bring me some every time he came in. I traded a dozen crickets for anywhere between 10 and 20 flats twice a week. After I stacked up about 5 or 6 hundred of them I had to back off.

 
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