I'm new to cockroaches and I've noticed strange behavior in one of my hissers. I have 4 female hissers- two adults and two sub-adults (I believe.) I've caught one of the what I believe to be sub-adults at night a few times now with her vent open, appearing to try to push something out. Basically, I'm curious to if this is something a gravid hisser might do. She tries multiple times and I have yet to see anything come out, neither frass nor an ootheca. She is round in the abdomen, and she seems to like to hide alone under bark for days on end, so im worried that she might be gravid and ill wake up to nymphs all over my apartment or something!
Is my hissers gravid, or is this normal behavior?
- Thread starter Friday
- Start date
First off can the nymphs get out, if their in a glass aquarium you can put petroleum jelly around the top inch or 2 of the cage to prevent the nymphs from escaping, also do you just have females because you need males for them to breed unless you got the females when they we're adults then they could of mated before Arriving to to.
I only have females and they are in a glass aquarium. The screen lid is very secure, but there are a few holes that nymphs could escape through. Normally i wouldn't be too worried about things like this, but i rent a basement apartment. Its been consistently 80 degrees with 80% humidity naturally. I don't really want to risk any escapees getting out and causing establishing themselves in the house. Since the temperature is so high and i can't control it, I have been hesitant to use petroleum jelly in case it melts and makes a big mess, though now that i think about it that mess is less stressful than the alternative. As for the hisser, I have only had her for a few months so it's possible that she mated before she shipped. I recently added two more to my little collection and one of them gave birth in transit. Talk about a surprise. By comparing the female in question to the two i just received, she doesn't seem to be an adult and i try to remind myself of that fact and that i have nothing to worry about, but when she starts doing things that look like giving birth i admittedly start to freak out over the "what-ifs."
When hissers do escape, they tend to stick close to where they know the source of food is but when they travel away you can find them in some rather strange places (like the bathroom ceiling :blink: ). Nymphs are more likely to escape than adults. I have those glue traps laid around my bug room. They don't catch all of the escapees but it helps.