My First colony

[Mikhail_Karkarov]

So I got my shipment from James at Blaberus.com. I didn't bother counting but according to the labels he overcounted by about twenty. I set them up in their new home. Pretty inactive guys if you ask me. I expected much more scurrying.

They're hanging out in a rubbermaid tub between 80 and 94, eating dog food, shredded carrots, and ground whole oats. They were so cute when I first got them they ran like madmen (or madwomen si'l vous plait) for the food. They're Blaberus Discoidalis and I actually find the little spotted nymphs cute and the adults a little majestic. I have a little apprehension about using them as feeders, but oh well. All that circle of life stuff I suppose.

On an unrelated subject, my crickets are at maturity. The horror, the agony of hundreds upon hundreds of full grown crickets. Some people say that crickets only chirp once they reach maturity. I've found this to be untrue. There is usually some amount of chirping before any adults can be visually observed. I suppose it could just be one adult concealed somewhere...anyway the intensity of the chirping has gone from a soothing summer night to The Grasshoppers take manhattan. Anyone seen that flick?

Hopefully they produce and even more hopefully I can wean the last of my customers off of crickets and on to the much quieter roaches

 

[Huntsman]

So I got my shipment from James at Blaberus.com. I didn't bother counting but according to the labels he overcounted by about twenty. I set them up in their new home. Pretty inactive guys if you ask me. I expected much more scurrying.They're hanging out in a rubbermaid tub between 80 and 94, eating dog food, shredded carrots, and ground whole oats. They were so cute when I first got them they ran like madmen (or madwomen si'l vous plait) for the food. They're Blaberus Discoidalis and I actually find the little spotted nymphs cute and the adults a little majestic. I have a little apprehension about using them as feeders, but oh well. All that circle of life stuff I suppose.

On an unrelated subject, my crickets are at maturity. The horror, the agony of hundreds upon hundreds of full grown crickets. Some people say that crickets only chirp once they reach maturity. I've found this to be untrue. There is usually some amount of chirping before any adults can be visually observed. I suppose it could just be one adult concealed somewhere...anyway the intensity of the chirping has gone from a soothing summer night to The Grasshoppers take manhattan. Anyone seen that flick?

Hopefully they produce and even more hopefully I can wean the last of my customers off of crickets and on to the much quieter roaches

I have no idea what species you have there, Mikhail, but I wish you good fortune!

I take it you supply feeders to the trade? I've noticed a near patholigical reluctance from people to roaches as feeders here in South Africa, and we are having to really move mountains to educate them. This is both the public, and pet store owners and staff...!

I agree entirely on the crix front - I haven't bought crickets for my pets in over a year...what bliss!

 

[Mikhail_Karkarov]

I chose to go with discoidalis as my breed.

The aversion to roaches is ridiculous. I just had a pet store shoot me down today because their employees down want to handle roaches. If you ask me it's way easier to count and move these guys than crickets. I've also noticed that when pet store employees bag crickets they jusst take a scoop and throw it in the bag. They rarely make a real attempt at counting. I'm a big believer in the overcount system but I used to order 12 crickets and end up with almost 30. Good for me I guess but eventually that has to hurt profits. Although it may keep customers coming back. Didn't consider it like that.

The aversion is definitly odd. I suppose if I had called them beetles the store would have been all over them.

 

[Peter Clausen]

Like flightless fruit flies, next time tell them these are "jumpless crickets". How bout that?

 

[Mikhail_Karkarov]

jumpless crickets. I almost died when I read that. The discoidalis nymphs actually resemble giant pill bugs somewhat. That would be a good one too.

Can you imagine if you actually had jumpless crickets? That would be an accomplishment.

I think I remember someone on here saying that he convinced his dad to let him have roaches by saying they were beetles. Hilarious, in an after school special kind of way.

So I had this guy tell me he wants to start raising something simple and he wants to try flightless fruit flies. He's feeding two bearded dragons. Never owned one but those guys eat a lot of food. I can't even imagine how many flies they would eat. I think he just wanted something easy to grow that wont freak out his wife. Guess it's diet time for the dragons