I'm toying with the idea of just making ALL my roach bins into substrate with cork bark , dead leaves , etc etc ...... My question is , how do I change out the substrate on roach species that have nymphs that burrow and lets say you have 100's of them in the substrate ... there's gotta be an easier way than to sift out 4 inches of substrate and finding all 5,640 nymphs !!! I would love some reassurance on easier ways to do this ... thanks !
Natural Set Ups
- Thread starter Bamboo
- Start date
HisserLove
First Instar
I'm wondering about th same thing right now... I'm wanting to clean my substrate but don't want to lose any nymphs... it would be good to get an answer on this topic.
RaZias
Sixth Instar
I still don´t have nymphs but I had 3 that I received by a seller.
You need a non dark substrate (I use wood pieces that are sell for hamsters).
I pick up the substrate with glooves and I shake it so the wood pieces will start to fly to the sides.
Eventualy a nymph will appear.
But yeah...I guess that doing that for a lot of nymphs is impossible.
When I see pics about breeders (internet sellers) it seems that they don´t use substrate.
Maybe that is the reason (too much work).
This is a comment I found in a site:
"I clean them out around every 2 months this is the hard bit but it needs doing.
It normally takes me around 4 hours as I search through all the stuff left in the bottom for roaches and the turks egg sacks as I don't like wasting any thing.
After two months time the buffalo worms will be high in number but I just throw all the worms away and just let a few of the beetles make it in to the new colony."
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/feeder/552178-guineas-guide-roaches-lots-pics.html
You need a non dark substrate (I use wood pieces that are sell for hamsters).
I pick up the substrate with glooves and I shake it so the wood pieces will start to fly to the sides.
Eventualy a nymph will appear.
But yeah...I guess that doing that for a lot of nymphs is impossible.
When I see pics about breeders (internet sellers) it seems that they don´t use substrate.
Maybe that is the reason (too much work).
This is a comment I found in a site:
"I clean them out around every 2 months this is the hard bit but it needs doing.
It normally takes me around 4 hours as I search through all the stuff left in the bottom for roaches and the turks egg sacks as I don't like wasting any thing.
After two months time the buffalo worms will be high in number but I just throw all the worms away and just let a few of the beetles make it in to the new colony."
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/feeder/552178-guineas-guide-roaches-lots-pics.html
Hell-Spawn
Fourth Instar
The best would be to get a sifter. Or, just attach a mesh/screen to the end of a vacuum hose and make sure the holes are small enough to allow dirt particles through but not the nymphs.
A few years ago i bought some b. Giganteus nymphs and adults from orin When i lived in ohio. Had a couple pieces of wood to climb on and a lot of oak leaves. Took care of the colony and had so many to spare giganteus became my feeder insect. Springtails somehow showed up even though i boiled the leaves. Kept that colony moist and never a mite issue. I gave so many away to science classrooms in akron area. Failed to sustain my own colony. But the natural setup was incredible and they were so active. Would like to do that again here in tx. Does anyone know how to trap or attract springtails outside?
I have officially added substrate to all my roach bins , so now all my roach species have substrate to play and eat and do their roachy thing in. I had a large colony of darkin (spelling?) beetles from previous cricket orders , I have rotten soft wood in every roach bin whether they eat it or not I have no idea so I'm hoping to get some springtails off of the wood pieces , I've also been collecting pillbugs aka Roly Poly ... I'm hoping those will be enough " clean up crews " ....