new B.giganteus from satchellWK couple pics of one molting this morning

island reptiles said:
these nymphs look all about to molt and the adults are giants lol

found one of the nymphs molting this morning very impressive

http://tinypic.com/r/2vt9n4x/5

http://tinypic.com/r/a0zzgk/5

http://tinypic.com/r/dgnjt4/5

http://tinypic.com/r/6drho4/5

http://tinypic.com/r/ku7x5/5
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Cool!! : )

Do not freak out when half (or more) of your adults die in the next few days. This is normal for this species. I am not sure if it is the norm in their natural niche but it is well documented when in captivity. I allow the nymphs to eat some of the dead adults but sometimes there are too many dead adults and it stinks too much for me. The nymphs love to eat the adults though. The surviving adults reproduce well and have large numbers of babies so maintaining your culture is usually pretty easy. Good luck. If you like these, I would also suggest Blaberus colloseus (Colossal Roach).

 
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yes unfortunately this species has alot of adult die off im well prepared for it

but some say its because they eat a ton of dead wood and need height to climb and flutter their wings

im sure out of the 8 nymphs 2-4 will perish after the adult molt but we can only do our best

 
island reptiles said:
but some say its because they eat a ton of dead wood and need height to climb and flutter their wings
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They die because they eat a lot of wood or they need a lot of wood to eat so they do not die? Yes, they need a "winging" platform during their final molt but this is just so their wings form correctly.

 
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they need alot of dead wood to eat to stay alive or atleast that was my understanding of it

and the winged platform I would think would be for the wings but it was all connected in the thing I was reading

but either way they still have the die off dont think anyone knows exactly why

 
island reptiles said:
they need alot of dead wood to eat to stay alive or atleast that was my understanding of it

and the winged platform I would think would be for the wings but it was all connected in the thing I was reading

but either way they still have the die off dont think anyone knows exactly why
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Yes, they die either way. I have tried providing ample dead wood and they still died. Enjoy your cool colony! : )

 
Really? I still have five of the six that I ordered from Kyle a year ago, and they were large nymphs that molted for me within the first month. I lost one adult a few months ago, but the others are still there. (Even after escaping, lol) And there's about a dozen nymphs they've since given me that are quarter dollar sized now.

 
wodesorel said:
Really? I still have five of the six that I ordered from Kyle a year ago, and they were large nymphs that molted for me within the first month. I lost one adult a few months ago, but the others are still there. (Even after escaping, lol) And there's about a dozen nymphs they've since given me that are quarter dollar sized now.
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Good point. I am not sure how many nymphs he has. When you just have 5 the adults typically do not die off. They live a long time and the females produce a lot of babies. When the large number of babies molt out as adults then you see the die off with this generation and those after. I have always assumed it has to do with overcrowding but I have not explored this as an option with overcrowded 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. generations. Mine reproduce so well. I have them in a VERY large enclosure and they have quickly packed it out. I even started 3 or 4 other enclosures to only put them all back together again because it was too much work for me. I guess one could feed the nymphs off. As a roach species, they have one of the greatest size options from very small nymphs to "OH MY GOD!!! Is that a trilobite!??!?!!" : )

 
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I had trouble raising them where 2nd to last and last instar nymphs refused to eat and slowly wasted away and starved to death.

I didnt know about them needing wood years ago so that might have been why, or parasites from unhealthy stock is possible.

 
this is a small colony we had 20-30 nymphs all med size or smaller then we traded for the 6 nymphs and 2.2 adults they are in a 56qt bin so they have a alot of room right now later on when the smaller nymphs are ready they will be moved into a large bin either 45gal or 54 gal this colony wont get to big only want 30-50 adults the rest will be sold off as pets

 
I will attest to the fact males can and do fly! I had a single male and my cage cover was open because I knew they couldn't climb glass. It was Summer so my room was in the mid 80s. The male suddenly started vibrating his abdomen and took off flying out of the cage flying in circles in my room near the light on my ceiling. I enjoyed seeing it and with such elegant wings it was like a bird in flight.

I lost one male to this though. Was outside photographing a male with my camera, he decided to fly and literally took off down the field and flew up into a tall oak tree never to be seen again. No gliding here he used to the wind current and that's how he gained altitude but no other roach except green banana roach truly flies in the hobby right?

 
Keith said:
I lost one male to this though. Was outside photographing a male with my camera, he decided to fly and literally took off down the field and flew up into a tall oak tree never to be seen again. No gliding here he used to the wind current and that's how he gained altitude but no other roach except green banana roach truly flies in the hobby right?
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So your the guy that infested Long Island, New York with giant roaches! ; )

 
think those giant roaches are Americana but holy crap do they get big in new york

run the other way when I see them dont wanna get eaten lol

 
You have some really nice roaches right there :)

I also have some B. giganteus nymphs and an adult female (I got her as a nymph too) I got from Satchell. For some reason, my female has two spots on the pronotum, which I don't see in your pictures.

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I also have this male I got from Roach crossing that has really cool patterns on the pronotum. He mated with the female above so I'm hoping to see some interesting pronotum patterns on the next generation :)

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all the adults are still fine and well out of the 6 nymphs 2 have completed their molts to adult and are doing great sadly two others died during molting one other died premolt and one still running around ill see if a can get a video or some pics up today they are gorgeous

 
I need to check this site more often; here's a thread where people are solely posting pictures of my bugs. Glad to see everyone's giganteus are doing well, for the most part.

As for die-offs, like Wodesorel, my entire initial group of 7 nymphs continued to live well after reaching adulthood, churning out litter after litter. Yet, as the next couple of generations began maturing, I began seeing quite a few die-offs, leading me to think crowding has something to do with it. I recently moved my entire colony ot a new enclosure (10 gallon to 20 gallon aquarium) and the deaths certainly slowed down, but didn't completely stop.

 
lost one adult still have 5 going strong hopfully they will produce well such a cool species

oh satchell I got in about 100 more Harliquins we might sell/trade off 20-25 more if you want to try and work something out you can hit me up on facebook

 
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