Overcrowding

[Roachman26]

I've seen many references to "overcrowding" on our forum. I'm just not clear on what is overcrowded. There is nothing I like better than lifting up an egg flat and feeling the weight and movement of a bunch of roaches. I love to see dozens of all ages scrambling around. It has been said that overcrowding is a possible cause of many problems. Some of my bins only have a few roaches while others have thousands. Can we put some numbers to it? I realize this is not a black and white issue. For example, 999 is perfectly fine, but 1000 is overcrowded. I'm not asking for exact numbers, however, I think some general guidelines for some of the common species would be helpful.

How many G. portentosa can be kept in a 5 gallon bucket cage, 10 gallon tank or 18 gallon bin with 6 egg flats, before it would be considered "overcrowded?

How many of the more common Blaberus?

Blaptica Dubia?

Blatta lateralis?

I think we (by we, I mean us newbies) can make reasonable guesses based on the size and habits of the above four species. As always, Thanks for the help.

 

[Pharma]

Hi Roachman

In my case it's as follows:

- Archimandrita marmorata: around 50% nymphs and 50% soil, the ratio can be shifted towards roaches by moist soil but brings in more problems like phorid flies, mold and mites

- Phoetalia pallida: No free place to hide, overpopulation leads to stagnation in reproduction

- Nauphoeta cinerea: No free place at all (I mean not the smallest squaremillimeter without a roach). I suppose that then they start to eat freshly molted ones...

- Blaberus and Eublaberus: No free place for molting to adulthood and around 50% nymphs and 50% soil

- Oxyhaloa deusta: No free place at all

With other species I don't know because increasing population density means decreasing reproduction which can be caused by other circumstances as well and therefore I don't exactely know the critical point of overcrouding for them.

As general guideline I think that it's often the lack of free place to hide which can be solved by adding another egg crate or similar. This makes it very difficult to give a concrete number.

Grüessli

Andreas

 

[Zephyr]

You can crowd hissers extensively without negative effects (they seem to like it even.)

Blaberus species need quite a bit of space comparatively.

B. dubia are like hissers but a little less so.

B. lateralis; it all depends on whether or not you have substrate for your setup.