Periplaneta americana ootheca.

L

likebugs

Eighth Instar
Last night, I found a Periplaneta americana ootheca in one of my kitchen drawers, EEWWW!

Instead of squishing it, I decided to experiment and put it in a small condiment cup.
I added some cellulose fiber substrate and drenched it with water, and left the cup outside. I don't know if it was my luck, but when I looked at it this morning, there were quite a few nymphs in the cup!

I know I must be losing it when I saw those nymphs with their long antennae and was like "They are so cute", this was supposed to be disgusting and perhaps frightening.
:o
I will be getting rid of them as soon as I get over my strange fascination. :mellow:

 
I know what you mean! I was in and out of a friend of a friend's house this past summer that had a MASSIVE German cockroach infestation and it was like one giant science experiment to me. Any time I tried to help the owners with some advice on how to get rid of them, i.e. call an exterminator, they just rolled their eyes (gross, seriously who lives with so many roaches they're everywhere DURING THE DAY?!). But they kept leaving food everywhere anyway and refused to battle the infestation. After that I no longer felt so bad about feeling like it was super-science-play-time.

 
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I truly can't stand the sight of Periplaneta in my kitchen in the middle of the night, most of the time I will kill them. It is just that when I saw the babies newly hatched, I thought they were cute.

I will definitely not be bringing them inside, even though that is where I found them.
Unfortunately for the whole household, except the Periplaneta, My 5 year old seems to be able to get crumbs and spills into places that I don't even think to look for messes. <_<

 
I love my Periplaneta americana! Granted mine are in a plastic tub lol. They are one of my favorite roaches though, they are super active and cool to watch. :D

 
If you keep them in insecable, locked-down container, they're definitely one of the coolest roaches to keep, since they're so easy to breed (duh!), fun to feed, and interesting to watch. If you keep track of your colony and look for older adults, you can even take them out and handle them! :D

 
I will admit that I once let my daughter raise a half grown nymph to adult.

That particular roach seemed comfortable eating from my daughter's hand a couple of times, and it didn't even dart away when she took it out for handling.
A couple of weeks ago I walked into my kitchen in the middle of the night, and saw 2 roaches on the floor. One of them was a female w/ooth and she had found a piece of dog food that my husband must have dropped, she was carrying it away as fast as she could. :lol: I feel kind of dirty for not getting rid of her, but she made such an effort to carry that large chunk, that I felt pity and walked on by. :blink:

It might have been her ooth that I found and hatched.
:rolleyes:
I have tried to get my hissers (2 males) to eat out of my hand, and they refuse. <_<

 
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