# How I keep my roaches AKA "the death closet"



## petoly (Nov 21, 2012)

so AgentA was having some issues with his roach colonies and I offered to show him some pix of my setup and he said sure, then andrew wanted to see it too so I'm just going to post it on here.

this is how I keep my roaches and they are always active, mating, and healthy.

The big bins are 18 and 24 gallon bins

so here's my closet, all the specs are on the pic but ask away if you have questions

oh yeah that lamp is on 24/7 It helps keep the ambient temperature higher than outside the closet, for stuff that doesn't need heatcables like the smaller bins







here's the bookcase and how I attach heat cable to it to heat the bins. The top green bin has the cable attached directly to the bin itself but I'm about to switch that. It's more convenient to attach it to the bookcase. That top bin is also connected to a thermostat. It's not needed. These are 15Watt cables and the thermostat never clicks the cables off.






here's my dubia setup with the roaches hiding. watercrystals and proteine based food and veggies for nutrition, and the wood stick in the water crystal is for the baby dubias to get out of there. dubias suck at climbing






the dubias themselves. Each egg crate is loaded like this...well more actually. they were slowly scattering away when I was trying to take a picture.






Lobster roach colony. with the roaches hiding. yep same as the dubias pretty much. Water crystals and proteine based food and veggies for nutrition. scuse the mess I need to clean it






and the lobsters themselves. Not as many as the dubia because I only got them a couple of months ago. But I started with 50, and out of the 50 only 3 were adults. in 2 months and I have around 600






My P. Nivea Setup. I mix water crystals in the substrate to keep humidity high. See how moist the substrate looks? The only thing I did to it was put water crystals and moisten it when I set up the bin 2 months ago. It stays that way and they like it. There are 2 small holes on each side of the shoe box for limited ventilation, gotta keep that humidity in. Cork bark because they burrow under it and because it's mold resistant. Same thing water crystals for moisture and proteine based food and veggies for nutrition






here's me trying to actually take a picture of the colony. I had to ruffle the substrate around a bunch but these guys are so freaking fast they burrow almost instantly.

looks like I only have 3 adults, but no there's hundreds in there. Started from a colony of 50. I had a slow start because I was having temperature and humidity issues but now they are booming






My O. Duesta colony setup. coconut fiber substrate, water crystals and the same nutrition as all the other roaches. These guys have more ventilation than the niveas, I only moistened the substrate when I set up the enclosure. I used to keep it moist by spraying and maintaining 70% humidity, but I found that they didn't like this. Igot a lot of nymph deaths, and weren't breeding much.






So I decided to stop spraying them completely and just letting the water crystals keep the humidity up. This is what happened a couple of days after I made the switch.






They live in a sweater box so the water crystals keep the humidity high enough for them. By spraying them I was overhumidifying them and they don't need half as much humidity as the p nivea, but a little more than the dubias and lobster roaches.

I hope this Helps AgentA. If you guys have any questions, shoot them at me.


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## aNisip (Nov 21, 2012)

:clap: :clap: Nicely done Myke! Thanks for posting this! I like your setups a lot... well done and keep up the awesome work!  

All the best,

Andrew


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## Malakyoma (Nov 21, 2012)

How often do you have to tend to them? just add food every couple days?


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## petoly (Nov 21, 2012)

the dubias every day, the smaller colonies every few days but switch out the produce as the high humidity makes them mold. Same f or the lobsters but produce lasts longer in there. It's really like 5 minutes worth of work.

what's more work is me making their protein food. I'm cheap. I tend to do as much DIY as I can, so no commercial chows here.


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## Malakyoma (Nov 21, 2012)

Whats your recipe for protein food?


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## petoly (Nov 22, 2012)

high protein high quality dog food, alfa alfa pellets, centrum multivitamin, powdered milk, and sometimes oats. put it all in a blender or food processor, pulverize.

you don't even need to grind it up honestly. I just do it to mix it all together evenly.


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## angelofdeathzz (Nov 22, 2012)

I thought roaches could live on tin and cardboard for 10 years or more? :lol: 

Nice set up!


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## Rick (Nov 23, 2012)

Knew a guy that kept his in a closet like that. Had an interesting odor. I'd be a bit worried about that being a fire hazard and would put a smoke detector in there.


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## petoly (Nov 23, 2012)

it's been running for over a year, there's no hazard at all and the smoke detector is right next to it. yes I also thought that when I put it together so I was worried, but it really doesn't get hot enough. the odor in mine isn't that bad. it simply doesn't get that hot. the main concern is the lamp I suppose but it's fine. it's really well secured.


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## angelofdeathzz (Nov 26, 2012)

I think roches will eat any food group you want? To improve what your preditors need, E, A, calcium, Folic acid, etc, am I worng? Just curious...don't hate.


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## hibiscusmile (Nov 26, 2012)

Nice setup, and Rick is right, now that u had it a year, imagine the drying of the wood, just be careful, we dont wanna lose u!

Send me your address and I will send you a roach sample food for them. U r rite on the dubias climbing, I dont know why but they can't! ps [email protected]


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## petoly (Nov 27, 2012)

angelofdeathzz said:


> I think roches will eat any food group you want? To improve what your preditors need, E, A, calcium, Folic acid, etc, am I worng? Just curious...don't hate.


youre right. that's why I feed them the alfa alfa, powdered milk and the centum multivitamins. for the reptiles.

And yes Rebecca, and Rick I know about the risks I keep a close eye on it at all times and it's off when I'm not here. I appreciate the heads up from both of ya.


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