Raising Lobster Roaches.

Since lobster roaches can climb glass and plastic, you'll need to coat the sides with fluon or Vaseline. fluon is expensive but much easier and less messy to use. if you use Vaseline, a thin coat 3-4 inches wide will do well for you. personally, I really hate Vaseline, really.

substrate needs be rabbit pellets. check the ingredients; try to get the one that lists alfalfa first since alfalfa has higher protein than most grasses. rabbit pellets provide the babies with shelter and feeds both babies and adults--this is the stable of their diet.

water is provided in the form of veggies and fruits. NO WATER DISHES, these are just messy and unnecessary. choose water-loaded veggies such as carrots or opunita cactus. feed also mustard greens, collard greens, romaine, dandelion, and anything recommended for reptiles since these will eventually be consumed by your animals and the nutrition goes to them. I feed my tortoises and bearded dragons on these greens every day so it's easy for me to just grab a handful of the mix salad. it goes to tortoises, dragons, roaches, and crickets. if it is not convenient for you to feed salad every day, then a few carrots every 2-3 weeks is all the care they really need.

egg flat cartons cut into quarters are the easiest shelters, i find. their feces are dry and odor-free and will not stick to the carton and so the carton will last almost indefinitely. over time, the substrate of rabbit pellets will turn into a substrate of roach feces. you can do one of two things: add more pellets, or, start a new culture.

if you want to start afresh, setup the culture as before in a new bin. take the egg cartons from the old bin and give it a hard shake and put the carton back so more roaches can climb onto and get transported. keep it up till a most of them are in their new abode. no doubt, it will be impossible (or rather highly impractical) to get all the roaches into the new bin. you are left with a few hundred in the old bin, you now need the roach spray. spray heavily and pour everything into a trash bag, tie up and toss--I know, it feels like mass murder the first time since you grew them yourself but don't worry, you'll grow callous to this practice in time. While starting a new bin is nice, I just add pellets most of the time--till it gets full.

for a holding container of a given size, you will soon reach carrying capacity (with bigger bins carrying more)--the roaches will die more and reproduce less and the population will stabilize even with unlimited food--what's limiting their population is space (thousand and thousands). at this point, the more you feed, the faster they reproduce.

i always keep two containers going and start fresh a batch every year or so. almost free reptile food with minimal effort--Not bad!

Toan