my roach approach...

[royden]

Many of you have talked about having to bring your roaches into the house for the winter. Most of us don't have too much of a problem with this since we know they won't infest the house being that they're tropical. There still is the "ick" factor for some, and also the allergy response that roaches can trigger in some people.

My wife asked me to find a way to get the roaches outside (we don't have a garage). So I planned this out and thought I'd share it. It seems to be working pretty good so far.

I bought two containers from target, put one inside the other and filled the space inbetween with insulation (I also put insulation on the bottom). I created a fitted lid out of drywall laying around the basement. Then I drilled holes to run power chords out of both boxes. Once the power chords for the heating pads were fitted I glue-gunned the gaps around the chord. I started out with two zoo-med heating pads and and it was actually too hot (117 degrees), so I cut it down to one pad, and my roaches are currently out on the deck enjoying a balmy tropical temperature all the while sitting outside in minus 40 something degrees.

The big issue is ventilation, which I had no way of solving, so I need to keep up on cleaning and removing old food as often as possible. I'm pretty excited so far, but it has yet to prove completely succesful. I thought I'd let you guys know that it may be possible for you to do the same if you, like I, love your spouse more than your hobby.

This is a pretty small container, I plan on growing my colony, but I plan on doing something similar with larger rubbermaid boxes.

Also if any of you see this as a potential disater, let me know. It seems like it's working so far. I've had my colony for a couple months now and I've only had about 2 or so deaths that I actually accounted for (real deaths, not fakers).

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

nice papaya beetles you got there...
you sure did go through a bit of rigging for that enclosure

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Wow, Royden, great job. I am wondering, if you could create some sort of cross ventilation (perhaps through 2 screen-ended tubes or pipes passing from the interior to 2 screened cuts in the outside wall) and then use that second heating pad, whether you would wind up with the correct temp AND ventilation? When designing mechanical engineering for commercial buildings, my husband uses engineers who compute air exchange vs heat retention and air quality issues. It's done via computer models. To let you know how many cubic feet of ventilation required per volume of airspace and seating capacity, without a negative impact on temp control. Perhaps if there is such an engineer on the forum he/she could work out a computation for you . Of course, they would have to know the BTU's a cockroach ...er... beetle puts out, how many are in residence, what percentage of time they are at rest and at play, etc., etc. etc. You know how those engineers can be.

Also, according to the Friederich and Volland book Breeding Food Animals, they recommend a period of time during each day during which the beetles would be exposed to a light source, so they settle down and rest. If with this set up you notice increased mortality you may want to consider that.