How to Generate Cockroaches
Generating cockroaches is something that even the human race can not foul up. As a species, cockroaches are older than we are and science assures us they'll be around longer than we will. There is a great deal of scientific research on these insects that leads us to believe that they are not the villains they've been made out to be. Out of the 3000 species catalogued by the World Health Organization, only ten are classified as human pests. Most are beneficial insects that clean up decaying matter and serve as food for predators up the food chain. There are even cockroach fanciers who breed and sell the most exotic of these creatures as pets. Here is a guide to generating cockroaches.
Instructions
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Create a hospitable habitat for cockroaches. Use a twenty-gallon fish tank with a screened top, a set of plastic sweater boxes with ventilated tops or the area under your sink. The optimum temperature for cockroach propagation is 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Farenheit). Cockroaches are cold-blooded, so cooler temperatures will have a negative impact of the frequency of propagation. Line your habitat with newspaper, pine shreds or potting soil and give your cockroaches places to hide with shredded newspaper, paper tubing or paper egg cartons. Give them a branch or two to enjoy. Flat rocks and branches give your cockroaches places to claim as their territory.
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Have a source of water in your cockroach habitat . A sponge placed in a jar cap and kept constantly moist should do just fine. Condensation on pipes or a leaky sink sprayer works, too. Be careful to keep the humidity low, though--except for the tropical varieties, cockroaches don't like dampness. An insect that molts nine times before reaching maturity does not thrive in high humidity.
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Feed your cockroaches. These clever critters are omnivores, which means they'll eat just about anything, including broccoli and spicy beef stir fry as well as other leftovers or poorly stored food. Mold doesn't bother them. If you're a little queasy about watching leftovers turn green, use rat chow. And have a chuckle that the creatures that rats consider a delicacy eat what the rats do.
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Establish a viable colony. You'll need about twenty insects to establish a reliable "gene pool". This insures that hereditary weaknesses are not magnified with each passing generation. Your cockroaches will take about three months to go through all nine molts and become adults, but once they do, they will live and reproduce for as long as a year each. Oh, and be sure you have male and female roaches.
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Provide an environment that is expandable as well as pleasant.. Since a mother cockroach can lay eggs every two to three days, that's a lot of little oothecae (egg cases) in a pretty short time. Additional tanks, boxes or a retail outlet are recommended.
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Provide a pleasant habitat by making sure your cockroaches have time in the dark. They operate on a circadian clock, meaning that they are basically nocturnal creatures. When you turn the light on, they not only scurry for cover, they reset their biological clocks.
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Have a containment strategy. Put a secure top on your cockroach habitat. Metal screening and metal tops that clip on are fine but larvae (baby cockroaches) are able to get through the holes. Check the on line cockroach fancy community for tips. Search for "raising cockroaches" and "cockroach breeding" to see what others have tried.
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Tips & Warnings
Notice that there are no particular tips to help the cockroaches mate. The variety and longevity of the order Blattaria attests to the fact that, given the right environment, cockroach courtship does not rely upon,and will not be limited by, human intervention.
Never use cedar shavings or branches for your cockroach ranch. Cedar is toxic to the creatures.
Boric acid is used as an environmentally-safe poison for cockroaches. It gets between the layers of the shell, or exoskeleton, and dehydrates the cockroach.
Resources
- Photo Credit Microsoft Office clip art
