Roach Colony and Woodlouse

[gekosin]

Morning all,

I have recently started with a small colony of Madagascar Hissing Roaches and so far so good, I am keeping them on dry coco-peat with some bark and other items for food and water.

They are being kept warm with a heating pad to promote development and growth.

My only question is, am i able to put in some woodlouse to keep the roach droppings and waste under control?

The roaches are easy to keep and dont smell but they do make alot of dropping.

Thanks.

[ColinWa]

They don't actually need a substrate, the droppings and moults become the substrate. Woodlice (Isopods) would work well in eating all the rotten food, droppings Etc, but they do need a wet substrate to live in and high humidity in a breeding colony can cause mould and eventually kill your roaches. They are actually family of crustaceans, they do have gills and require quite a lot of moisture to survive. IWhat you also need to watch out for is if the isopods came into contact with any pesticide, that could harm your roaches and ultimately be transferred to your animal. I breed isopods for about 3 generations before putting them anywhere near any animal I have.

[gekosin]

Thanks Colin, yeah i did initially have issues with mold when I used moist peat but the dry one is doing a lot better, thanks also for the info on the isopods! Will not be putting them in if they will not be in the proper environment.