CATDOLL : CATDOLL:How to breed cockroaches?

How to breed cockroaches?

Cockroach breeding technology:

(I) Identification of males and females and selection of species. Male cockroaches are long and narrow in appearance, with thin abdominal segments and wings extending beyond the tail end. Males are more numerous than females in winter and spring (December to April of the following year) when the temperature is lower. Generally, males have a shorter lifespan than females. Female cockroaches are sturdy in appearance, with enlarged abdominal segments, blunt and rounded abdomen and tail, and wings close to the tail end. After the nymphs hatched from the same egg pod emerge, the number of females is 1.4 times that of males, so there are more females than males from May to November. It is best to introduce species from April to June each year, and capture large individuals from nature for breeding. In terms of male and female pairing, there should be more females and fewer males. Cockroaches mostly emerge from their tails in May and June; male and female cockroaches begin to mate one week after emergence. Nymphs hatched from the same egg pod mate one week after emergence, and can lay eggs 10 days after mating. Males can mate many times in their lifetime, while females can lay eggs many times in their lifetime as long as they mate once. The number of eggs laid by females in their lifetime varies depending on the species and breeding conditions. When selecting species, you should choose species that are large, have strong reproductive capacity, and are easy to raise and manage. Currently, the most cultivated species is the American cockroach.

(ii) Hatching and development. The incubation period of cockroaches is 3 to 12 weeks. The nymphs hatch from the side or back of the egg pods. In order to increase the hatching rate and prevent the nymphs from being eaten by adults, the egg pods are picked up and hatched together. That is, the egg pods laid by adults are picked up in one place and placed in an incubator with a temperature of 28 to 32°C and a relative humidity of 75% -90%. The nymphs are kept in water, food, and pollution-free. The nymphs that have just hatched from the eggs are white. They molt once a few hours later, and their body color gradually darkens. They molt 5 to 13 times in total during the maturation process before becoming adults. The length of the development time varies depending on the species and breeding conditions. American cockroaches generally lay eggs in June and July, and nymphs hatch in August. They mostly spend the winter in the form of egg pods and nymphs, and emerge in May of the next year. The nymph period is about 300 days.

3. Feeding Methods

(I) Wooden box feeding and raising method. The specifications of the feeding box are: 70 cm long, 50 cm wide, and 60 cm high. The cover panel of the box is movable for operation. A small window with a length of 20 cm and a width of 15 cm is built on the front and back, and sealed with iron mesh nails for easy observation and air circulation. There is no bottom plate under the feeding box, which is convenient for cleaning and hygiene. Place the feeding box in a house with a relatively flat ground (preferably a cement floor). Inside the box, nail a square wooden strip on the front and back sides 10 cm away from the box mouth to place the wooden frame. The wooden frame is "U" shaped, and its specifications are made according to the width of the feeding box. The two sides of the frame can be placed on the two wooden strips in the front and back of the box. The wooden frame is covered with paper (the thicker the better), and then the wooden frames are stacked one by one in the feeding box (leaving an empty space at one end for feeding and watering), which becomes a residence for cockroaches. Choose healthy cockroaches as breeding insects, place them in a breeding box, put in a small amount of feed, and initially feed them with green, juicy, nutritious fruit peels, bread, steamed buns, and rice. Provide sufficient clean drinking water, and feed once every 3 days. It is better to put the feed on the top of the wooden frame in the box, or on the floor at the bottom of the box, while drinking water can only be placed on the floor at the bottom of the box. Cleaning and sanitation work should be done once every 3 days. First, gently move the feed box, clean it, and move it back to its original position, then add feed and change water. Cockroaches lay eggs mostly on the wooden frame paper, and the larvae will hatch after more than a month of incubation.

(ii) Clay pot breeding method. Choose a clay pot of appropriate size depending on the number of cockroaches to be raised, and place a roll of old newspaper or kraft paper (cement bag paper) in the pot for the cockroaches to inhabit. Cover the mouth of the pot with a wooden board, or preferably a wire mesh. Place drinking water and feed in a fixed position so that the cockroaches can form a conditioned reflex and regularly go to a fixed position to eat. It is best to use a porcelain basin to put the feed in the pot, so that the leftover food will not fall to the bottom of the pot, reducing the difficulty of cleaning. The rest of the breeding and management measures are basically the same as those for breeding in wooden boxes.

(III) Greenhouse breeding. Use black plastic sheeting to build a greenhouse with screens at both ends for ventilation. In winter, double-layer plastic film can be used for insulation or heating by fire or electric heating. Leave a walkway in the center of the greenhouse. Put a feed trough and a water trough. To prevent cockroaches from falling into the water and drowning, put a sponge in the water trough. Put some soft materials with gaps or foam boards for packaging eggs on both sides of the greenhouse, or you can put wooden breeding boxes. This method is suitable for large-scale breeding, with low investment and low cost, but it is not easy to catch adult insects.

4. Feed Preparation Bee cockroaches are not very demanding on feed, and they are generally fed whatever is available. The feed formula introduced below is used to improve the breeding efficiency of cockroaches.

Formula 1: corn meal 90%, salt 0.5%, stone powder 0.5%, fish meal 5%, lard 2%, brown sugar 2%.

Formula 2: Corn meal 75%, wheat flour 15%, dry yeast 2%, bean cake 4%, stone powder 1%, rapeseed cake 3%

Recipe 3: corn meal 70%, sugar residue 20%, dry yeast 3%, fish meal, bone meal 1%.

Cockroaches don’t eat much, so don’t feed them too much each time.

5. Feeding and Management

The breeding and management of cockroaches should mainly pay attention to "six guarantees and three preventions":

1. Insulation: Use greenhouse box cultivation method to maintain the temperature environment at 28~33~C throughout the year.

Second, keep water: Water is more important to cockroaches than food. Cockroaches will die if they are deprived of water for 2 days during the nymph stage. Therefore, water should be kept in the tank at all times.

Three-guarantee food: In order for cockroaches to grow quickly, become strong, and have strong reproductive capacity, the feed trough must not be cut off, especially at night, they must be allowed to eat enough.

4. Moisturizing: The relative humidity of the environment where cockroaches live should be above 70%. If it is too dry, spray some water.

Five ways to keep quiet: keep cockroaches away from noise and avoid human disturbance.

Sixth, keep it dark: the place where cockroaches are raised should be dimly lit, and they should be raised in a dark room and dark box.

1. Prevent pesticide damage: Cockroaches are very sensitive to many pesticides such as pest control spirit, trichlorfon, dichlorvos, malathion, etc. It is forbidden to use pesticides in places where bees are raised.

2. Disease prevention: Disease prevention includes preventing cockroaches from getting sick themselves and preventing cockroaches from becoming hosts for other pathogens. Pay attention to the environment and food hygiene of cockroaches.

Three ways to prevent natural enemies: Rats, bats, ants, etc. all eat cockroaches. Pay attention to prevent natural enemies from invading during the breeding process.

The cockroach breeding technology is not very difficult. You can raise them in a small area first. The prerequisite is that the house must be insulated and made three-dimensional. Only in this way can you have a good yield. Simple breeding techniques can be found on the Internet.

Can American cockroaches be farmed in northern China?

The American cockroach is the largest insect in the Blattidae family. The adult body is 29 to 40 mm long, reddish brown, and the wings are longer than the end of the abdomen. The antennae are very long, with a large butterfly-shaped brown spot in the middle of the pronotum, and a complete yellow stripe on the rear edge of the spot. The American cockroach is native to northern Africa and was brought to America by ship around the 17th century AD and was discovered in America in the 18th century. It has a wide range of diets, likes to eat sugar and starch, contaminates food, and spreads germs and parasites. It is a global health pest. In the southern region, it is a dominant indoor species and mainly lives in dark and humid environments such as sewers, heating trenches, toilets, bathrooms, breweries, and sauce factories. It is good at crawling and has poor flying ability.

American cockroaches like warm and humid environment, and are active at 21-33 degrees Celsius, and are most active at 28 degrees Celsius. In connection with this, the most suitable places for them to live are restaurants, food processing plants, grocery stores, and bakeries, but they also often invade other places with food, basements, sewers, etc.

It has a wide range of diets and can survive on almost any organic matter. It likes decaying organic matter and can sometimes be seen gathering in groups on garbage dumps and feces to forage for food. Indoors, in addition to gnawing on various foods, it can also bite books, clothes, shoes and socks, etc. When food is scarce, they can also cannibalize each other and eat their own egg pods.

In warm areas, American cockroaches can live outdoors all year round, such as in garbage dumps, toilets, sewers, wood piles, under tree bark, etc. In temperate zones, they can survive well outdoors in the summer.

The American cockroach is mainly a tropical and subtropical species, but its distribution extends to the northern temperate zone. In my country, this cockroach has been reported in Hebei, Beijing, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Xinjiang. It is the dominant species in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and the southern provinces of Fujian.

The American cockroach has a wide range of diet, likes to eat sugar and starch, contaminates food, and spreads pathogens and parasites. It is a global health pest.

Researchers have found that they carry Shigella dysenteriae, Salmonella paratyphi A and B, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus, as well as eggs of roundworms and hookworms, etc. on their bodies. They are important vectors of many infectious diseases in humans, mainly intestinal diseases. The secretions and feces of American cockroaches also contain carcinogens.

It is cultivated indoors, and the main thing is temperature. If the temperature is low, artificial heating can be used to reach the growth temperature of the insects, so it can definitely be cultivated in the north.

Of course you can keep it, as long as you keep it warm.