Some species are extremely easy to keep. They require very little space, inexpensive food, and minimal care. By raising a colony in the classroom, students can observe all the stages of development and live specimens are always available for activities and experiments.
The species I recommend are listed below -- more or less in increasing order of nuisance to rear:
- American cockroach -- Periplaneta americana
- German cockroach -- Blatella germanica
- Madagascar hissing cockroach -- Gromphodorina portentosa
Container:
- Choose a large bucket or a small aquarium (10-20 gallons) with a snug-fitting lid. The container should have several air holes (preferably in the lid) covered with window screen or fine mesh (use a hot-melt glue gun to attach the screen). Smear a ring of petroleum jelly (e.g. "Vaseline") around the inside lip to keep the roaches from escaping. Put wood chips, empty egg cartons, or toilet paper rolls in the bottom as refugia.
Food and Water:
- Cockroaches are scavengers. They will eat almost anything that contains organic matter. Dog or cat food (the dry kind) is an excellent source of nutrition for them. Also use dry bread, cookies, banana peels, etc. Supply a source of water -- a wet sponge in a shallow dish, a cotton wick in a stoppered test tube, or paper toweling under the lid of an inverted screw-top jar. Keep the habitat relatively dry and don't let the food get too moldy.
Stocking the Colony:
- Trap live roaches at night where you know they live (old buildings, the basement, your kitchen, etc.). Wrap a paper towel completely around a wide-mouth jar and secure it with a rubber band. Put a piece of bread or cake in the jar as bait (yeasty smelling works best -- add a little beer?) and ring the top inner lip with petroleum jelly. Set the jar near a wall or a corner and leave it over night. Roaches are attracted by the bait, run up the paper towel, jump into the jar, and can't get out. Transfer them to your colony in the morning. Generation time is about nine months for American cockroaches.
- Confused flour beetle -- Tribolium confusum
- Yellow mealworm -- Tenebrio molitor
The larvae of these beetles are commonly called mealworms.
Container:
- Use a plastic shoe box or a food keeper with a tight fitting lid. Cut ventilation holes in the lid and cover these with fine mesh screen (fasten with a glue gun). Put a layer of clean soil in the bottom and cover that with a mixture of old "low sugar" cereals, cornmeal, used birdseed and/or wheat bran/chaff. Shredded newspaper or wood chips (e.g. pet litter) can be sprinkled on top, giving the beetles a place to breed and hide.
Food and Water:
- Mealworms feed on dry grains and need very little water to survive. Occasionally add a few vegetable peelings or a slice of potato to provide a source of moisture.
Stocking the Colony:
- Mealworm larvae are commonly sold in pet stores as food for other animals. They are often abundant in the old litter (wood chips) from commercial poultry farms (breeders). They can also be purchased via mail order from:
Rainbow Mealworms
126 E. Spruce St.
P.O. Box 4907
Compton, California 90224Phone: 1-800-777-9676