NC State University
Schal Lab Resources

Cockroaches in culture | Lab facilities | Analytical equipment

Our lab maintains a small collection of pest, temperate, and tropical cockroach species. The Insectary within the Department of Entomology also maintains other exotic insects for display and outreach activities. We welcome requests from non-profit organizations for cockroaches to be used in educational programs.

We also maintain several colonies of bed bugs, including various strains recently collected in apartments. 

List of cockroach species in culture:

Blaberidae:

Blaberus atropos Gromphadorhina portentosa
Blaberus craniifer Leucophaea maderae
Blaberus giganticus Nauphoeta cinerea
Blaptica dubia Pycnocelus indicus
Diploptera puncata Pycnocelus surinamensis
Eublaberus posticus Schultesia lampyridiformes

Blattidae:

Periplaneta australasiae Periplaneta fuliginosa
Periplaneta americana Blatta orientalis

Blattellidae:

Blattella germanica Parcoblatta latta
Blattella asahinai Parcoblatta pennsylvanica
Blattella lituricollis Supella longipalpa

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Related links:
VPI Genetic Stock Center for the German Cockroach
 
 
Our lab is located in Gardner Hall, on the North Campus of NCSU. It contains a separate insect rearing room (200 ft²), a microscopy/physiology room (500 ft²), a chemical ecology/biochemistry room (700 ft²) and a behavioral assay section (500 ft²), which alleviates problems of cross-contamination with pheromones and hormones. The behavior lab consists of a walk-in temperature and humidity microprocessor-controlled room and 7 reach-in incubators. We are fully equipped for cockroach and bed bug rearing and maintenance.
The Biological Resources Facility houses small animals and generates antibodies on a fee-for-service basis. A hybridoma facility is available at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Lab photos (under construction)

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Equipment in our lab includes:
  • Beckman LS5801 liquid scintillation counter
  • Two HP1050 HPLCs, with diode array detectors
  • 2 dimensional radiochromatogram scanner
  • Bio-Tek PowerWave 200 microplate scanning spectrophotometer
  • Agilent 6890 (S/SL, FID) and 7890 (S/SL, on-column, FID) capillary GCs, each with a HP7683 auto-injector
  • Agilent 6890 GC coupled to an Agilent 5975 MSD with both EI and CI capabilities
  • HP5890 GC-EAD system (S/SL, FID)
  • HP5890 prep-GC system (S/SL, on-column, FID)
  • Flow-One ß Radiomatic radio-detector
  • P160N, HK160 and MP8-1 digital balances
  • Centra CL5R centrifuge, and several microfuges
  • Zeiss and Nikon SMZU dissecting microscopes with fiber optics
  • Ultrasonic and manual tissue disrupters
  • Bio-Rad electrophoresis systems
  • Brinkman Polytron homogenizer
  • Jouan RCT60 concentrator
  • Several freezers including -80oC freezer
  • Various molecular biology equipment
Behavioral equipment includes:
  • Panasonic IR sensitive camera and high resolution monitors
  • time-lapse video recorders
  • Noldus’s EthoVision and The Observer packages.
The labs and offices have 8 PC computers, all connected to the internet
 
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