Cleaning my Roach Colony

[Neon Aurora]

Well looks like I can say my roach colony has officially started rolling. While getting a few out to feed, I noticed several tiny little nymphs. I've been leaving them alone as much as possible, but there is getting to be a bit of build up of waste. My question is, what is the best way to clean out the bin without disturbing the breeding females too much and without accidentally throwing out the tiny nymphs with the waste?

 

[JessJohnson87]

I made sort of a self cleaning set up. I drilled holes in the bin with my roaches and put another one underneath so the poop just falls through the holes and collects in the bin underneath. I've seen where some people get dermestid beetles to eat waste, molts and dead roaches.

 

[J&M UNE]

I added a cleaner crew to my colony and don't have to clean at all anymore they work great

Sent from my Z936L using Tapatalk

 

[indyana]

I used to let the frass build up quite a bit and only clean a couple times a year. When I did that, I basically had a separate container where I took the egg crates and banged off all the roaches. Picked what I could out of the original bin and just called the rest a loss (into the freezer...).

My roach colony also had some lesser mealworms in it (came in with the original roach batches).

If you're just starting to see babies, I'd try to hold off on the cleaning. As long as you don't let any moist food sit on the frass or directly mist it, you won't get any dangerous mold built up.

 

[Neon Aurora]

I apologize, I totally forgot about this thread. Life is crazy.

Anyways, I might consider making some holes.. I imagine they would have to be really tiny so the babies don't fall through.

J&M UNE, what kind of cleaner crew?

Would dermestid beetles live peacefully with the roaches? Do they eat the frass, or just the skins/corpses?

Is there a major difference between lesser mealworms and regular ones?

 

[JessJohnson87]

I would use a 1/8" drill bit to make the holes, any bigger and the smaller nymphs might fall through.
[video=youtube;8sWZE-43-Ts]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sWZE-43-Ts[/video]
Here is a video of where I got my idea from.

I have thought about ordering a cleaner crew to get rid of the molts, dead roaches and poop that doesn't fall through the holes.

 

[Neon Aurora]

Thanks for the video. =) I will definitely consider, but will wait until the nymphs are bigger.

If anyone could tell me what kind of cleaner crew they are using, I would appreciate it.

 

[indyana]

Lesser mealworms and dermestids are the typical cleaner crew members. They will not eat all the frass, but they do clean up scraps and take care of roach parts.