• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.

Madagascar Hissing cockroaches

poor girls

they can breed many times, but once is usually all needed for many babies, they hold the eggs inside until they hatch
 
They also have a life span of 2-3 years. During this time the females will produce a litter every 60-90 days.
The two main things to provide to ensure high productive rate is space and heat. The more space they have the more territories for males. Males with no territory don't breed.
For temperature keep them at 85-90. Under these conditions reproduction will get fairly high as the colony gets established.
 
Great food for tarantulas also

I also feed them to my tarantulas even the old 'hard' adults get fed to some of my larger T's. Just make sure your T gets them before they burrow down into the substrate.
 
I prefer the lobster roaches for most everything. My tarantula gets nothing but lobsters.
They are softer bodied and only reach 1 1/4" maximum size. They are very similar to a cricket as far as a feeder insect goes.

I no longer use hissers for feeders at all. I have a small group I kept just because they're interesting bugs, but in my opinion they are best suited as feeders for larger lizards like the monitors.
The lobsters are much better insects for things like beardies, chameleons, and dwarf monitors.
I did feed hissers to my beardies in the past and they ate them just fine. I almost had a problem once though, I pushed the limit on the size and nearly had a beardie choke on one. That instance caused a change in my feeding routine and as soon as my lobster colony was large enough to support my lizards I went with them entirely.
 
Lobsters

Yup Clay lobsters are great feeders for almost anything, I use them for my ackies also.
I just like the hissers for food for my bigger tarantulas[ it's kind of neet watching and Hearing the melee] I use t6he smaller ones for other animals [like my pictus]
My colonie of lobsters are not big enough for feeding yet.
I also use death's heads for feeders, them and my hissers are the only colonies big enough and productive enough for feeding at this time.
I breed B. giganteus also, but I must admit these guys are slow growers.
 
I was given a small group of hissers a few days ago. I have 5; 2 males and 3 females. There's one female that is rather listless so I thought maybe she was getting ready to deliver...I really have no clue how old these adults are. Today, I noticed some small bugs running around on the adults. Do the babies do this, hang out on the parents, I mean?
 
Baby hissers look pretty much like little adults within a few hours of birth, and they are fairly good sized.
Here is a picture of a mother and her just delivered litter to show the size reference.
birth4.jpg


The babies do not hang out with the parents. They are around the female for a short while, but then disperse.
Since babies are pretty obvious I'm going to venture that your hissers have mites. This may not be the case, but mites are common in roach colonies.
As I understand it, they are not a mite species that will threaten your reptiles, they are host specific. Regardless, they will multiply and should be eliminated if possible.
With only 5 roaches, it shouldn't be a problem. Just keep them well cleaned.

I have been told of one method to remove mites which is to shake the roach in a zip lock bag containing flour. The mites will remain in the flour and you mist the roach with plain water once you're finished to clean the flour off them.
Clean the cage at the same time to remove any strays and/or eggs in the cage.
A repeat treatment or two may be needed to completely eliminate them.
 
Ahh...crud. That's what I thought they were but I was soooo hopeful that they weren't! I just got these things! Darn it! LOL!!

I did some online searching on mites yesterday and two sites recommended the same thing you just did; the flour in a ziplock bag trick. I'll be doing that in a few minutes but I'm worried about how hard I can shake them in the flour...If I'm too gentle, the mites wont shake off but if I'm too rough, wont I hurt the hissers?

Thank you so much for your help, and the picture for size reference. The one site I found with a "baby" picture was too close up and I couldn't see just how big they were.

...Off to de-mite 5 adults and 7 nymphs...*sigh*
 
Considering a roach can live a month with it's head removed, I'd say you'll be hard pressed to shake that bag hard enough to hurt them. I've had them fall 4-5 feet from my hand unharmed.
 
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