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JackAsp View Profile	Roach cleaning made easy This is probably old hatto a lot of people, but I’m still pretty new to them, so everything glaringly obvious is still new to me. Anyway, I finally figured out how to easily clean a roach colony without losing nymphs or stressing females. 1. Have a spare bin already cleaned and ready. 2. Put the clean bin and the one that the I’m about to clean right alongside each other. 3. Move all the egg crates into the clean one. In fact, you might even want to cram extra egg crates in there a day or two beforehand, to have as many roaches as possible on those things. 4. Dump the old food, replace it, and put the food tray into the new bin. 5. Grab any adults or obvious large nymphs that are still in there, and move those to the new bin too. 6. Put a sifter over the top of the old bin, positioned so that it leads to the new bin. I used the screen cover to a ten gallon tank. Pouring roach-dirt through it and then using the edge to chase the remaining small nymphs worked well, since the corners have an open crack to make the nymphs "walk the plank" off of. You could do somethin similar just by taking a piece of screen and folding it, to make a channel they’d be stuck in. it would probably work even better, in fact. 7. Put one handful at a time onto the screen and shake it through, catching it in a bowl. That way you don’t have to keep wondering what’s already been sifted and what hasn’t. When you spot nymphs seperating themselves to make a run for it, stop sifting and herd them into the new tub. When you’re done sifting a batch, dump it. I personally chose to flush it down the toilet. You might have a few of the smllest nymphs fall through, but since you’re dealing with small amounts, you should be able to see them, and can just re-shift and catch them. 8. When there’s nothing left in there to sift, pick up the whole old tub and just use your hands to brush any remaining small nymphs into the new tub. 9. Immediately soak the old tub with hot water and antibacterial dish soap. This worked great with orange-heads, which are live-bearers that climb very poorly but can run FAST. I wouldn’t dare try this with lobsters, but I see no reason it wouldn’t work well with something like discoids or dubias. And, if anybody has another system, chime in!
01/25/09  01:08pm

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