ABSTRACT
The primary aim in culturing cockroaches is to achieve a steady, high output of healthy specimens with a minimal expenditure of time, space, and money. Most of the literature on the culturing of cockroaches concerns only the three main pest species, Periplaneta americana, Blatta orientalis, and Blattella germanica. This chapter presents the culturing methods and materials found to be most useful, with the hope that investigators will not only be able to better their culturing of the three domiciliary pest species, but will also be drawn to investigate others. Ideally, cockroaches should be cultured in a sealed constant-temperature incubator with light and humidity controls and containing both a sink and a work table. In general, cockroaches require large amounts of water to prevent death by dessication. The major “pest” problems that can occur in cockroach cultures are mold growth, phorid flies, acaroid mites, spiders, beetles, and, in multispecies cultures, other cockroaches.
