B. lateralis setup discussion

[ScorpDemon]

How do you keep yours? Substrate or no?
I used substrate this time. I did because the last time I kept this species, I got little to no hatching until I gave up on them and decided they werent for me. The adults all died, old age I assume, then the eggcases started hatching. At one time I had what looked like several hundred thousand babies, they died shortly.

So this time I gave them about 2 inches of moist peat, some climbing material, and I mist them once a week and I have hatching eggcases everyday.

[BugChick]

I think substrate is also important to help keep the smell at bay. Lateralis are the stinkiest of all the popular feeder roaches even with regular cage-cleaning.

[TheRoachKeeper]

I don't use substrate in my lateralis colony. I keep mine in a 50 gallon tub with 5 or 6 egg crates on either end and their food and water in the middle. There is a little bit of an odor to them, but it's not anything that I really notice much unless I'm right there next to the colony. I don't think the smell is much worse than my colony of orange heads living on the shelf just above them.

-Mike-