Catching the buggers.

Once you located prime spots, the next part begins, catching them. Fast reflexes and a butterfly net are most useful in catching your wild roaches.

Here is an Australian roach in the wild. As you can see it's eating a piece of dog food, using bait such as dog food also helps increase your chances in finding roaches, and sometimes they are so preoccupied with eating, that they may ignore you, giving you increased time to grab or net them.

Here's another Australian roach that was caught, using shelters that can also be used to corner them is also a good tactic. Roaches that are "on their game" are very fast and agile. Once you catch them you will need to contain them in the container you brought with you.

Handling roaches can be tricky, you will want to restrain the majority of the body, never grab a roach by the legs firmly or for an "extended" period, as they can shed them in an escape attempt. Small nymphs can regenerate lost legs, but adults cannot. However a roach can live just fine with five legs.

You generally want to sandwich the roach between your thumb and index finger, the American roaches being held for photography purposes, normally they are held in the way I described.

Once you catch your roaches, you can add them to the enclosure. You will find that they adjust rapidly to a life of luxury, vs the wild. I've seen freshly caught roaches feeding on the food in the cage in less than a minute after being released. You will see them put on a lot of weight within hours. The transformation is even more drastic if you manage to find a roach that has been lost indoors for a time.

Next time we will go over food and feeding.