Cockroach Mystery Box for Sale

Nothing in this box is a pest species. That is the first thing worth saying, because "cockroach" does a lot of work in most people's heads and none of it applies here. These are forest floor and bark-dwelling animals from the tropics, kept for how they look. They cannot establish in a British house, they do not carry the associations of the two species that give the order its reputation, and several of them are among the best-looking invertebrates we sell.

Inside the box

A mixed group, picked on the morning it ships from whatever is strongest in the room. Every box reaches across a range of species instead of stacking one, and each is bagged and labelled separately so you know what you have. The bigger the box, the further into the rarer end of the collection we go, and the more likely you are to find something not routinely listed.

What we will not do is tell you the exact contents in advance. The bargain is simple. You surrender the choosing, we surrender the margin, and the value in the box is meaningfully better than picking the same animals off individual listings.

One enclosure or several

Several, if you can. Species vary enough in what they want that one shared tub means splitting the difference on every one, and the smaller or slower animals are what suffer. Separate boxes need not be elaborate: a lidded plastic tub with ventilation panels cut into it does the job for most of what will arrive.

If you would rather run one enclosure, keep it to animals of broadly similar size and speed, give more floor area than you think you need, and accept that the mix will settle at whichever end of the range suits the toughest species.

Care that covers most of them

Substrate deep enough to matter, 10cm at least, pesticide-free loam or coir as the bulk, with softened hardwood folded through and a litter cap on top, and nothing coniferous anywhere in the mix. Bark stacked at an angle gives the climbers somewhere to sit and the burrowers somewhere to go underneath. Warm, between 22 and 27C. Damp at one end, drier at the other, with real ventilation rather than a few pinholes.

Offer fruit and vegetables, and something protein-based two mornings out of seven. Serve fresh food on a jar lid or a broad leaf instead of bare substrate; the remains lift out in one piece that way. Jelly pots are the tidiest way to give both moisture and sugars without a wet mess. Remove uneaten food before it moulds, which in a warm humid box means the following day.

Escape-proofing is not optional

Flight risk varies sharply between the species we stock, and you will not know in advance which you are getting, so assume the worst of the box. Most can climb glass and a good proportion can fly. A lid that clips or screws down with no gaps, plus a barrier around the upper wall, is the arrangement that works. A flying species will find ventilation gaps you would never notice. Check all of it before the box arrives, not after.

What to expect

A few of these build numbers fast; others need close to twelve months. A mixed box will do both at once, which is part of the interest. Do not judge it in the first month.

Everything here is captive-bred, never wild-caught, and every species we stock is legal to keep in the UK without a licence. We do not sell the two pest species and never will.

If you would rather have the same arrangement with legs by the hundred, the millipede box works the same way, though keep the two groups in separate enclosures: roaches eat millipede eggs. The isopod box is the third of the set.

Everything travels bagged individually on damp moss, packed into a double-walled carton, sent Monday through Thursday on an overnight tracked service. Our standard twenty per cent overcount applies to this as to everything else, and we guarantee the animals are alive when the box is opened. Anything amiss, email us the day the box lands and we will make it good.