Garfield I have heard of some people waiting up to 3 months for theirs to hatch. I posted a while back on how to speed up the process. Check here.
tarantulas.co.za/forum/feeders/42397-spe...hatch-time-for-turks

@Carfield. I even have my heat-pads on during the summer and you know how hot it gets in Pretoria. But with more heat you have to up the humidity. In my experience forgetting about them is the best tip EVER your next question in some time will be. How do I get rid of all these Turkish roaches. I started with 75 and a year later I had thousands. PS: Only feed off the males as the females will continue drop egg sacks.

Two months back I bought two tubs of adult Blatta lateralis (+/- 150 Turkish) and put them into a 50 litre plastic bin.
Fed them fish flakes, dry powdered cat food and grated carrots.
They are housed outside in my wendy house and the temperatures range from 20 deg C @ night to 35 deg C @ day. Did not concern myself with humidity at all.
Currently I have hundreds of nymphs running around and the adult females are still laying egg sacks like crazy.
I have to agree with iclazion. The secret is to let them be and do what cockroaches do best....multiply. :blush:

Thank you for all the advice guys. I have GREAT news. My first egg case have hatched.

Info on how I keep them:

Enclosure: 150X150X150 glass enclosure.
Inside enclosure: Small amount of the same peat I use for my T's, egg flats(cut to fit inside enclosure and cable tied together), water bowl(shallow and filled with fish tank rocks to prevent drowning), food bowl.
Temp: Between 24 deg C and 35 deg C.
Humidity: Unknown, but I often moisten some of the substrate when giving them water and food.
Food: Mix of Malawi fish food and Montego classic dog food.

The next questions...

1. How often do they need to be rehoused? My current enclosure is pretty small, as I only started the colony with 18 roaches. But now that the first egg case have hatched I'm worrried about space etc, and I have noted a considerable amount of excretion building up inside the enclosure(worried that hygiene might affect their health).

2. If I want to rehouse them:
a. Where can I get the egg flats/trays at affordable prices(In PTA)?
b. How do I go about moving the egg cases, and what care should be taken when moving them them?
c. Will it be a hassle moving the nymphs to a new enclosure?

3. Has anyone tried adding calcium powder to their diets? What would the pros/ cons be?

I can not wait for the colony to grow large enough for me to start feeding my T's of it. I hate crickets... much harder to keep alive and they are NOISY.

Supplements you can add:
Bee Pollen
Honey Powder
Milk powder
Brewers yeast

This paper is for mantids but food sources in the wild are the same for spiders.
docserver.esa.catchword.org/deliver/cw/p...046225x/v32n4s22.pdf

b. How do I go about moving the egg cases, and what care should be taken when moving them them?
c. Will it be a hassle moving the nymphs to a new enclosure?


I found it easier to pick up the egg cases, using a spoon, and transferring them to a new container with some egg flats that will serve as hiding space for the nymphs.

Once every two weeks, I transfer the egg flats, containing the newly hatched nymphs, to other containers. This helps me to control the sizing and makes less of a hassle to split them from the adults. They can run flippen fast....