Common Name: Red Runner Cockroach
Scientific Name: Shelfordella tartara

Status: Captive Bred

A medium size species, adults are winged and very fast moving, this makes them good food for praying mantids, spiders, scorpions etc. Approximate adult size 3 cm.

Note : A tub of cockroaches will always contain enough individuals to start a breeding colony. The number in a tub varies depending on size of species, stage of lifecycle and how many I have in stock. (minimum 15, when I am over-run with a certain species, a tub will contain as many as I can fit in!)

How I keep mine

I keep my Red Runner cockroaches in plastic boxes (24 litre or 32 litre, opaque, purchased from Wilko or Tesco).  I make air holes in the lid with my little soldering iron, great for burning the right size holes through plastic. I use peat, coir or vermiculite on the base and add leaf litter (Oak, Beech or other hardwoods) and pieces of bark or egg trays to hide under. I am discovering more and more that many cockroaches will eat some leaf litter and seem to enjoy it but it isn't strictly necessary as I kept cockroaches successfully for many years without giving them any leaves. I feed them once or twice a week on my dried cockroach mix and pieces of fruit and vegetables. I find banana and cucumber are favourites.

I place my boxes on a shelf with a heat mat on it, I use a strip heat mat (15cm wide) and this covers part of the base of the box (several boxes can fit on one long mat). Like most bugs it is a good idea to give them a dry and a damp area to choose from. I find the area above the heat mat is dry and the area not covered by the heat mat is a little more moist.  I use plastic boxes for my cockroaches as I have lots of species and don't have the space to keep them all in individual tanks but of course they do equally well when housed in a plastic or glass tank and are much more visible.

These are very active cockroaches and the nymphs are very small and can climb well. I therefore find it is a good idea to place a piece of fine netting over the top of your box or tank and then clip the lid down on the netting, thereby avoiding any escapees but you do need to be careful when opening the lid!