Keeping and Breeding Woodies
Nauphoeta cinerea

Sam Forster

One of the best but most under appreciated insects in terms of food value, maintainence and ease of breeding has to be the Nauphoeta cinerea or as most people in refer to it, the Woody. Woodies are a medium sized insect, approximately three centimetres long, they don't smell, they live for about a year, anyone can breed them, but more importantly the frogs love them.

Housing: In the wild woodies live under bark or wood, however it is not necessary to replicate these conditions, a simple container filled with shredded paper and cardboard cylinders is perfectly acceptable. The one thing to note when choosing a container is although woodies cannot jump they are capable of climbing most materials, including glass. For this reason it is best to use for polystyrene containers like those used by greengrocers to house woodies as the tight fitting lid will prevent escape. A useful trick is to place a 5cm wide strip of tape around the inside of the container so as to discourage woodies for running out when the container is opened.

Feeding: Woodies survive best when fed on pelleted rabbit food with the occasional piece of carrot, lettuce or orange for moisture. It is best to keep a pile of rabbit pellets in one corner of the enclosure so there's always food available.

Breeding: Breeding is the easiest part of keeping woodies. All they require is an enclosure temperature around 20 degrees Celsius and they will breed continually. There is no need to separate the different ages as they will not adversely effect each other, and doing so can be difficult as growth rates vary significantly between individuals. This slow growth rate is a negative aspect of woodies with some individuals taking up to ten weeks to reach adult size.

The greatest detrimental aspect of these insect which deters many people is resemblance to the feared, Periplaneta americana or as its more commonly known, the American cockroach. Unlike cockroaches woodies carry no diseases and much prefer to live outside under dead wood or tree bark than scurrying around your kitchen in the middle of the night but their capacity as a feeder insect has suffered significantly as a result of this physical resemblances.