Rachel McLeod
Rachel is 11 years old, and since she was a toddler she has loved looking at tiny things, and poking about under rocks and stones to see what she can find. Rachel first met Madagascan hissing cockroaches at the Stratford Butterfly Farm when she was five, and her affinity with them was immediately apparent. After three years of unremitting enthusiasm, her parents capitulated and gave Rachel a pair of hissing cockroaches for her eighth birthday. Since then she has cultured colonies of seven or eight different cockroach species, sometimes totalling over 1000 individuals, as well as some millipedes.
Rachel’s interest in insects led her to the Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES), which has been an invaluable source of practical support and encouragement. Rachel has been a very active member of the Bug Club over the last three years (check out the website at www.amentsoc.org/bug-club/), and she has written many articles for the Bug Club Magazine. Her most ambitious project has been a set of interviews with entomologists, which is being published as a series Working in Entomology in the Bug Club Magazine. Rachel hopes that these interviews will encourage other young people to consider entomology as a career (you can read the interviews on her website www.rachelmcleod.com). Rachel has certainly inspired her brother Magnus, who is five and has also contributed articles to the Bug Club Magazine.
In April 2008, Rachel was invited to lecture to AES members on cockroaches at their annual meeting in the Natural History Museum (NHM). The success of this talk inspired other children to present talks on their entomological interests, and presentations by young people are now a regular feature of AES events. Rachel has also lectured at AES meetings at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford Natural History Museum, and has given talks at the NHM on insect microscopy to members of the Quekett Microscopical Club.
Rachel’s other interests span science, dissection, fossils, kayaking, art, riding bikes and ponies, playing the piano, and ballet. So her great fascination with cockroaches and other invertebrates hasn’t got in the way of her active involvement in a varied selection of sport, science and art.
Rachel, No cockroaches in my house, but we do have a pet giant African millipede, called (you guessed it) Millie. At least, I think we have a pet millipede. It might be we have a pet colony of fruit flies and that a giant millipede just happens to share the same tank. I’ve only myself to blame, the compost bins are fairly close to the kitchen and the flies constantly come in through the windows whenever I dump in a new consignment of potato peelings and bana skins. Maybe I should microwave the entire tank, making sure that Millie is safely out of the way first. Richard Jones
Hi Richard, my advice is to clean out the old food a lot more often and maybe to keep the tank slightly drier. If there’s lots of drops of water in it, it can definitely be made drier. If they just get sprayed with water every-so-often, that should be fine. I’m not actually a millipede expert becasue mine haven’t got breeding yet, but I’ve had a fruit fly problem with my cockroaches before and that sorted the problem. If it’s possible in any way, move them further from the compost bins! Rachel
Great blog Rachel. Did you find many ladybirds during your school insect survey?
Thanks, Helen
Hi Helen, yes, we did find some. Throughout the day, I wasn’t in wonderful ladybird habitat and found about 10 Harelquins, and unusually, two 2-sopts and even more amazingly, a 14-spot ladybird. My mum says she saw lots of ladybirds, many Harlequins, including larvae, but a good amount of 2 and 7-spot, as well as one 14-spot. Last year, a sycamore tree in our garden was absolutely covered in Harlequin ladybirds, less than 5cm between each one over the whole tree – and it’s quite big, as well. But this year I haven’t found a single ladybird on it. Do you think this is good because the Harlequins are dying out – or bad, because ther are less ladybirds around?
Rachel
Fantastic blog Rachel – hope you get a chance to do our MSc in Entomology when you are older.
Thank you SO much. At the moment, that’s what I’m planning on! Definitely entomology, at the moment, and it seems like entomology just leads to you! I think we’re going to meet up soon to talk about my book. I can’t wait to see you, everybody says I should…
Rachel
Hi Rachel, I was wondering where you keep your cockroach colonies.How large can a colony get?
I keep my roaches in vivariums – glass fish tanks – in my bedroom. A colony can get really big, but in a way they’ll be divided up into separate smaller colonies. How it works is there is the top male, who will sit on the top of a log or something – or as high up as he can possibly go – either physically, or without being battered by males higher up. He has some females if he’s one of the top males and the females are impressed with his position, and there will be the lesser males and nymphs hiding underneath the logs. Colonies can be 50-100 individuals but in a tank you cna fit a lot more than that because there’ll probably be more than one top male. This only occurs in Gromphadorhina. If you go to http://www.rachelmcleod.com/gromphie%20care_sheet.htm you can read my care sheet. The number of roaches you can keep is limited by the amount of room they have. After a while they may just seem not healthy enough. overcrowded roaches will often get mites and they will stop breeding. So after a while it’s really important to find new homes for some.
Rachel
It reminds me a lot of the feudal system! Should I try starting off with a formicarium or a cockroach colony?
By the way, how many times have people brought up the myth about nuclear explosions and cockroaches when talking to you?
Thank you for the link to your care sheet. I will read it tomorrow.
Fraser
Hi Fraser,
It really depends on what you want to keep. But if it’s about cockroaches, you should start with an ordinary vivarium and have, let’s say, ten roaches to start off with. This should get your colony going. I’ve got a few hundred here, that could go to happy homes with somebody else…
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
Roughly how large will the tank have to be? My Mum and I read the care sheet and she is not too happy about mites around the house. How do you get rid of the mites if you get them? Pot pourri? I know this works on mosquitos and biting insects, or would it also affect the roaches?
Is getting rid of cockroach mites anything like getting rid of Varroa mites for bees? I know this is a massive problem for bee keepers.
By the way thank you for the offer of the cockroaches. My Mum will need a lot more convincing.
Fraser
Hi Rachel,
well done on a great blog, looks like you a fun week.
all the best
D