Additionally, here is our presentation all about our experiment and results with Ricky and Sticky.

http://prezi.com/g-kvgjcol1zz/ricky-and-sticky/


Mibango!
(enjoy!)

As our time together comes to a close, I am observing lil' Ricky and Sticky's interactions with each other. Currently they are underneath the paper towel bedding, and they have been there since Thursday. These bugs really don't move around very much. They are playing a little antenna tag, however.

I really do wonder what they are thinking about as they sit, wiggle their antennas, and then start climbing on each other. Are they friends? Do cockroaches have big enough brains to feel a brotherly connection?

I just learned from National Geographic, that the hissing from the hissing cockroaches comes from a swift exhale of air from the abdomen of the roach. Also, this hissing is used in the mating ritual and to determine roach hierarchy.

Additionally, Madagascar Hissing cockroaches do not infest human habitation. In the wild, they live in the forest and mostly feed on plant and fruit debris.

One last little tidbit of cockroach trivia! Female cockroaches carry their fertilized egg sac inside of their body. When it is time for the eggs to hatch, they give birth to live young!


I have been watching Ricky and Sticky for about 15 minutes now, and they still haven't really moved. I think that my apartment is just too cold for them to get their groove on.

Well, as the Malagasy people say it, "Mahayanona!" (Translated: It has been brought to completion!" Malagasy is the official language of Madagascar spoken by the Malagasy people.)

Life Science Project: music vs. no music

Hypothesis: If music is present, when the cockroaches are together, then the cockroaches will increase their movement.

	One minute without music or sound (focusing on antenna movement)	One minute with tapping on the table (focusing on antenna movement)	One minute with music (Jack Johnson) (focusing on antenna movement)	One minute with “She is beautiful” by Andrew W. K.	One minute with “Time to say goodnight” by Andrew Bocelli (focusing on time increments that they moved)	One minute with tapping (focusing on time increments that they moved)	Without music (focusing on time increments that they moved)
Ricky	Moved his antennas twice	Moved his antennas 129 times and was walking around	Moved his antennas 112 times	6 seconds	18 seconds	28.45 seconds	nothing
Sticky	Did not move at all	Moved his antenna five times but did not move.	Moved his antennas 80 times.	13 seconds	Did not move at all	58 seconds	8 seconds- just antennas

I have discovered something about these cockroaches. Prepare yourself: get ready, men!

Cockroaches do have food preferences. Who knew? Upon re-receiving Ricky and Sticky, there were a few slices of strawberries in their box. I know that cockroaches get most their fluid through their food and the air, so I thought that these strawberries would be perfect for their little appetites.

I got the roaches on Wednesday afternoon. I have been watching as the strawberries have slowly become moldy. I thought that maybe this would even add a little more appeal to the roaches. Finally today (Saturday) I took out the strawberries, added a new paper towel, dropped a little water in to moisten the air, and put in a piece of apple slice.

I have been playing music this whole time, and Ricky was getting pretty animated (correlation data, only) When I dropped the water in the box, Ricky got very animated and started trying to eat the paper towel. I am infering that that is due to the fact that he is very, very thirst and hungry. Finally he bumped into the apple piece.

I tell you what, it was like that little Ricky had never eaten a day in his life! I am reminded of A Little Princess where Sara Crew buys a penny bun and gives it to the poor little girl. The hunger in that girl's eyes and then the barbaric way that she devoured the bread- that is exactly what Ricky did. He could not get enough of that apple piece. He was tilting his head and using his mouth feelers to scrape around and help shovel the food in his mouth. I don't think I have ever seen him move so quickly and animatedly. I think that he was really, really hungry. He ate as much apple as the size of his head. Quite impressive, really.

This is a funny thing to think of for me. Whereas the rest of the week, Ricky had mostly stayed in one spot in the container, he is now crawling all around the box, irritating Sticky, and chillaxin upside down on the wall. Sticky is even moving around a little bit more than earlier. He is now even out of the paper tube- something I have not seen all week.

Do you suppose that they are communicating with each other? "Hey Sticky! There's water in the air! AND apple's on the menu! STICKY! YOU HEAR ME??"

This movement might be contributed to the fact that there is food (that they like) in the container, but it also might be because we are listening to Jack Johnson again. I remember from the last time I was babysitter, that both roaches particularly like Jack Johnson. This is very interesting.

Man. We are listening to "You are Goodbye" by Holly Conlan. Both roaches have completely stopped moving. Social experiment: Jack Johnson again. Difference: a tiny bit of antennae movement. That's about it for now.

A Slight Hiss

I think the cockroaches are a bit cold at school, but it is warmer (and safer) than my house. They haven't been moving around very much, but when I carry them around to show the students, the cockroaches become more willing to move around their habitat, occasionally hissing.

Ricky and Sticky gathered together in the cardboard tube, I'm not sure what their purpose in being so close was, I was hoping they were going to start fighting. Although they would occasionally crawl over/around one another, they didn't instigate any fighting.

At School

The cockroaches have been pretty sluggish the past few days. They have been staying in a 5th grade classroom. One of them has just been laying in the toilet paper tube and the other is laying in the middle of the habitat, although when he first came to school he was on the side of the box near the lid. It looked as though he was trying to escape.

The fifth-graders are all intrigued by him, hopefully tomorrow we will have some time to explore with these invertebrates.

A Final Goodbye

So this is the final post that I will be writing about the cockroaches. Because of the practicum, we haven't been able to switch the cockroaches for a while but tomorrow the big day arrives. As weird as it is, I am sad to see them go. I have worried over them and their diet and swollen little bodies, I have enjoyed watching them fight and then avoid each other and I think most importantly have loved being able to scare my roommates with them. This week as I have observed the cockroaches I have noticed that they haven't been eating very much. I have given them the choice of apples, strawberries--a couple of times, and grapes. I have shied away from the bananas (ever since the incident). I am worried about this because I read online that male cockroaches will become cannibalistic if they don't eat anything. Now I'm not saying that I believe this-- it was online-- but I don't really want it to happen. So hopefully they will eat something soon.
So about the music and the cockroaches. I have noticed that they really like explosions and violence. After watching certain movies, they tend to move more. For example, a couple of my roommates have been watching the series Burn Notice and they seem to enjoy it as well. If we are going to watch a movie we will sometimes put the cockroaches right in front of the tv or by the speakers. We will then observe their behavior after the movie has finished and USUALLY they move a little more. Now this is not always true it is pretty interesting. Another theory is that they like the dark and so move more when it is dark. Whatever it is, its pretty entertaining to watch. We will continue to investigate this during our experiment and I'm excited to see what happens.

A Continuation of the Swollen Cockroach Problem

So I have been legitimately worried about these little guys. After placing the bananas in their cage I have noticed that they have been really puffy and by really puffy I mean weird looking. Usually the cockroaches are not my favorite thing to look at but they look so fat and swollen. As I look at them I think it must hurt! Their backsides are really yellow and all of their stripes are exaggerated. As i looked closer at the cockroaches I realized that something clear was coming out of their back end. I figured that it must be feces and was very surprised by this. It looked like maybe the cockroaches had constipation... is that possible? I was especially surprised by the color-clearish and then as it dried it turned brown. This problem was present for days on end and I worried a little about them. I took the bananas out and let the cockroaches just work on their digestive systems for a couple of days. They continued to work on it and after about 5 days started to look better. I added a couple of apple slices and continued to monitor their eating habits and behavior. They have been moving a little more this week and so I was happy about that.
Now about our experiment. We have decided to talk about the effect of music on the cockroaches and this has been really fun for me. I love to listen to music and listen to a large variety and so the cockroaches have been treated to a diet of jazz, pop, classical, opera, and country. The cockroaches always seem to move a little more when there is some type of sound-- I have noticed this even when the tv is on or we are watching a movie. After the sounds stops, the cockroaches seem to be more active and seem to fight a little more than usual.
I'm glad that the cockroaches are starting to look better and hope that our experiments will turn out good!

Puffy Cockroaches?

So I have inherited the cockroaches-- much to my roommate's excitement. They have been very sluggish and I have been a little bit worried about their health. I think it might be we are still in the middle of the winter but unfortunately I can't take the cockroaches to Hawaii. So...we decided to put them close to the heater, add a cotton ball with water and hope for a humid climate. After observing them for a couple of hours I noticed that they were still extremely sluggish but decided that maybe they were just tired from the fun weeks they had been having. There were a few apple pieces in the box but they didn't seem to be eating them. I've noticed that the cockroaches have been simply sitting in the toilet paper roll and haven't been coming out very much. I cleaned the cage and dampened the paper towel that was in the cage.
So about the puffy cockroach... Because the cockroaches hadn't been eating the apples, I decided to try a banana. I had researched on line a little bit and so towards the end of the week, decided to put in a couple slices for them to try. I noticed over the next couple days that the cockroaches had become a little puffy...I thought this was strange and tried to research a little bit about it online but couldn't find anything. I guess we will just have to see what happens, I will continue to monitor the cockroaches and see how they do.

Does Music/ Sound affect the cockroaches?

After the Music has stopped...

More Music...

Breathing for Cockroaches

I have taken the advice of the other peeps in my group that Ricky and Sticky like warm, humid environments. Therefore, I put a little bit of water in their box, and I stuck their box on the heater vent in my room. When I came back from an activity, they were both up and moving around a lot around the box- more than I had ever seen.

Previously I had noticed that their abdomens contracted and expanded at regular intervals, which I assumed to be breathing. It turns out that I was right- it is a form of breathing; however, I decided to look up a little bit more about the whole breathing process for the cockroaches when I heard a little *squeak* sound coming from them when they exhaled (similar to the one our noses make when they are a little stuffed). Here is what I discovered:

"Q21: Ajay writes:
Could You please let me know how do cockroaches breath?

A: Ajay,
Cockroaches, like all insects, breathe through a system of tubes called tracheae, a word similar to the name of the tube leading to our lungs. The tracheae of insects are attached to the spiracles which are small valved openings on the side of each body segment, excluding the head. Thus the cockroach can breathe without its head! The valves open when the CO₂ level in the insect rises to an unacceptable level; then the CO₂ diffuses out of the tracheae to the outside and fresh oxygen diffuses in. The tracheal system brings the air directly to cells because they branch continually like a tree until their finest divisions tracheoles are associated with each cell allowing gaseous oxygen to disolve in the cytoplasm lying across the fine cuticle lining of the tracheole. CO₂ diffuses out of the cell into the tracheole.

Most insects do not have muscular lungs and thus do not actively breathe in the vertebrate lung manner. However in some very large insects the diffusion process may not be sufficient to provide oxygen at the necessary rate and body musculature may contract rhythmically to forceably move air out and in the spiracles and one can actually call this breathing. This might be associated with such activities as the energetic flight of the migratory locust."

info from: http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/cockroach_faq.html#Q21

A music update: Sticky (the more active, brown colored one) appears to be a little upset with loud noises. He raises and inflates his abdomen when loud music is playing. Sticky (the less active, golden colored one) mostly just hides out in the egg carton.

Update: Right after I wrote my last post, I turned off the music. I watched Ricky and Sticky for a little bit without the music. Almost as soon as I turned off the music, they stopped moving: antennas, everything. I turned "You and Me Together" on again at 7:27 and watched them closely. Both cockroaches started moving their antennas again! When the music stopped, they stopped! THIS IS CRAZY COOL!

Our experiment is the following: how does sound effect the emotions of our two little critters, Ricky and Sticky.

So there I wasI am just sitting at my desk, working on a lesson plan, listening to some chill music, when I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to observe the little dears. Here is my playlist and its corresponding reactions.

Andrew W.K. "She is Beautiful": Pretty hard core rock music- both cockroaches were completely still, no movement at all- not an antenna, nothing.

Pink "Glitter in the Air": no movement at all again.

Jack Johnson "Wrong Turn": Started moving head, and arms, antenna, body-- slight movements in these areas

Dave Matthews Band "You and Me Together": Moved quite a bit- head, arms, antenna, body--antenna moved quite a bit

OK! THIS IS CRAZY!!!!! SO, I switched songs, and Sticky stopped moving around again. I switched back to "You and Me Together" and he started moving around- actually walking around! Climbing on the paper towel roll! Not only that, but he started bobbing his antenna TO THE BEAT OF THE SONG!!!!! I think that I will start experimenting to see if this antenna-bob-age is just his natural moving speed, or if he could sense the vibrations of the beat.

Landon Pigg and Lucy Schwartz "Darling I do": Bobbing antenna to the beat of the song- very pronounced beat because it is a waltz. However, slowed whole body movement.


This is a little more bizarre that I was anticipating...

Improving the Habitat

Today I added some leaves to the cockroaches little habitat. I noticed that they seemed to be avoiding what I thought they would like on the ground in the tub; Megan had the great idea of making the leaves moist. I still need to do that, but I think that Ricky and Sticky will appreciate it. Hopefully it will become a little more humid for them as well.

So, Ricky and Sticky and I were in a little car accident this morning. Nothing too serious, but as I walked to from the Marriott Center parking lot to class with the cockroaches one of them climbed onto the damp cotton ball. He stayed there for a few hours. I'm not sure why--maybe it was an effect of the cold, perhaps he wanted to see from a new position. I don't know. But, it was a new behavior. I'm excited to see what other behaviors come about.

Making Utah a Little More Tropical

So, the cockroaches have seemed extremely sluggish. I haven't heard anything from them since picking them up from Whitney yesterday. Comparing their behavior in the past 20 hours to the first five or six hours I had them on January 20, I am wishing that they would be a little more active. They haven't been moving much, let alone fighting, and I am worried that they are sick or unhappy.

I decided to put them in front of the fire. My room's in the basement, so I figured that maybe they are cold. I put them in front of the fire twice today, and each time, the cockroach not in the egg carton moved to the wall of the tub right next to the fire. I think he wants to be warm. I wasn't sure if the wet cotton balls were giving much more humidity, so I put a wet washcloth over half the tub to hopefully build up some more humidity for Ricky and Sticky.

Maybe I'll put in some leaves or some pictures of Madagscar. They may never have been to their Motherland, but maybe they are yearning for that distant land. The second time I put them in front of the fire, the cockroach in the egg carton turned around (he's been head-down in there) and had his head sticking out. So, maybe he's simply been trying to conserve heat. I'll have to keep putting them in front of the fire and comparing that with their behavior when they are not in direct line of such warmth.

Moving again?

Tonight I smuggled the two cockroaches into my aunt and uncle's house; I don't think anyone knew what the plastic tub in the grocery bags was. Phew! Because after my mom's reaction to my participation in this project I don't want to tell my aunt about the new inhabitants of her home. Ricky and Sticky have been quiet, the haven't moved for the past couple of hours. While studying, I read that Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches like warmth and humidity. I put a couple of wet cotton balls into the container to hopefully add some moisture to the air; and if they get thirsty they can drink some water. I'm interested to see if I hear them moving around in the night; my bedroom gets pretty dark. One of the cockroaches has been sitting in the egg carton and the other has been hanging (better word?) on the wall of the container.

They're Here

Well the bugs have finally arrived and we are pleased to initiate Ricky and Sticky to the family. Ricky is the bigger of the two and is very excited about the new change in his life. Sticky tends to be a little more hesitant and is a little unsure about the transition from pet store to the college scene. The first few minutes with these little guys proved to be very interesting. As soon as we were out of the store, and had been given the sales pitch, "oh, they are really very docile, calm and make great pets," they started to attack each other... right out there in the parking lot. It was a little bit of a surprise for poor Laurie who was holding them, as the small container they were being held in began rumbling and the cockroaches began hissing at each other. Their fight was the first of many fights on the long journey back from American Fork but that night as they were placed in a larger container, they both took their separate corners and stayed away from each other for the rest of the day.
The first night, they were given a couple apple pieces to eat and a small amount of dog food (recommended on the majority of websites about cockroaches...interesting). They didn't seem to enjoy the dog food or the apples very much but I attribute it to being in new surroundings.
We also read on some websites that they enjoy places to hide and so we added a piece of an egg carton and a toilet paper roll. Ricky tends to hang out on the egg carton (as featured in the picture) and Sticky has found his place in the toilet paper roll. Although we have read that the cockroaches are usually more active in the nighttime, the first couple of days the cockroaches were very active. They have settled down a little since then and Ricky tends to be a lot calmer than Sticky. He also tends to hiss less when touched. They often are found together and I think have gotten used to the new living situation with two males. As stated, Sticky seems to be in charge and Ricky just "hangs out" a lot.
We have tried to feed them apples, bananas, carrots, and pieces of orange, although they tend to not eat very much-- especially when being observed. Although the amount of feces in the cage suggests that they do eat.
Each of these bugs seems to be very friendly and after the initial day of fighting have seemed to be very "calm and docile" as explained at the pet store.

A Brief Travel Home

Excitement abounds in the small container Ricky and Sticky were placed in for their travel from the pet store to their new home. They would frequently fight and move around. The two boys that I tutor (1st grade and 5th grade) would poke them and urge them to hiss.