Feeding my T with cockroaches around the apartment?

[Teal]

While I would definitely not recommend using wild caught feeders in a human-populated area, what you CAN do is collect them! If they are poisoned, they will die... But if they aren't, you can build your own colony from them and offspring are safe to feed. I quarantine new roaches that I catch, and after a week or two I'll add them to the colony if they are fine.

Never a good idea to feed anything wild caught IMO.

That depends on your location. If I go out on the ranch, flip some rocks, and find roaches... I'm not worried about them. But in an apartment or city? Absolutely.

Not to stray too far off topic here, but one of the reasons I’ve never kept roaches as feeders is because I’m too paranoid they would somehow attract wild roaches that would infest.

Not all roaches are created equal. Very few species actually present an infestation hazard, and they don't all live everywhere.

Do you keep roaches as feeders? Or have you ever had any? Is it possible some got out and your seeing them now?

Just thinking out loud..

I have had roaches escape... it really isn't a big deal. A few escaped juvies are likely going to die before they mature. And even if they DO mature and somehow breed, the nymphs require certain conditions to survive that most households don't offer. People usually don't keep infestation species as feeders because they are worried about escapees colonizing the home.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Not to stray too far off topic here, but one of the reasons I’ve never kept roaches as feeders is because I’m too paranoid they would somehow attract wild roaches that would infest.

Do you keep roaches as feeders? Or have you ever had any? Is it possible some got out and your seeing them now?

Just thinking out loud..

Attracting wild roaches with captive roaches can be a problem. That was a problem I was having until I finally gave up on keeping dubia roaches and gave them away. In my circumstance though, it was the food in my dubia bin that was attracting them. The wild roaches (the American cockroach) would come into my spare bedroom and I would find a few of them hanging out with my dubia roaches and eating their food. Sometimes I would watch the American roaches eat the dubia food then walk out of the bin. No doubt that was going on for a long time without me noticing until the American roach population got a little out of hand where I would start seeing them on my walls at all hours of the evening and night. The American roaches were hiding out in the room where I couldn't see them then coming out at night to eat the dubia's food then go back to their hiding spots. Those pest roaches had the good life. I finally got rid of the American roaches by setting a non-lethal, no-glue trap with more enticing food where I would see them most often.

I took pieces of orange or grapefruit and put it into a tall glass vase with vegetable oil smeared all inside the top and left it on the floor against the wall I would see them hanging out at most often. After a few days, I would catch 2-3 of the American roaches. Doing that for a couple of weeks I was able to get rid of all the American roaches that were hiding in my room.

All that being said though, it wasn't the dubia roaches themselves that were attracting the wild pest roaches. It was their food and the conditions of the dubia bin. American roaches love to hide out in egg flats just as much as dubia do. Also, I kept my dubia bin with the lid ajar so that was contributing to the problem too. That allowed the American roaches to come and go from the dubia bin at will. I have the same problem with my cricket bin. As a matter of fact, I found an American roach eating my crickets' food yesterday and had to chase it out.

The reason I decided to give up my dubia roaches is because they were another attractant of the pest roaches and I didn't need that since I use crickets more often anyway. One aspect that made keeping dubia roaches more difficult was that the American roaches would blend in with the dubias in their bin and they were hard to find and get rid of. In the times I find American roaches hanging out with my crickets, they are easy to find so I just throw the lid on and take it outside and chase out the freeloading roaches.

So my advice for those who live in the southern states or anywhere pest roaches can be found is to keep your feeder insects in a bin with a secure lid. The pest roaches will definitely be able to smell the food coming from the bin, since your feeders should have good ventilation, but the pest roaches won't be able to feast.

One thing I have noticed dealing with American roaches is that once they come into your house, they stay. It's not like they can find their way back out the way they came in. Once you see pest roaches, deal with it before it becomes a problem. In conclusion though, my dubia roaches or crickets didn't cause an infestation. The American roaches found their way into my room on their own but having food available didn't help the situation. If anything, having feeder insects kept the pest roaches confined to the one room since they didn't feel the need to wander into any other room in search of food. Again though, don't do what I do. Keeping a secure lid on your feeder insect bins will help keep pest roaches in check .

 

[viper69]

I don't have an infestation, but I do find them from time to time in my apartment, would it be fine to capture it and feed it to my T or is it too risky?

NO NO NO

 

[Tommydragon10]

That's too risky in my opinion. Roaches in apartments are something people will treat. Id be worried about potential pesticides or poisons on the roaches hurting your T. I don't even use crickets and grasshoppers from my yard because my next door neighbors treat their yard/garden with pesticides and weed killers.

In my circumstance though, it was the food in my dubia bin that was attracting them. The wild roaches (the American cockroach) would come into my spare bedroom and I would find a few of them hanging out with my dubia roaches and eating their food. .

Couldn't you have done something to prevent the roaches from outside your dubia container from getting inside? like vegetable oil around the top of the container? I don't keep roaches so I know next to nothing on them but Im very curious about this.

 

[cold blood]

Not to stray too far off topic here, but one of the reasons I’ve never kept roaches as feeders is because I’m too paranoid they would somehow attract wild roaches that would infest.

Do you keep roaches as feeders? Or have you ever had any? Is it possible some got out and your seeing them now?

Just thinking out loud..

Feeder roaches dont attract other roaches...its like saying i dont have a dog cause i dont want my house infested with stray dogs.

Now food can attract roaches, but it wouldnt matter what feeders you had in that case....they all need food.

The main reason dubia are popular as feeders is because they simply cant infest in the temperate climates most of us live in...stray roaches just wander and die out. Dubia are tropical and require high temps to reproduce...plus they cant climb smooth surfaces, so its easy to control escapes.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Couldn't you have done something to prevent the roaches from outside your dubia container from getting inside? like vegetable oil around the top of the container? I don't keep roaches so I know next to nothing on them but Im very curious about this.

Yes, I could have put the lid on the container as I stated in the post you quoted.

Vegetable oil is messy so using it as a barrier is not good. I used it on the inside of the glass vase I used as a roach trap and it worked great at keeping the roaches in the vase, but it became runny and messy. I wouldn't use it as a barrier on a large container. Same with petroleum jelly. Too messy.