Bannana Roaches as feeders?

[Beardo]

I was wondering if anyone has used the Green Bannana Roaches as feeders for their tarantulas before? Since they climb glass and fly, one would think they would make good feeders for arboreal tarantula species. Are they toxic at all (I only ask because of their bright coloration)? Are they easily propogated? Any additional info about them would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ScorpDemon]

Kelly Swift told me once that arboreal T's love them.. and from what I understand they are pretty easy to breed, and rarely try to fly

 

[xelda]

They do climb and fly, but their first inclination is to burrow. They will literally gravitate towards moist peat moss and then bury themselves to the bottom. This kind of makes them impractical as a feeder because it's a pain in the butt to separate them from the substrate if you have a lot of animals to feed. The nymphs look like lobster roaches and don't try to climb. In fact, they rarely surface. The adults won't hesitate to fly if they're already hanging out on the sides or near the top of the container and you startle them. They're usually the ones itching to get out to mate.

I actually haven't tried using them with my Ts nor did I never think to try it. I think in theory, they'd be the most useful for baby mantids and tiny geckos that need less than 1/8" feeders. P. nivea nymphs are the smallest roaches I've got. But the only problem is having to dig them out just to feed them off.

 

[fantasticp]

I was wondering if anyone has used the Green Bannana Roaches as feeders for their tarantulas before? Since they climb glass and fly, one would think they would make good feeders for arboreal tarantula species. Are they toxic at all (I only ask because of their bright coloration)? Are they easily propogated? Any additional info about them would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

The nymphs instantly burrow, but the adults love to climb glass and fly. They are a bit wingy, so I don't think they are quite as meaty as the other roaches. My smaller aboreals go for them, but they are way too small for a full grown pokie. Also, interestingly, my whole colony seems to go through life cycle phases, as in all of the roaches are nymphs, and then it seems they are all adults at once and very little nymphs (very hard to contain at this phase) Then as the adults start to die off, a buttload of nymphs will show up again and I will only have 2 or three adults. I am not sure if it is supposed to work out this way, but after 6 or so cycles of this I am starting to think maybe they are just weird like that. I keep them in a large jar of dirt, the kind of jar that tapers at the top. It makes them a bit easier to contain.

 

[Nike]

Maybe you should take a batch of nymphs into a separate container, and keep it in a cooler place than the others. That way you could slow their growing down a bit, and after some weeks put them back in to the big container. Then you would have roaches of different sizes and hopefully your production would then run on a more "rounded" schedule?