Can I still use feeders that escaped?

[darlingi]

So I just knocked over my small dubia colony (luckily it's not big, about 50) and a few adults + many nymphs began to race around my bathroom. I locked the door and managed to collect them all and put them back in their box. Now I'm wondering if I can or should still use these for feeding. They hid behind my shower gels and I'm afraid this could've contaminated them (since there are probably some chemicals in there that are harmful to T's). I cleaned the floor of my bathroom with a chemical cleaner for the last time a few months ago. Nothing too heavy like bleach, but I'm still afraid there could still be some residue and the dubias just walked over it.

Is there an actual risk or am I just overthinking this? I've been thinking about euthanizing them, but I'd feel super bad, especially if feeding them off would be safe.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Do you use pesticides or anything?
Ant bait?
If the answer is no, you're probably fine.

 

[KaroKoenig]

There is nothing wrong with a little bit of overthinking. In your case, I think you are in the clear, but just to be safe, I would just wait a week and observe if there are any unexplainable deaths in your roach colony. If not - bon appetit.

 

[viper69]

I don’t

 

[cold blood]

I feed out any escaped feeder I find in my home.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Like @cold blood , I too feed escapees. I use crickets, so that is a common occurrence in my house. With dubia roaches, if there is a fear of them getting into contact with household substances, like soap, one can just throw them in a pasta strainer and gently rinse them off with water under the faucet like rinsing off fruit and vegetables before preparing. Of course, fruit doesn't have 6 legs and can run, so that has to be accounted for. Since all insects have the waxy epicuticle, anything they come into contact with should rinse right off.

 

[USNGunner]

Like @cold blood , I too feed escapees. I use crickets, so that is a common occurrence in my house. With dubia roaches, if there is a fear of them getting into contact with household substances, like soap, one can just throw them in a pasta strainer and gently rinse them off with water under the faucet like rinsing off fruit and vegetables before preparing. Of course, fruit doesn't have 6 legs and can run, so that has to be accounted for. Since all insects have the waxy epicuticle, anything they come into contact with should rinse right off.

Rinsing roaches in my wife's pasta strainer would be the end of us all.

 

[starlight_kitsune]

I don't but that's because my MIL uses cleaners in the main part of the house that I am pretty confident aren't great for my spiders. I'd rather avoid accidentally feeding one of my spiders a raid glazed cricket.