Cockroach mystery

[Crunchie]

Hullo all I'm hoping someone may be able to help me with a mystery I have.

I bought a culture of Cuban Burrowing cockroaches from the spider shop nearly a month ago to add to 4 individuals I bought at a local shop. They were getting abit stinky so I cleaned them out today but I found a cockroach in there I've never seen before, I'm beginning to doubt it's a Cuban and I don't think it came in the culture from the spider shop as I lifted all the Cuban roaches out the tub then disposed of it.

At present it is only around an inch long but is fully winged, do Cuban nymphs have wings? Is this simply a male nymph because it can climb glass pretty well and I've always thought the Cubans couldnt climb well or fly?

 

[JCola]

i can't help you on species, but it can't be a nymph, because nymphs don't have wings, so whatever it is, it's an adult. did you completely change the substrate? maybe it was hiding in there, and you just didn't see it.... that or maybe you have a roach infestation in your house? sorry i can't be more helpful.

 

[Crunchie]

i can't help you on species, but it can't be a nymph, because nymphs don't have wings, so whatever it is, it's an adult. did you completely change the substrate? maybe it was hiding in there, and you just didn't see it.... that or maybe you have a roach infestation in your house? sorry i can't be more helpful.

Thing is I live in Scotland and we don't really get any house living cockroaches here (in fact I'm not sure if we have any roaches at all). I guess it must have been a stowaway in my batch of Cubans. Should I remove it from there or can I keep it there until one of my other animals needs fed? Will it harm the Cubans at all?

 

[kahoy]

it looks like surinam roach, they burrow an dont ahve any smell, they are good feeders too, they are very common, distribution is worldwide! probobly because they can burrow up to the earths core .

they like burrowing and yours looks like a female, males are a little bit smaller and has longer wings than the body. yours is a female.

hope it helps

 

[Vys]

it looks like surinam roach, they burrow an dont ahve any smell, they are good feeders too, they are very common, distribution is worldwide! probobly because they can burrow up to the earths core .

hope it helps

Like lava-roaches? They live in the shadows of the earth's core..sometimes come venturing up to the surface, through the layers of molten rock; thus upon reaching us will almost always be covered with magma, which has given them their colourful nickname.

 

[ScorpDude]

http://www.biofil.pl/Zwierzeta/Owady/Pictures/Maxi/Pycnoscelus_surinamensis.jpg

Pycnoscelus surinamensis - AKA the surinam roach like somebody else said

 

[Crunchie]

Quite a nice little thing, they'd be great for smaller tarantulas.

Do they make good feeders i.e. are they easy enough to breed and how long do they take to reach maturity? Also would they be OK to keep with my Cubans which I have in a large flat food container with tight sealing lid with a few holes added in the top? If this cockroach had nymphs would they get out the holes, do I need to put mesh on the lid?

In saying that the time they take to reach adult can't be long, this thing must have been tiny only a few weeks ago.

 

[8 leg wonder]

Quite a nice little thing, they'd be great for smaller tarantulas.

Do they make good feeders i.e. are they easy enough to breed and how long do they take to reach maturity? Also would they be OK to keep with my Cubans which I have in a large flat food container with tight sealing lid with a few holes added in the top? If this cockroach had nymphs would they get out the holes, do I need to put mesh on the lid?

In saying that the time they take to reach adult can't be long, this thing must have been tiny only a few weeks ago.

Unfortunatly no, they tend to burrow as soon as they enter the tank making them hard to find. You may want to vaseline the container as they can climb and the nymphs are very small.They are also parthenogenic and give live birth

Cheers
Jordan

 

[fantasticp]

Quite a nice little thing, they'd be great for smaller tarantulas.

Do they make good feeders i.e. are they easy enough to breed and how long do they take to reach maturity? Also would they be OK to keep with my Cubans which I have in a large flat food container with tight sealing lid with a few holes added in the top? If this cockroach had nymphs would they get out the holes, do I need to put mesh on the lid?

In saying that the time they take to reach adult can't be long, this thing must have been tiny only a few weeks ago.

I would not keep them with the cubans. Surinames will outbreed them and completely fill your tank in no time. They are terrible feeders unless your animals eat from tongs or you have a lizard on sand or something to feed them to. They will hide in the substrate and fill up those tanks with roaches too if you let them. They were decent feeders for centipedes I guess, because most would dig them up. Even with the vasaline, I still had escapees from time to time, and decided last week I had enough and froze my colony.

 

[Scolopendra55]

They dont make the best feeders because of their burrowing nature but when their numbers are kept on check they make interesting "pets".

 

[kahoy]

they do burrow but just have a pinch on the head makes them still alive for 2days. ^_^ just make sure no blood is coming out or else they are dead after 10hrs. or just use a sharp scissor and cut the head out, sharper scissors will cut them sharp w/ blood leaking.

 

[Vys]

they do burrow but just have a pinch on the head makes them still alive for 2days. ^_^ just make sure no blood is coming out or else they are dead after 10hrs. or just use a sharp scissor and cut the head out, sharper scissors will cut them sharp w/ blood leaking.

Yeah, that is such a smarter idea than to simply use a species of roach that won't burrow like crazy?

Edit. Incidentally, has anyone tried giving their roach-colony dark chocolate? The G.lurida nymphs I am keeping at the moment seem to like it, anyhow.