dead hisser worm involved !!!!urgent!!!!!!!

[roach dude]

i found my hisser this morning .....DEAD! i picked it up to see what had happened.And it had small (1-2mm) clear worms all over it.I think they must have eaten its antenneand its insides .What it this worm and how do i stop it.i dont want any more of my roches getting eaten!

 

[fantasticp]

Are you sure they aren't just maggots? How did they move, and what was their general shape? The hisser may have been dead longer than you thought.

 

[Ecilious]

I concur. Maggots sounds quite likely, blue bottle eggs hatch in a day or two, maybe quicker due to the slightly more favourable conditions in the enclosure.

 

[roach dude]

they were about 2 mm big and were clear.i only have eight cockroaches in this encloser. only four of those are hisser. i think i might thave noticed that i was dead........i just dont want my other roaches to die aswell

 

[Scythemantis]

You still need to tell us their shape. A worm and a maggot are completely different things. If they're long and stringy, they're worms, and yes, that means they're parasites.

A carrion-eating fly like a bluebottle isn't likely to lay its eggs on a dead insect.

 

[Scolopendra55]

I agree with Scythemantis it sounds like parasites. If you are able post a pic.

 

[roach dude]

i through the dead roach away staraight away i didnt whatnt it infecting my other roaches.it definaltly wasnt a maggot ive used them for fishing it was about 2mm big c thought and slim. i think it must have been some sort of parasetic worm..... but how did it get there???

 

[Scythemantis]

There's really no telling. It could have died of natural causes and the worms simply jumped ship...possible that all of your roaches have some. They're probably some species of nematode, many of which are parasites of insects during some portion of their life cycle.

 

[roach dude]

yea!!! thats exactly what they looked like(i just typed nematode in to google) i htink they definatly killed it!!!evil little things!(i know someboadys gonna say to me.....well thats just nature!)

 

[Ecilious]

Interesting stuff. Got my curiosity going, had a little search and read this: http://nematode.unl.edu/wormgen.htm. Not entirely pleasent, but interesting.

 

[roach dude]

cool i think it must have been those that ate my roach.