did you know Blaptica dubia.....

ratluvr76

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did you know that B. dubias can be decimated by the common german roach (Blattella germanica? I know I sure didn't think that would happen... here's the story.

So almost a year ago the lady I took care of as an in home care-giver for an elderly MS patient passed away. With no where to go and me with no job my husband and I were invited by friends to stay at their house. Originally it was to be a permanent move, they wanted me to help keep the house clean and tutor their youngest in school. Let's just say, there were "personality conflicts" LOL and leave it at that. Something we didn't know going in was that they have a massive Blattella germanica infestation. Like, I have sores from them biting me in my sleep. If you put your coffee cup down, it would have at LEAST 6 floating in it when you went to pick it up. They also did not have central heating, and even in Louisiana it can get mighty cold. We recently moved to our own home, which is great. Then my hubby got laid off. Sucks right? Anyway, I fed the last of my dubia to my T's. Not sure what I'm going to do for feeders now but that's besides the point.....

So that brings me to what IS my point. Between the cold temps halting their breeding, the german roaches invaded my colony.... AND ATE MOST OF THEM!!

sometimes life sucks. :/
 

ratluvr76

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me to. I've posted in a few buy/trade/free sites around my area.. so far the only reply i've gotten is from someone that gave me the number of a lady named "Peggy"... turned out to be the number to the local police station. Trolls :shifty:, am I right? LOL!!
 

ratluvr76

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no lol. I fed my last dubia last week. My husband went and bought 2 dozen crickets.. and 3 of my babies still had to go hungry. I've been supplementing with mealworms but since we weren't raising own worms at this point I just bought some at the LPS, they're almost gone too and half my brood won't even look at them let alone eat them haha.
 

Hisserdude

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Wow, that sucks, did not know that they could be that vicious! Must have been a TON of Germans in with your dubia. Hope you can get some more and start a colony soon, sometimes pet stores carry them but I'm guessing you'd want a whole bunch of them so you can start feeding them off right away.
 

ratluvr76

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Wow, that sucks, did not know that they could be that vicious! Must have been a TON of Germans in with your dubia. Hope you can get some more and start a colony soon, sometimes pet stores carry them but I'm guessing you'd want a whole bunch of them so you can start feeding them off right away.
yeah, when I say infestation I mean .. like swarm proportions. I've never seen anything like it. When we moved in there I had a thriving colony of rougly 200-250 individuals plus a number of newborn nymphs. Within a couple of months there were more german roaches then there were dubia. They were attacking us, we were getting bitten constantly. They swarmed our dog and overwhelmed the cats. It was simply aweful. I genuinely don't understand how people can live with that. Put a plate of food down? It would be almost covered, completely, with them within a few minutes.
 

JumpingSpiderLady

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yeah, when I say infestation I mean .. like swarm proportions. I've never seen anything like it. When we moved in there I had a thriving colony of rougly 200-250 individuals plus a number of newborn nymphs. Within a couple of months there were more german roaches then there were dubia. They were attacking us, we were getting bitten constantly. They swarmed our dog and overwhelmed the cats. It was simply aweful. I genuinely don't understand how people can live with that. Put a plate of food down? It would be almost covered, completely, with them within a few minutes.
We had to live with family for a while. Man.... I thought I had it bad then. His house was gross. Open a closet and a mouse would look at you like, "what're you doing here?" Almost always a dead rodent somewhere in the kitchen and the homeowner would rather just let it rot than clean it. Also frequent drug deals in the house from his "friends". Still, can't say that level of roaches is a better option.
 

WeightedAbyss75

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no lol. I fed my last dubia last week. My husband went and bought 2 dozen crickets.. and 3 of my babies still had to go hungry. I've been supplementing with mealworms but since we weren't raising own worms at this point I just bought some at the LPS, they're almost gone too and half my brood won't even look at them let alone eat them haha.
At least most T's can go without food for a while. Since you're in your own home now, you could buy more roaches and startup another colony. Hipe it works out, those friends' house sounds terrible. At least none of them were in with the T's.
 

ratluvr76

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We had to live with family for a while. Man.... I thought I had it bad then. His house was gross. Open a closet and a mouse would look at you like, "what're you doing here?" Almost always a dead rodent somewhere in the kitchen and the homeowner would rather just let it rot than clean it. Also frequent drug deals in the house from his "friends". Still, can't say that level of roaches is a better option.
sounds like it's almost the same situation I was in minus the drug deals. :/

At least most T's can go without food for a while. Since you're in your own home now, you could buy more roaches and startup another colony. Hipe it works out, those friends' house sounds terrible. At least none of them were in with the T's.
that's the thing.. they WERE in with my T's. It was an interesting afternoon getting all the little beggars out! What's worse is we seem to have carried along some hitch hikers. I'm putting vaseline on the bottom of all of my cages so they can't climb up them so I'm hoping we'll be able to keep it under control using roach powders and such. in the mean time I'm keeping the house as super clean as possible to discourage them. So far, it seems to be working. :/
 

Andrea82

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Maybe a very dumb question, but why are german roaches not good for feeders? I was thinking you could feed them to the T's, if you're low on budget.
 

ratluvr76

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Maybe a very dumb question, but why are german roaches not good for feeders? I was thinking you could feed them to the T's, if you're low on budget.
I've thought about it, I really have. It comes down to a question of safety in my mind. "Wild" roaches, in my opinion, carry with them the risk of contamination from pesticides. If they've ever been bug bombed, sprayed, baited etc they may be compromised in that way. With Tarantula's, without the benefit of generations of built up resistance to them I believe the T's would be particularly prone to poisoning from them. I may be way off base and I may be over reacting, but I don't want to take that chance if I can avoid it.
 

Andrea82

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Oh, that sounds perfectly normal to worry about. Didn't think of those being contaminated. Of course you don't want that risk!
 
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