Ever tried making a food paste for roaches?

[Cirith Ungol]

Hi! Was thinking wether or not I should try making a food paste out of loads of different fruit and feeding that to the roaches... Like mixing banana, kiwi, apples, broccoli and other goodies mash it up real good and then peed it in bottlecaps or something. But I am a little unsure how such a paste would react to mould or if it would dry up quickly (quicker than the fruit itself) or what could happen. So has anyone any experience with such an experiment?

 

[Mister Internet]

Just based on what I know about fruit, it would quickly evaporate into a sticky sludge, and after a day or two would be dried to the point that it would be VERY stuck inside whatever little thing (bottlecap) you put it into. A huge mess, and not very practical, either to make or to give to inverts. The most you should ever need to worry about re:roaches is a piece of fruit or two a couple times a week. These can be put in one day and taken out the next, if there's any left! But leaving wet, sugary stuff like that around is going attract LOADS of fruit flies, will dry/mold quickly, and will be stuck lie the dickens when it dries out.

Just feed dry food with the occasional fruit supplement...

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Same opinion here!
It's to much work and gets messy very quickly, so don't bother!
Give them dry dogfood, some oatmeal and vary a bit with the fresh stuff you're feeding and your roaches will be happy.
They don't need a special diet.

greets
Bernhard

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Alright! I have some cat food and stuff like the occasional corn flake and some rice strewn about (really not much, but enough for them to find some straight away if they stumble about after a heavy nights drinking) and usually switch fruit pieces every second day. It's so dry here that there is no chance for mould to grow. No big chance for fruit flies either, I have only one plant in the house and that has been dead for about a month now Bet that's because it doesn't get watered like my animals (If it had been carnivorous I bet it would reach up to the ceiling by now due to overfeeding!)

Who knows, but I'd be surprised if I'd get a fruit fly problem during summer even.

I still havn't really got that, but I'm not supposed to supply them with any water kind of dish?

And there is another thought at something to DIY = I feel a bit too poor to buy any bottle of water crystal stuff (and I wouldn't even really know what that is, if it isn't that kinda yellow or blue jelly you can get at pet stores) Is there some kind of way to make THAT at home? Something gooish with lots of water in it that those little buggers like but which doesn't dry up? I was thinking if you could make something like that out of agar.... I hope you know what that is because I don't know any other name for it. It's afaik a jelly used to... s**t... it's used to.... :8o .. getting bacteria cultures grow... ok forget it.. Guess I didn't really think this through.

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

I don't think that roaches need an open water source. My roaches only get the occasional apple, carrot or cucumber (about once a week) and they do great!
I had roaches that weren't eaten in the tanks of my Ts, who survived hidden for months (3 at least), without any moisture.

Bernhard

 

[Schlyne]

Well, there's www.watersorb.com for buying the dry water crystals in bulk if you want. The roaches I have acutally, should be getting all of their moisture from everything else that I provide them, but I provided water crystals...just in case. They probably don't really need them.

I have crested geckos, and I offer the leftover baby food (on the days they get babyfood, usually mango flavor) to the roaches, but then throw whatever is left out the next day.

I hadn't even though about the fruit fly issue yet..I suppose I'm thinking in winter mode...I'll have to keep a close out for that sort of thing as it starts to warm up.

 

[james]

Interesting roach food

I found this some time ago, but have yet to try it. I think this is a little closer to what your where thinking about.
http://www.polliwog-design.com/moisturemunchies.html
James
www.blaberus.com

 

[Mister Internet]

I found this some time ago, but have yet to try it. I think this is a little closer to what your where thinking about.
http://www.polliwog-design.com/moisturemunchies.html

that is SO cool... I'm going to try it tomorrow... may have finally solved my superworm moisture problems...

 

[james]

internet

Amazing what we can find on the net. Let me know how easy it is to make. I may also have to give it a try.
James

 

[Cirith Ungol]

James that was spot on! GREAT! I'll look into that! Bet people will think I'm a bit off my head if I start asking the shop attendands "You got any agar-agar?"

 

[Schlyne]

Btw, I"m not 100% sure (my memory is hazy on this), but I believe agar-agar is either a component in, or is the stuff that microbiologists use for bacteria cultures.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Yeah, that was also one of my first comments about it. It is used to have bacteria grow in petri dishes. But since I made that comment I thought about it a little more: Obviously the bacteria have to be introduced to the substance so that they can grow there. Ofcourse, just touching the substance with your bare hands introduces the bacteria to it, but I think you still have to be a bit deliberate before havning an uncontrollable bacteria outbreak on the stuff. But I'm not sure. The other thing is also that you shouldn't however leave a massive block of that stuff in with your feeders, just like anything else like fruit which you introduce. That shouldn't either be left in with them in greater quantities than they can eat before it gets spoiled. If any bacteria end up on the agar-agar they have surely come there in a natural way, which means that they are all arround the feeders anyhow, so they shouldn't be able to do any harm.

My oppinion...

Edit:
I just remembered another thing: Do roaches eat garlic? Do they eat things that have tiny ammounts of garlic on/in them? Because then some garlic could be mixed in with the agar-agar to prevent any accidental bacteria outbreak. Garlic is a very good natural desinfectant!

Cirith

 

[Schlyne]

You're really not going to culture any bacteria on it unless it's very moist and very warm.

 

[galeogirl]

When Miranda was a baby, I used to give leftover baby food to my Nauphoeta cinerea in a jar lid, along with any small table scraps. It rarely lasted long enough to dry out or get mucky, especially if the baby food was meat based.

 

[Nikos]

AGAR-AGAR Rules!

I tried this agar-agar thing and I can only recomment it to all!

So far I have used only the water option but tomorrow I'll be preparing an all apple recipe and also an other one with fine-chopped vegetables.

James, thanks for posting this info here.

 

[Mister Internet]

does anyone know why they don't recommend using an agar with added sugar? I picked some up at a local Chinese market yesterday, but just noticed that its ingredients are agar agar and sugar. Will this be harmful?

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Actually I find it very peculiar why the sugar shouldn't be in the agar-agar! If these little buggers eat tons of fruit they also get tons of sugar in them Maybe it's the type of sugar that plays in, but I wouldn't know why... t'was just a thought.

The same goes for when you mix in fruit with the agar-agar, then suddenly it also starts containing sugar to some degree... Same difference.

I wonder if it has something to do with wether it gets saturated with sugar or something or if simply too high ammounts won't do the insects any good?

This topic has lost me and I can only theorize wildly...

 

[Wade]

Not sure why it would be, cockroaches go nuts for sugary stuff. My guess is either A: the sugar prevents it from setting up the right way (only one way to find out) or B: the sugar causes problems in fruitfly culture which is not relevent to us anyway.

Wade

 

[Mister Internet]

Wade,

That's about all I could come up with as well... I'm going to try to make the stuff and if it sets alright, I'll use it anyway... I'm also emailing the site owner and asking for an explanation. I have a hard time believing that roaches can survive nuclear winter but processed sugar will kill them.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Please keep us updated on any news re your sweetened agar-agar test and what the site owner tells you!