Exotic roaches
- Thread starter recluse
- Start date
I saw the video back when it was posted, but couldn't find it. Here's essentially the same thing as reading material:
By Christine Evans, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, Friday, November 21, 2008
People are feeding exotic cockroaches to their giant pet lizards. This is not a good thing.
That's the latest from the bizarre world of entomology, where, up at the University of Florida, a renowned cockroach expert dropped a bit of a bomb in the bug world when he and a colleague published a paper that said, basically, that the 3-inch-long Madagascar hissing roach could soon be living in your kitchen cabinets.
If you doubt the scenario - which, in full, involves a bearded dragon lizard, a timely phone call, a roadside rescue and an entrepreneurial group of cockroach farmers who sell the crunchy little critters via Internet - you might want to flip through the September/October issue of Florida Pest Pro magazine.
There you will learn that four types of exotic cockroaches - the Madagascar, the Turkistan, the orange spotted and the lobster - are practically leaping off the Web to the plates of hungry lizards everywhere, including, presumably, here.
"People are sharing their cockroaches with other people all over the place," says an incredulous Philip Koehler, the UF entomologist who coauthored the Pest Pro piece with colleague Roberto Pereira. "There's kind of an underground trade. I had no idea."
Neither did some pest controllers, until Koehler, an expert of some note who once appeared on Nightline with Ted Koppel to discuss the discovery of the Asian cockroach near the Port of Tampa, enlightened them.
The article, which drew dozens of press inquiries, describes the global trek of the Turkistan, which apparently has set up a nice little home for itself in the American Southwest, after arriving, it is thought, on the gear of soldiers returning from the Middle East. The Turk since has become one of the most popular lizard foods, and the authors warn pest companies to be on the lookout for little Houdini roaches who escape before going down a lizard's gullet.
What does all this mean?
"You don't want an invasive species or a non-native species of any sort coming into the state," says Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. "And obviously, we don't want more cockroaches."
The problem, Koehler says, is that people who keep lizards as pets have figured out that roaches provide a relatively cheap, easy and un-smelly way to feed them. Crickets used to be popular pet-lizard food, "but crickets are noisy. People don't like them chirping about in their homes."
Roaches, on the other hand, are quiet, unless they're hissing, as a Madagascar is prone to do when angry. "It thinks it's a snake."
Koehler and other insect experts are careful to point out that no official sighting of any of the four exotic species in question is on record in Florida - yet. It could be just a matter of time, "and then we have a problem ... because roaches can be mechanical vectors of disease. If they make it into your house, they might climb onto your hamburger meat."
Importing roaches to the state without a permit is illegal, but as Compton points out, "the packaging doesn't exactly say 'exotic roaches inside,' so we can't tell when it's coming or how many. Short of going door to door, there's not much we can do."
In other words, a hungry lizard's meal is only a Google away.
This summer, as Koehler was typing up his Pest Pro piece, the phone rang.
"I was just thinking it would be really nice to have a picture of a bearded dragon lizard to go with the article when somebody called to say he found a bearded dragon by the side of the road and it was hungry.
"Never in my 33 years here have I heard from somebody who had a hungry bearded dragon, so I told him to come over and we took the dragon's picture and then we gave him a meal of crickets and cockroaches."
Cockroaches? "Nothing exotic, of course." American-style.
By Christine Evans, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, Friday, November 21, 2008
People are feeding exotic cockroaches to their giant pet lizards. This is not a good thing.
That's the latest from the bizarre world of entomology, where, up at the University of Florida, a renowned cockroach expert dropped a bit of a bomb in the bug world when he and a colleague published a paper that said, basically, that the 3-inch-long Madagascar hissing roach could soon be living in your kitchen cabinets.
If you doubt the scenario - which, in full, involves a bearded dragon lizard, a timely phone call, a roadside rescue and an entrepreneurial group of cockroach farmers who sell the crunchy little critters via Internet - you might want to flip through the September/October issue of Florida Pest Pro magazine.
There you will learn that four types of exotic cockroaches - the Madagascar, the Turkistan, the orange spotted and the lobster - are practically leaping off the Web to the plates of hungry lizards everywhere, including, presumably, here.
"People are sharing their cockroaches with other people all over the place," says an incredulous Philip Koehler, the UF entomologist who coauthored the Pest Pro piece with colleague Roberto Pereira. "There's kind of an underground trade. I had no idea."
Neither did some pest controllers, until Koehler, an expert of some note who once appeared on Nightline with Ted Koppel to discuss the discovery of the Asian cockroach near the Port of Tampa, enlightened them.
The article, which drew dozens of press inquiries, describes the global trek of the Turkistan, which apparently has set up a nice little home for itself in the American Southwest, after arriving, it is thought, on the gear of soldiers returning from the Middle East. The Turk since has become one of the most popular lizard foods, and the authors warn pest companies to be on the lookout for little Houdini roaches who escape before going down a lizard's gullet.
What does all this mean?
"You don't want an invasive species or a non-native species of any sort coming into the state," says Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. "And obviously, we don't want more cockroaches."
The problem, Koehler says, is that people who keep lizards as pets have figured out that roaches provide a relatively cheap, easy and un-smelly way to feed them. Crickets used to be popular pet-lizard food, "but crickets are noisy. People don't like them chirping about in their homes."
Roaches, on the other hand, are quiet, unless they're hissing, as a Madagascar is prone to do when angry. "It thinks it's a snake."
Koehler and other insect experts are careful to point out that no official sighting of any of the four exotic species in question is on record in Florida - yet. It could be just a matter of time, "and then we have a problem ... because roaches can be mechanical vectors of disease. If they make it into your house, they might climb onto your hamburger meat."
Importing roaches to the state without a permit is illegal, but as Compton points out, "the packaging doesn't exactly say 'exotic roaches inside,' so we can't tell when it's coming or how many. Short of going door to door, there's not much we can do."
In other words, a hungry lizard's meal is only a Google away.
This summer, as Koehler was typing up his Pest Pro piece, the phone rang.
"I was just thinking it would be really nice to have a picture of a bearded dragon lizard to go with the article when somebody called to say he found a bearded dragon by the side of the road and it was hungry.
"Never in my 33 years here have I heard from somebody who had a hungry bearded dragon, so I told him to come over and we took the dragon's picture and then we gave him a meal of crickets and cockroaches."
Cockroaches? "Nothing exotic, of course." American-style.
Pro_bug_catcher
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2008
- Messages
- 35
I tried to find the other post you mentioned... but to no success (I would have liked to see the responses).
I'll just write something here : Exotics are clearly a problem sometimes. FL has native roaches that could probably do great, why not breed them and sell them? I'm sure some would buy them. If the exotics are illegal then even more will buy them! :clap:
I'm not in Florida and don't really know the law there, but I'm pretty sure that if people break the law it's for a reason, and not breaking the law per se; find a lawful alternative for that reason and people will stop breaking the law.
For places more in the north, (take most of Canada for example), then exotic roaches won't survive the winter. Why should they be a problem? :?
I'll just write something here : Exotics are clearly a problem sometimes. FL has native roaches that could probably do great, why not breed them and sell them? I'm sure some would buy them. If the exotics are illegal then even more will buy them! :clap:
I'm not in Florida and don't really know the law there, but I'm pretty sure that if people break the law it's for a reason, and not breaking the law per se; find a lawful alternative for that reason and people will stop breaking the law.
For places more in the north, (take most of Canada for example), then exotic roaches won't survive the winter. Why should they be a problem? :?
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2007
- Messages
- 137
I think they are a problem in the head of people more than anywere else. For most "honest citizens", roaches are disgusting disease carrying bugs. They won't listen to you if you tell them that a 3" hisser has a far longer generation time than the florida native roach, so that they are less likely to invade a home. For most people bigger=nastier, that's it.Roaches are insects, disgusting, that's it.
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2008
- Messages
- 105
Wow... ive read up on more roaches in just 2 days than I have in my entire 29 1/2 years of Life...
Its alot to take in... expecially since I fear them.... I wonder if this will help me over come my fears?
Its alot to take in... expecially since I fear them.... I wonder if this will help me over come my fears?
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
- Messages
- 474
idiots
Well being one of the largest dealers of roaches and contacted by dozens or reporters now I will say these guys are IDIOTS!!!!. Roaches don't carry or spread disease and this has been proven by several entomologist. I have asked every Florida reporter to go and find me a Blaberus Craniifer which is a Native Florida species and nobody has. That is because they don't, can't, and will never mass produce like the pest species germania, americana, etc.. Now with that said I think lateralis and hissers can surivive in home environments in a few states like Florida, but I highy doubt they would thrive outside with such few numbers and so many natural predators(spiders, geckos, birds, just to name a few). Most dealers don't ship lateralis or hissers to Florida anyway just to avoid the concern. I can already see the ban coming for no good reason. Lastly, the main PEST species out there like germania, orientalis, and americana thrive mostly in dirty, dumpy places. Keep your you know what clean and leave us reptile and invert hobbiest alone!!!!
James
www.blaberus.com
Well being one of the largest dealers of roaches and contacted by dozens or reporters now I will say these guys are IDIOTS!!!!. Roaches don't carry or spread disease and this has been proven by several entomologist. I have asked every Florida reporter to go and find me a Blaberus Craniifer which is a Native Florida species and nobody has. That is because they don't, can't, and will never mass produce like the pest species germania, americana, etc.. Now with that said I think lateralis and hissers can surivive in home environments in a few states like Florida, but I highy doubt they would thrive outside with such few numbers and so many natural predators(spiders, geckos, birds, just to name a few). Most dealers don't ship lateralis or hissers to Florida anyway just to avoid the concern. I can already see the ban coming for no good reason. Lastly, the main PEST species out there like germania, orientalis, and americana thrive mostly in dirty, dumpy places. Keep your you know what clean and leave us reptile and invert hobbiest alone!!!!
James
www.blaberus.com