FL Man arrested for smuggling roaches

zonbonzovi

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Why people in FL don't cultivate those readily available to them is a head scratcher...I found several varieties in a 2 week span.
 

ZephAmp

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Why people in FL don't cultivate those readily available to them is a head scratcher...I found several varieties in a 2 week span.
They practically have a roach buffet down there.
Blaberus discoidalis. Blaberus craniifer. Blaberus giganteus.
Panchlora nivea. Blatta orientalis. Periplaneta australasiae. Periplaneta americana. Periplaneta fuliginosa. Pycnoscelus surinamensis.


Plenty of tasty ones to choose from.

*And the list goes on! Hemiblabera tenebricosa, Eurycotis floridana, Periplaneta brunnea. Good lord.
 

What

Arachnoprince
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Why people in FL don't cultivate those readily available to them is a head scratcher...I found several varieties in a 2 week span.
They would have to go find them... That is probably the issue, it is amazing how many people who keep bugs have no idea what is right outside their own doors.
 

BobGrill

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Why people in FL don't cultivate those readily available to them is a head scratcher...I found several varieties in a 2 week span.
That could be a questionable statement you just made. I don't hold grudges but I'm frrom Florida and found that statement rather insulting.
 

Nomadinexile

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Good to know the FLP have their priorities straight. One less man trying to feed his pets safely put away where he belongs. My tax money is being well spent. I might actually sleep well tonight for the first time in decades knowing this guy is busted. :wall:


As for all of you confused as to why he wouldn't want to go collect hundreds or thousands of roaches for feeders....

Well, he might not have the time or be able to afford to make it. Roaches are cheap, time is expensive, mine anyway.

Another option is that he cares about his animals. You may get lucky once or twice collecting wild feeders, but your luck will run out eventually. There isn't an acre of land in Florida that isn't polluted with neurologically damaging chemicals. Many of them are put their by the residents, others by industry. But they are there. From the Panhandle to Nasa, Key West to the Everglades. Now there are places I would wild catch feeders, but florida is not one of them.

This is insane. There are more non-natives brought into the state every day by national and international trade in food and plants, than this guy could ever imagine.

If I thought they actually cared about the environment, then I'd reconsider my thoughts on this. But I know what that state allows to happen, and makes happen. They care as much about the environment as they do constituents that don't donate to their campaigns. (which is zero)

This is just another example of the government squeezing everyone they can for every penny they can. Meanwhile, the crooks who dumped millions of gallons of crude oil and Corexit (poison) into the gulf of mexico, are circling the planet in private planes and eating 8 course meals between "massages". The banksters who tanked the world economy are still considers "respectable", many of them maintaing posistions within the current administration, while recieving ungodly bonuses for putting generations of Americans in Debt. I know of many people eating dog food right now trying to avoid foreclosure.

But hey, they got feeder boy off the streets. :mad:
 

What

Arachnoprince
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My tax money is being well spent.
Unless you live in Florida your tax money is safe... Also, its worth noting the article states he had altered his state issued permits... Pretty much shows he wasnt planning on doing things right just from the start.
As for all of you confused as to why he wouldn't want to go collect hundreds or thousands of roaches for feeders....
Well, he might not have the time or be able to afford to make it. Roaches are cheap, time is expensive, mine anyway.
Nobody is suggesting he collect feeders from outdoors... The suggestion that he collect then start colonies was made in not so many words, though. There are many species of roaches native to Florida, many of them are also suitible for use as feeders.
(The rest of your post)
Irrelevancy. Go post that in TWH.
 

codykrr

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I think they came down a bit harsh. I see the reasoning. but two felonies?

I can understand the felony for changing a permit though.

Either way, I am sure there are dealers on the boards with legal florida roaches for sale.

sad when people break the laws...even when they are kinda outrageous.
 

Introvertebrate

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Have you ever noticed that the species we really like never run rampant in Florida. I'd like to start infestations of Poecilotheria metallicas, Orchid Mantises, Day Geckos, and rare Poison Dart Frogs down there.
 

Tleilaxu

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More worrying is the fact that they found out he had the roaches in the first place... Seriously how do they find this stuff. Unless he boasted about getting them...

Either way glad to see the FWS has their priorities straight... [/sarcasm]
 

Galapoheros

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Going by the link in What's earliest post, it looks like he has been selling them for a long time. My guess is that "they" might have known about it for a long time, maybe waiting for him to stop and got tired of it. I think they came down a little hard too but it might be the case that he had been given several warnings and maybe some fines, it wouldn't surprise me and if that's the case it would seem more reasonable to me. Kind of unrelated, I agree with Nomad that there bigger fish to fry, too much gov, it's too big, too many people looking for a slot in gov. If there isn't a slot, it's almost like they make something up that really is just a waste. I watched a fed employee on TV that had the job of testing the flow of ketchup and was making $60,000 a year. I saw that on something like 60 minutes back in the late 90's irrc. He put the bottle of ketchup on a stand and timed the flow, that was all.


More worrying is the fact that they found out he had the roaches in the first place... Seriously how do they find this stuff. Unless he boasted about getting them...

Either way glad to see the FWS has their priorities straight... [/sarcasm]
 

xhexdx

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I'm not trying to make excuses for this guy, but to everyone who is essentially saying 'he deserved it for breaking the law'...

...how many of you have shipped USPS?

You're all hypocrites. You do know it's a felony to ship tarantulas through USPS, right?

To all of you saying he should just catch and breed the zillions of roach species that are in Florida?

How many of you have Periplaneta americana in your state?

You're all hypocrites too.

They practically have a roach buffet down there.
Blaberus discoidalis. Blaberus craniifer. Blaberus giganteus.
Panchlora nivea. Blatta orientalis. Periplaneta australasiae. Periplaneta americana. Periplaneta fuliginosa. Pycnoscelus surinamensis.


Plenty of tasty ones to choose from.

*And the list goes on! Hemiblabera tenebricosa, Eurycotis floridana, Periplaneta brunnea. Good lord.
Yep, and they're all literally in my backyard, right? :rolleyes:

I've been here 15 years and the only one I see around here is Periplaneta americana. None of the Blaberus species are 'in my backyard', nor are Panchlora nivea. If they were, you bet I'd not only have colonies of these, but I'd be selling them like crazy.

I'm not saying this guy doesn't 'deserve' to get in trouble, but you guys are making it out like you're all saints and that all us lucky Floridians should just run outside and catch the roaches that are all waiting anxiously to jump into our bins.
 

codykrr

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Joe, Quick question.

Are roach breeders in FL allowed to sell species that are native or already present?

Maybe this guy could have avoided a lot of trouble by buying from a FL roach breeder.

Also, can you all accept roaches from out of state that are also native?

IE- Blaberus discoidalis, Blaberus craniifer, Blaberus giganteus.
 

Alejandro45

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Codykrr

You can keep native/naturalized roach species, but I am not too sure on selling them.
It’s really hard to find any of the naturalized Blaberus, their populations are scattered and they are in some of the worst places to go looking for bugs.
I almost got robbed while looking for Discoidalis in a Latin barrio. The native roaches are rarely found outside the everglades “national park”.

Zonbonzovi

If you would be so kind to PM me the specific locality of where you found several Sp I would greatly appreciate it. It would save me a lot of back and forth driving.

Well that’s my two cents.

I am off to talk to head of waste management to ask for permission if I can look for roaches in a garbage site that is a five hour drive from me, just to see if there is a specific roach species still there.
 

What

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You're all hypocrites. You do know it's a felony to ship tarantulas through USPS, right?

To all of you saying he should just catch and breed the zillions of roach species that are in Florida?

How many of you have Periplaneta americana in your state?
Shipping Ts through USPS is a felony, and anyone caught or fined for it absolutely deserves it. I would absolutely deserve it if I were to be caught doing such a thing(but I rarely ship things, let alone Ts), how exactly does that make anyone in this thread a hypocrite? He was arrested for being stuipid. Note also, the article doesnt say he was using USPS, he could very well have been legally shipping roaches and just violated Florida law.

How many people here raise native roach species? I know I have a couple. In the past I have spent hours looking for Arenivaga and other types of the more interesting and less pedestrian roaches. I also could go find P. americana or B. lateralis just down the road, but thankfully I dont live in a state where any species are illegal(within the scope of this thread) so I will keep my B. fusca colony.
Yep, and they're all literally in my backyard, right? :rolleyes:

I've been here 15 years and the only one I see around here is Periplaneta americana.
I would be willing to bet that within a mile of you there are multiple species of roaches, probably even one or two commonly used as feeders(aside from P. americana).
I'm not saying this guy doesn't 'deserve' to get in trouble, but you guys are making it out like you're all saints and that all us lucky Floridians should just run outside and catch the roaches that are all waiting anxiously to jump into our bins.
Nobody has said anything about themselves or their own behavior, nobody has made any comment making anyone sound like saints(we all know shipping with USPS is illegal, as do we all that just about everyone in the hobby has done it), and nobody is making wild exaggerations.

But yeah, you Floridians are lucky. The number of unique species you have found only in Florida is amazing, stop complaining about us pointing that out and go outside. Seriously, maybe then you would find something other than P. americana...I find it hard to believe you have never found anything else, every person I know of who has gone to Florida on a vacation saw >3 species in their time there.
 

xhexdx

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You're making some pretty broad assumptions.

Multiple species of roaches within a mile of me? Yes, probably. Good luck finding them. The only species around here in mass quantities is P. americana.

I also wasn't complaining about anyone pointing out how many unique species there are here. Maybe you should re-read my post, since you obviously missed my points.

Joe, Quick question.

Are roach breeders in FL allowed to sell species that are native or already present?

Maybe this guy could have avoided a lot of trouble by buying from a FL roach breeder.

Also, can you all accept roaches from out of state that are also native?

IE- Blaberus discoidalis, Blaberus craniifer, Blaberus giganteus.
I don't know if FL breeders can legally sell native/established species out-of-state.

I assume we can accept roaches from out-of-state that are native/established here, but again, I don't know for sure. I haven't done any breeding/selling of any roach species, so I've had no reason to become familiar with the laws other than knowing what's legal to keep.
 

What

Arachnoprince
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Multiple species of roaches within a mile of me? Yes, probably. Good luck finding them. The only species around here in mass quantities is P. americana.
...I haven't done any breeding/selling of any roach species, so I've had no reason to become familiar...
Forgive me if I dont take your word on it.

As for mass quantities... Who needs them? I have started colonies of some of California's native roaches with 3-5 individuals.
trust me I have lived in South FL all my life alot of that time was spent snake and bug hunting, FL scrubland is different in terms of microhabits and hunting them out here is very limited to levy systems. naturalized roaches are few and far between.
While I can not claim to ever have bug hunted in Florida... I have spent time looking specifically for bugs in 17 of the states I have been to, the only one I didnt find roaches in while looking was Alaska. I dont doubt that the introduced species(and even the native ones) may have restricted distributions, but that is no different from any other bug. Is there something special about FL that is a game changer?
 
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