This is the first time this has occurred to me, but does anyone here freeze roaches for future consumption? I'd never even considered pre-killed until had this little spider kid who's scared of the tiniest shelfordella. So, freezing a bunch seems like a great idea. I just wonder how that would affect the nutrients and fluid levels, and how to best store them.
freezing roaches?
- Thread starter Drache
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NewAgePrimal
Arachnosquire
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I've never tried it myself. Usually if I have a small sling that won't take a live or still squirmy crushed roach or cricket I will crush it untill it doesn't move any more. You could try it though and see if it works.
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I know quite a bit about this. If you freeze the roaches, 2 things will happen. Their liquid content will decrease, and the proteins in their bodies will DEFINITELY be destroyed, some more so than others. So if you are interested in feeding your animals less than nutritious food sources, go for it. Proteins above all other molecules (RNA, DNA) are the most susceptible to destruction due to environmental changes.
Then when you thaw them out further destruction will occur to the proteins.
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Dang...thanks!
Shucks - I suspected as much. Thanks for the info. I knew this about fish (thiaminase), but had hoped it wasn't as much of an issue with roaches. The dehydration I did know about. My question is - how fast does this deterioration occur? Is it an issue, even if I don't freeze the roach , but just put it in the freezer until it's dead, and remove it promptly? And please don't think I want to ever give any of my animals substandard anything, or else I wouldn't be here, asking questions.
I have to admit that I am apparently very bad at killing roaches, or maybe my roaches are super-tough. Pinching the head off doesn't seem to do the trick, and I somehow balk at removing every single appendage on something that tiny. I suspect if I tried, I'd just end up with roach mush. They probably don't suffocate easily either. I guess I'll try the "crush until it stops moving" method then. When do slings grow up to kill their own food? Or does that vary with personality?
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If you kill them as described above shouldn't be an issue. How come you don't use tiny crickets?
because the roaches are free, fresh, and don't require me to go anywhere. The crickets cost money, frankly need to be at least hydrated if not fed before I can feed them off, requiring me to house them. If I bulk -order them, I have house and feed them, and they smell terrible in my opinion. I don't really see any upside to feeding crickets, as much as many people seem to swear by them. I managed to squish a baby roach in the recommended manner (success - yay! many thanks for that) and all that was left the next day was the head, so apparently my spider kid likes them. I am also fairly certain that the breeder I got my Ts from feeds hers roaches, although maybe not exclusively.
Update:
Since I am still very bad at killing roaches by squeezing them, I contacted my roach expert about the freezing. We came up with the idea that I could kill them with cold, but not freeze them. So I've been running experiments to see how long it would take for a roach to be killed by cold, but not freeze. Here are my current notes:
Shelfordella lateralis: 1st, 2nd, 3rd instar - 3 minutes at 19.5ºF - 1st instar dead; 2nd instar seemingly dead, but re-awakening after 40 minutes; 3rd instar also seemingly dead, back to life in 8 minutes
Blaptica dubia: only tested 1st instar - five individuals, one of which was slightly smaller. 2 minutes at 19.5ºF rendered all of them seemingly dead, but only the smaller one stayed that way. After 15 minutes out of the freezer the first one "came to"; the last took 38 minutes, but a full 80% recovered. If I had counted on them being dead just because they looked that way, they'd now be co-housing with my slings, rather than being eaten by them.
Will keep you updated, but I ran out of time today, and ended up losing track of how many 30 second, 45 second, and full minute increments I kept putting them back in for. In the end I did just rip the heads off three of them. The idea is to eventually come up with a reliable number for each species and instar sizes.
Since I am still very bad at killing roaches by squeezing them, I contacted my roach expert about the freezing. We came up with the idea that I could kill them with cold, but not freeze them. So I've been running experiments to see how long it would take for a roach to be killed by cold, but not freeze. Here are my current notes:
Shelfordella lateralis: 1st, 2nd, 3rd instar - 3 minutes at 19.5ºF - 1st instar dead; 2nd instar seemingly dead, but re-awakening after 40 minutes; 3rd instar also seemingly dead, back to life in 8 minutes
Blaptica dubia: only tested 1st instar - five individuals, one of which was slightly smaller. 2 minutes at 19.5ºF rendered all of them seemingly dead, but only the smaller one stayed that way. After 15 minutes out of the freezer the first one "came to"; the last took 38 minutes, but a full 80% recovered. If I had counted on them being dead just because they looked that way, they'd now be co-housing with my slings, rather than being eaten by them.
Will keep you updated, but I ran out of time today, and ended up losing track of how many 30 second, 45 second, and full minute increments I kept putting them back in for. In the end I did just rip the heads off three of them. The idea is to eventually come up with a reliable number for each species and instar sizes.
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I see no reason to freeze for feeding. Get a second bin start a second colony. This is common for reptile hobby, for rats/ mice,. Not for T's. I froze dubias once and my colony is still alive, I killed off flies. They are tuff as nails I guess.
To reiterate, since perhaps you didn't read that far back - I need to prekill, and all my other methods of killing roaches have resulted in roaches either surviving or being so badly mangled that I have to scrape them off my fingers. If you know of a fail-proof way to kill them that will keep them intact, I will try that. I spent a full hour trying to "squish until it stops moving" and I ended up with roaches either merely passed out for a bit, or gooed all over my fingers. So my freezing experiments make perfect sense to me. Besides I only have two hands and more than two slings. Once I know the right amount of time I can kill a larger number than I could with the squish method.
As for the second bin - I have four colonies. Thanks for chiming in, but I am looking for a way to kill roaches - the freezing isn't the issue, as somebody pointed out that that may change the protein structures and potentially render them nutritionally inferior. Hence the quest for the perfect amount of time.