LOTS Of Roach Questions

[REAL]

Here's a few things I've always wondered about feeder roaches and I find these questions interesting:

1. A lot of us keep feeder roaches and stuff, however, how come they're almost never any heard of breakouts? I mean almost everyone that kept roaches before probably had a few escapees, whether you knew it or not. I'm just wondering how come? I know many roaches don't thrive because of temperature, but what if they escaped during the warm seasons and found a place thats warm enough and survive off some kind of food they found there. I just wonder how come it seems easy and the chances are abundant but breakouts are almost unheard of?

2. Do feeder roaches have mites too? Don't hear about it a lot, especially with all the dead bodies since many ppl don't change it for months or a year.

3. Do feeder roaches carry diseases of any kind that are harmful to humans? I mainly hear that they're safe etc etc.

4. Okay, we all heard of how beneficial it is to keep roaches as feeders, especially replacing crickets. However, I've been taught that for every good there's a bad. So whats the bad side in keeping them then?

Thats it for now, so anyone wanna give all this a try?

 

[cacoseraph]

Here's a few things I've always wondered about feeder roaches and I find these questions interesting:

1. A lot of us keep feeder roaches and stuff, however, how come they're almost never any heard of breakouts? I mean almost everyone that kept roaches before probably had a few escapees, whether you knew it or not. I'm just wondering how come? I know many roaches don't thrive because of temperature, but what if they escaped during the warm seasons and found a place thats warm enough and survive off some kind of food they found there. I just wonder how come it seems easy and the chances are abundant but breakouts are almost unheard of?

2. Do feeder roaches have mites too? Don't hear about it a lot, especially with all the dead bodies since many ppl don't change it for months or a year.

3. Do feeder roaches carry diseases of any kind that are harmful to humans? I mainly hear that they're safe etc etc.

4. Okay, we all heard of how beneficial it is to keep roaches as feeders, especially replacing crickets. However, I've been taught that for every good there's a bad. So whats the bad side in keeping them then?

Thats it for now, so anyone wanna give all this a try?

1) there is going to be a latency from having a few escape to having a plague of them. a couple few generations are needful to make LOTS of roaches. i find random roach escapees every once in a while. whether they are produced in the "wild" of my bedroom or just a fresh escapee i couldn't tell you. i give them the ol head twist and throw them away when i catch them like that. also, a lot of ppl don't really post about the really bad stuff they do. like, when i say i have killed hundreds of *lings ppl always give a lot of static... so i think ppl just plain don't post most of the bad stuff they did


2) yes. hissers have commensal/symbiotics that look like African Giant Black millipede mites. i haven't noticed too much in the way of grain mites... but i expect they randomly pick them up from other sources


3) i expect they can carry salmonella and other stuff. try to keep them out of your mouth and wash your hands after and you shouldn't have *too* much to worry about. i eat sandwiches and stuff when ifeed out roaches (and use my hands for both tasks) and i seem to be ok, though =P

4) there are abosolutely no absolutes... so there doesn't necesarily *HAVE* to be negatives to balance positives. that being said... some ppl find certain species quite noxious. some ppl find their behaviour and movements disturbing. orangeheads (Eublaberus posticus) are as protein hungry as crickets (says the duck skull and mouse skeleton in their cage). hissers and some others have wicked defensive spines. some roaches take a heck of a lot longer to develop "breeding steam" than feeder crix. sometimes roaches are relatively more expensive to start a colony with.

 

[siliconthoughts]

Here's a few things I've always wondered about feeder roaches and I find these questions interesting:

1. A lot of us keep feeder roaches and stuff, however, how come they're almost never any heard of breakouts? I mean almost everyone that kept roaches before probably had a few escapees, whether you knew it or not. I'm just wondering how come? I know many roaches don't thrive because of temperature, but what if they escaped during the warm seasons and found a place thats warm enough and survive off some kind of food they found there. I just wonder how come it seems easy and the chances are abundant but breakouts are almost unheard of?

2. Do feeder roaches have mites too? Don't hear about it a lot, especially with all the dead bodies since many ppl don't change it for months or a year.

3. Do feeder roaches carry diseases of any kind that are harmful to humans? I mainly hear that they're safe etc etc.

4. Okay, we all heard of how beneficial it is to keep roaches as feeders, especially replacing crickets. However, I've been taught that for every good there's a bad. So whats the bad side in keeping them then?

Thats it for now, so anyone wanna give all this a try?

1) There are breakouts. The species we (should) keep as feeders are just not adapted to living in houses. They are too big to find good hiding spaces. They are live bearers, so can't make it through a cold snap or a dry spell or a single pesticide application. They are outcompeted by the native populations. They are fed on by a wide variety of predators. Consequently they quickly go extinct when they aren't in a nice protective enclosure. Florida does have several species of non-native roaches in self sustaining populations, including B. discoidalis and B. craniifer but most of the US is just not suitable habitat.

2) Like virtually all other animals, they can have mites, but roaches are relatively clean animals. The only mites I've seen in with my roaches are on their food or on the dead when I've left them a bit too long. Generally I don't leave dead roaches in the containers. I remove food and reduce the humidity when there are mites and that eliminates them quickly.

3) Wild pest roaches may be disease vectors because they get into trash and then move into food. I'm not aware of any human disease that they carry which isn't a simple surface contact issue. They aren't direct vectors (they don't bite humans and cause disease) but at worst are indirect by contaminating food. My opinion is that the disease carrying of wild roaches is overstated. It's a good idea to wash your hands after handling them, especially before eating.

4) There are few downsides in my experience. Many people have an unreasoning aversion to them or are just intimidated by their size. Some people develop allergies. It's probably wise to limit handling of them as well as avoid breathing dust when cleaning the cage for that reason. I wouldn't be surprised if crickets caused allergic reactions too, but it doesn't seem as common.

 

[Stylopidae]

The only way roaches can carry disease is if they track through the pathogen and track it elsewhere.

Roaches are not disease vectors.

 

[siliconthoughts]

The only way roaches can carry disease is if they track through the pathogen and track it elsewhere.

Roaches are not disease vectors.

Are you using some unusually narrow definition of disease vector? Tracking through a pathogen and tracking it elsewhere is by definition acting as a mechanical disease vector.

 

[Stylopidae]

Are you using some unusually narrow definition of disease vector? Tracking through a pathogen and tracking it elsewhere is by definition acting as a mechanical disease vector.

Generally when a biologist mentions a disease vector, they are generally only referring to biological vectors.

I've yet to hear the term 'mechanical vector' used by a biologist or a parasitologist.

I'm sure it is occasionally, but since anything can become a mechanical vector (including the fork I'm eating off of right now), I doubt the term is really used in practice because it broadens the definition of 'disease vector' so far as to become completely useless.

Anything is a mechanical vector, however humans will never be considered a vector for polydnaviruses even though we can transmit them in laboratory conditions.

To be fair: Whenever I talk to biologists about parasitology, they generally refer to the vectors as 'hosts' more than anything else. When they refer to an organism that passes on disease, they usually just say 'vector'.

The OP was asking whether cockroaches are biological vectors for any diseases...not if they could track through pathogens and spread them that way because it's simply common sense to assume that they can.

Besides cockroaches spend most of their day cleaning and grooming themselves, so even if they did step through a pathogen they most likely wouldn't retain it long enough to track it to a place where it would cause disease.

<edit> I guess houseflies are important mechanical vectors (most of what I talk about with parasitologists are things like sacculina or trematodes)...but I believe they're far more likely to be biological vectors than mechanical vectors.

I'm sure one of the resident PHDs will come and correct me if I'm wrong on something here. You're right that being able to track through a pathogen and spread it around would make it a mechanical vector, but from my experience with biologists the definition I'm using isn't exactly narrow for the context I'm using it in.

 

[REAL]

Are you using some unusually narrow definition of disease vector? Tracking through a pathogen and tracking it elsewhere is by definition acting as a mechanical disease vector.

thanks for answering all my questions guys, that was some very thorough answers! Thank you to Andrew and Colin :razz:

THANKS AGAIN FOR THE AWESOME ROACH PACKAGE COLIN!!!! I REALLY LOVED IT...THANK YOU FOR FORGETTING HOW TO COUNT (JK). I REALLY LOVED THE EXTRAS AND THE PACKAGING WAS TOP NOTCH! IF I EVER NEED MORE ROACHES I'LL COME BACK FOR MORE! I THINK I WANT TO AIM FOR THE GIGANTEUS NEXT! THEY'RE SOOO COOL

The discoidis are better looking though, they're nice. I barely see them though since they're hiding so much. I would take one out once in awhile and play with them a bit, i love to watch them glide through the air, its very pretty.

The dubias I barely play with, discoidis are just more fun to watch and play with lol.

Thanks again!

ONCE AGAIN, PRIORITY MAIL = MY FAVORITE

100 ROACHES WITHOUT A SINGLE DEATH! ALL THANKS TO GREAT PACKAGING!