My Blatta Lateralis smell like cheese

[simon780]

Hi All!!

I have been keeping crickets for 2 months now, they stink, they die, they jump, I have to cut their back legs off before feeding to my scorps. And I am so tired of it, so I looked up on the internet, many people say roaches don't climb, don't smell, give live birth(not exactly, but I don't know the term)

So I decided to get rid of those nasty crickets and go for roaches, I have started with mixed sized nymphs of Blaptica Dubia and Blatta Lateralis

The b. Dubia are doing fine apart from few dies off occasionally, but recently the b. lateralis are having some funny cheese like smell, it doesn't smell too bad, but my b. Dubia is not having this probelm.

I give them blended dry cat food and a damp cloth for them to drink, far far away from the dry cat food. I checked the cloth, the smell does not come from it.

Do blatta Lateralis stink?
Any b. lateralis keepers here?

thx~

 

[funnylori]

I think that is normal. Mine didn't smell at first either. Now they do. I think its the frass, and I had a mold problem once. I am changing over though, from latteralis to dubia. The dubia are cuter, and yes that is my reason.

 

[nepenthes]

I think their might be some kind of bacteria growth clean out the cage?

 

[Taceas]

They do have an odor, although I wouldn't call it necessarily offensive. Especially considering crickets are 50x worse. All animals smell, and when you get enough of them together its going to be amplified. Does their container have ventilation at all?

Although I would throw out the rag, that doesn't sound sanitary at all not to mention I don't know how they could drink from it if they can't "suck". I give my colony a half an apple for liquid. When they finish it all up, I put another half in there. Seems to be working good so far, and the apple smell is much better than the frass smell.

Have you tried changing brands of cat food? I know our cats can have absolutely horrendous poops on some brands, and on others nothing. You may want to consider getting a brand of food that doesn't have artificial ingredients in it and see if that makes any difference.

But then again I've bought roach food from www.thecarnivorousorchid.com and their food is well liked by all of my roaches and doesn't smell offensive like other roach foods I've tried.

 

[simon780]

thx for the replies.

Their cage had some ventilation, but not on the side where they crawl about, and I think it was one of the problem. On the weekend I have time to figure out where the smell comes from, I provide few plastic slippers for their hides, I have realised that the smell was formed from powered cat food + plastic smell + frass = cheese like smell :evil:

So now I changed their hides into paper, still give them cat food, and a better ventilation, but I still use some rag in order to provide water, I will see how b. lateralis will do in there. The good news for now is that the cheese smell has gone :clap: , only the dry cat food smell remains, I am happy about it!

I do know that rag will have baterial grow on them, I used to give them carrots, but I don't want to get mold problem and it seemed the pesticides on the carrot have killed a few. I considering what to use, I really hesitated to give them a rag or a sponge, but I can't think of a better solution to this problem.

Taceas, thx for giving me a roach food web site, but I live in Asia, it will be too expensive for me to order them overseas~~

I will post photos my setting later today

 

[Dom]

Try using apples as a water source instead of the wet rag. They have a higher water content than carrots and my roaches definitely prefer the apples. I use a variety called "empire macintosh". The advantage of this type is that they don't turn brown after you cut them and they will stay fresh in the roach cage for several days and longer. I'm sure there are other good varieties but many others that I've tried will go brown on the cut surface very quickly and go bad fairly quickly.
Wash the apples with soapy water to remove potential pesticide residue. The roaches won't eat the skin anyway but just as a safeguard.

As far as smell mine went through a phase late last summer where they got really stinky. This was when I was keeping them fairly cool. Once I cranked up the heat and kept them dry the smell has gone away.

 

[simon780]

Dom, I don't know what "empire macintosh" looks like, but now I have got rid of the wet rag, since people here say it's not a good idea, instead I use apples left over as their moisture.

 

[simon780]

Here is my b. lateralis setup

 

[Rizzolo]

water crystals for water

i use the water crystals for water, and it provides some humidity. if i go away for a three day weekend, i don't have to worry, even if all of their fresh vegies are gone, they still have water. haven't lost any that i know of yet. in fact, i will have to give away a bunch soon. even if i start a new colony, i will be overrun soon. even the dubia are starting to go wild. once you get enough adults, then things really start to cook. the Ts are fat now!

good luck