Oranges and Pesticides

[Vandertern]

I've just set up a Dubia bin for the first time 2 weeks ago and so far everything has been pretty simple but something has occurred to me.

Oranges and other citrus fruit are typically heavily treated with pesticides and their peels hold the chemicals very well. I was always told not to put too many orange peels in the compost bin for this reason.

Everyone I've seen on YouTube seems to just put orange slices in unpeeled with their roaches and I've been doing the same.

I've noticed that they devour the carrots and apples I give them completely but the sections of orange I give them are always left with some fruit attached to the peel.
Is it possible they won't eat them due to the residual chemicals on the orange skin?
Do I need to wash and peel the oranges or am I being a bit neurotic?

I'm sure the roaches will be fine but I'm worried about potential passing something on to my tarantulas.

 

[schmiggle]

You're probably fine. The peel of an orange is rather unpalatable and filled with noxious chemicals, so it makes sense that they leave some over.

 

[The Snark]

Did a quick check. Only Aldicarb sulfoxide, Fludioxonil, Methomyl, Dicloran, Carbaryl, Chlorpyrifos, Azoxystrobin, Pyrimethanil, Imidacloprid, Formetanate hydrochloride, Thiabendazole, Imazalil, Carbofuran and Methidathion found in oranges. Should be perfectly safe for inorganic moon rocks.

 

[chanda]

I always peel oranges before using them for food. To be honest, pesticides hadn't even occurred to me - but I figure the peels seem pretty unpalatable, between the bitter citrus oils they contain and their tough consistency.

 

[The Snark]

I've taken to putting all fruits and veggies in a large plastic container with dish washing liquid. Soak a few minutes, agitate occasional, then scrub fruits like I'm washing dishes. With veggies I agitate the solution for a solid 5 minutes. Then rinse as you would the dishes. If to be eaten or used immediately I give it two additional rinses with filtered drinking water.

 

[Vandertern]

I've taken to putting all fruits and veggies in a large plastic container with dish washing liquid. Soak a few minutes, agitate occasional, then scrub fruits like I'm washing dishes. With veggies I agitate the solution for a solid 5 minutes. Then rinse as you would the dishes. If to be eaten or used immediately I give it two additional rinses with filtered drinking water.

I think I'm going to make a habit of doing something similar now in future when I do my weekly shopping.

Thanks for all the quick responses.

Aldicarb sulfoxide, Fludioxonil, Methomyl, Dicloran, Carbaryl, Chlorpyrifos, Azoxystrobin, Pyrimethanil, Imidacloprid, Formetanate hydrochloride, Thiabendazole, Imazalil, Carbofuran and Methidathion

I'm assuming roaches have developed a resistance to whatever is sprayed on the oranges, after being fed them for generations by breeders, but I wonder what is the likelihood of them retaining some of the pesticides and passing them on and eventually causing our pets problems.
Maybe so slight that we don't even notice the problem, or maybe one day we feed our pets a freak roach who has ingested more orange peel than typical and we end up killing the pet outright.

I guess best practice says wash and peel your fruit thoroughly and try not to worry too much.

I also think I might start removing roaches form my breeder bin for a week or two before I feed them off and let them eat bug gel and organic foods only and when my colony gets to a nice size (it only needs to support 2 T's at the moment) I will stop feeding citrus fruits altogether.

 

[schmiggle]

Did a quick check. Only Aldicarb sulfoxide, Fludioxonil, Methomyl, Dicloran, Carbaryl, Chlorpyrifos, Azoxystrobin, Pyrimethanil, Imidacloprid, Formetanate hydrochloride, Thiabendazole, Imazalil, Carbofuran and Methidathion found in oranges. Should be perfectly safe for inorganic moon rocks.

It's true that oranges have tons of pesticides, but apples do too (see here: http://whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=AP), and so do carrots (http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=CR). You're not going to avoid them just by treating oranges differently. Additionally, that's probably not what's bothering the roaches. Point being, if you're trying to avoid getting pesticides into your tarantulas, you'll need to do more than just not feed oranges, and not feeding oranges won't get you very far.

 

[The Snark]

It's true that oranges have tons of pesticides, but apples do too

I was under the impression oranges would be pretty free of pesticides until I looked that up. I know apples are deadly. I dump them straight into the sink when I buy them. A good scrubbing before putting them in the bottom of the fridge.
This is just plain flaming ridiculous. Our lives are bordering need a hazmat suit just to negotiate through the day. I don't see how you can keep animals free of chemicals. The tank inevitably becomes a chemical concentrator.