Pink Roaches

[Bird Man]

So I was recently told that one of the roaches that I tried to feed to one of my T's and had turned pink was actually a bacteria So I'm looking for more info on what causes this and any cures. I tried looking over the threads here and did a search with no results. Can someone here help me?

 

[Bird Man]

Anyone have any input?

 

[Matt K]

The color change is from a coliform bacteria that is decomposing the roach. Was it still alive when you fed it off? It would have been dying at the time if so. This only happens when the roaches are not receiving the proper care. On rare occasions roaches can eat tainted food that can infect them and part of the colony might die off, or just th dead ones will change color. It may be time to clean out the roach bin and destroy any that appear ill....

 

[Bird Man]

It was still moving when I fed it to the T. I smash their little heads for slings. The sling bit the roach, but didn't eat it. So the next day when I took it out, it was surely dead and the legs turned pink and later that day it was more noticable. I kept it and part around it's head turned pink as well. I haven't had the colony all that long, and I try to keep it as clean as possiable, I take out molts when I noticed them, and remove food that dries out, like lettuce, or if it starts to molt, which only has happened once or twice because I was over feeding them at first. I've looked over everyone and none of them look sick to me and run from light.

 

[Miss Bianca]

. . . . . . pictures?

 

[Bird Man]

These are the best I could do...

 

[codykrr]

hey bird man...im the one who stated this to you. and if you search for "roach colony colapse syndrom" you will find all the answers there.....hope this helped.

 

[codykrr]

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=142389&highlight=dying+roaches

here is one link i ound stating some of the causes....and haha oddly enough mattk said most of the stuff i read.....so enjoy birdman.

 

[Bird Man]

Hummm..... well I haven't been having any deaths at all, babies are still being born, and not very humid in there. It was a B. lat nymph that I noticed this with, and I killed a few other nymphs and let them sit out to see if they would turn pink, and nothing. I did have some dried out oothaca from my B. dubia, but that was awhile back, and that's because I wasn't misting them enough. I hadden't gotten any babies from them at all, because they were nymphs themselves and had to mature, I've been better with the misting and yesterday I noticed little white b dub nymphs and later that day they had hardened and were now normal color and crawling all over.


But to be on the safe side/ keep this mess from spreading, I'm gonna go with Matt's method for curing this and wash everything out in a bleach solution, and replace all egg cartons.

Thanks Cody.

 

[Moltar]

I'm confused birdman, you say you noticed this with a B lateralis nymph but the nymph pictured above is a B dubia. If you saw any dried oothecae then they would have been from B lateralis as dubia give live birth. The fast red ones are B lateralis, the clumsy big brown ones are B dubia.

Since I sold you a crapload of B lateralis lately this is of some concern to me. So, did you find evidence of this bacteria in your B lateralis colony or only in the dubia colony?

Thanks, I'd hate to think this stuff came from me but if it did I need to get it taken care of.

 

[Bird Man]

Ok well seems I've been confused on which roaches are which since they are food items. The one pictured, is a nymph that came from the stock that you sent me the B dubia. I'm sorry to be the one bringing up the bad news. So better check yours for this.

The dried oothecae were from the smaller fast ones, the B lats, now if I have this right. It was like they had abortions, they were laying on the bottom of the KK and all dried out. So I tossed them out and have been doing better with misting, and a couple days ago I noticed a bunch of little babies running around in with them now.


So to make this clearer, pink roach came from big, slow roaches I got from you,. dried oothecae came from smaller faster roaches I got from my LPS.

 

[Matt K]

If you threw out the dried ootheca, then you threw out your next generation of B.lateralis. They lay the ootheca anywhere the stand in the tub, and after a bit nymphs hatch out of them. The dubia do not lay an ootheca and instead birth thier nymphs right from the mother. Small brown ootheca- keep them to hatch more!

As for guy-who-sold-roaches, it is possible but not likely the bacteria came from you or you would notice alot of deceased. It is most likely came to guy-who-bought-roaches in whatever he fed the roaches... a bit of a fluke (just bad luck) but not very likely to happen again provided the current problem is cleaned up.

 

[Bird Man]

If you threw out the dried ootheca, then you threw out your next generation of B.lateralis. They lay the ootheca anywhere the stand in the tub, and after a bit nymphs hatch out of them. The dubia do not lay an ootheca and instead birth thier nymphs right from the mother. Small brown ootheca- keep them to hatch more!

As for guy-who-sold-roaches, it is possible but not likely the bacteria came from you or you would notice alot of deceased. It is most likely came to guy-who-bought-roaches in whatever he fed the roaches... a bit of a fluke (just bad luck) but not very likely to happen again provided the current problem is cleaned up.

Oopsies again, While cleaning out the B lats I found another dried out ootheca and tossed it in the trash, it was loads of fun getting all the little bitty babies out so they could be cleaned, even though it was found in the dubia.

Cleaning the dubia wasn't that bad, easier to get the babies out since they start out a bit bigger. I guess I'll have to make sure to rinse everything off better. I clean out molts as they are noticed, and if food isn't eaten within a hour, which it always is, it's removed(rare cases). I also feed oats as part of a main thing, with cat food. The oats are kept in the freezer unless being used, but the cat food isn't, but it doesn't sit around long, I have two cats who are fat fat fat cows who do nothing but eat and sleep so I'm always buying cat food.

I didn't find not one single dead body, not even a nymph, but I guess that doesn't mean the others ate the body? No flies of any kind at all. I even took several adults, males and females and looked them over with a magnifying glass and found nothing at all. Everyone looked very fat and healthy to me.

The only thing I did find was a spider living in with the roaches. I would have one move in, and I'd remove it, only for it to be replaced by another, again removed and someone else moved in who was cute looking, and read on here somewhere it was OK to leave it in there because it would keep out flies and such so it's still in there and it's been about a month, even molted in there, which the molt was removed as well.

 

[Moltar]

Ok, well it's comforting knowing that you didn't find any more issues. I went home yesterday and checked out my colony, it looks fine. No pinkies.

And like Matt said, stop throwing out the B lateralis (small, red ones) oothecae. They're your next generation. You've probably just introduced the species to your local landfill Luckily they probably won't make it through the next winter.

 

[Bird Man]

Ok, well it's comforting knowing that you didn't find any more issues. I went home yesterday and checked out my colony, it looks fine. No pinkies.

And like Matt said, stop throwing out the B lateralis (small, red ones) oothecae. They're your next generation. You've probably just introduced the species to your local landfill Luckily they probably won't make it through the next winter.

It only turned pink after it had died, and so far the oothecae is still in my garbage can, haven't see anyone crawling around in there, but really haven't paid attention for that.