Dubia Roach Debacle

[ridgebax1]

So for whatever reason (besides they are a$$holes) my dogs have twice gotten into the roach bin (which is in the same place it has been for years!). The first time they got the lid opened and removed the food containers, which I am sure had roaches in them. The second time, they tipped the entire bin over, but at least I had secured the top with a bungee cord (Thank God as it is a large colony). I live in Pittsburgh PA and it has been intermittently warm sometimes near 60F. I have subsequently found an adult(shortly after) and another sub-adult female today in my kitchen. One laying in the middle of the floor on her back (faking death) and another in a cardboard box. I have absolutely no idea how many may have escaped. I was not too worried about it but am surprised that there was still a live roach since it has been cold the past couple days. I know they need high temps to breed but what if they do indeed survive the winter in to summer? Suggestions please.

 

[Andee]

Usually they can survive pretty easily in house temps and you may randomly find them around the house. I don't know how high your house is likely to get in temps? They will not likely be able to breed unless it gets in the low 90's, open air temps are not as easy to breed in as bin temps from what I have noticed. You can use traps that kill them if you need to. I think there are also some easy to make homemade traps that will keep them alive. Eventually they may die out, finding food for dubias is relatively hard, they are not city roaches, they prefer vegetations/ fruits over any other type of food and will not likely randomly snack on weird cardboard pieces etc unless they are super super desperate, and even then that won't sustain them. If they have the ability to get to dog kibble etc, easily they will eat that. But it will likely kill them off quickly. It causes something like kidney disease in dubias. Too much protein causes too much uric acid to build up in their system (because they don't often come across it in the wild and use it as extra sustenance when needed to produce extra babies) and they will die from too much of course. Good Luck!

 

[Link]

They will live forever you need to be extremely careful. You do know when to introduce another species into a different environment there are some pesticides that are safe. I will try to find the link.

 

[Andee]

They will live forever you need to be extremely careful. You do know when to introduce another species into a different environment there are some pesticides that are safe. I will try to find the link.

This is wrong from what I've experienced. I have had large nymphs and adult dubias escape in my garage, I live in Central California. This was during the hotter year before last year. I either collected all the escape ones, or found all the ones I didn't collect dead. Any of them that made it outside died within minutes/seconds I assume because I found them on my driveway dead. I know how many escaped. All not collected were dead within a month or two. I also had perfect conditions for them to thrive other than the lack of readily available foods.

 

[Link]

This is wrong from what I've experienced. I have had large nymphs and adult dubias escape in my garage, I live in Central California. This was during the hotter year before last year. I either collected all the escape ones, or found all the ones I didn't collect dead. Any of them that made it outside died within minutes/seconds I assume because I found them on my driveway dead. I know how many escaped. All not collected were dead within a month or two. I also had perfect conditions for them to thrive other than the lack of readily available foods.

Just my experience I live in Massachusetts and pretty sure they'll survive a nuclear blast so I get very nervous when they're around so it doesn't do bad things to their environment. You can take that with a grain of salt I just. Just my opinion. That's why all opinions are greatly appreciated

 

[Nursemaia]

I get escapees frequently. They've never colonized my house. I'm in Delaware

 

[Extensionofgreen]

The lack of humidity, food, and moisture means they will not breed and they may surivive a few weeks, because they take a long time to actually die from thirst and starvation, but die they will.

 

[Nursemaia]

I completely understand the concern about escapees colonizing the house. I know they won't but sometimes the thought still freaks me out. My elderly parents live with me, my mom knows they're roaches and she's cool with it. I have to call them dubia "beetles" around my dad. If he knew they were roaches he'd flip, doesn't matter that they can't live in the house.

 

[WAMBO]

They need heat to get in the mood for mating.

 

[Andee]

Generally the whole nuclear thing, refers to a totally different type of roach, think it specifically talks about the American Cockroach species. Tropical species are much more fragile. Except turkistan/red runners have the reputation for being the type of (I think they originally a kind of tropical roach) that can colonize pretty much anywhere.

 

[ridgebax1]

Thanks everyone! I have heard that about red runners. I was going to get them for my chameleon until I read that. I know American cockroaches are hardy beasts. Hopefully the bigger roaches scattered down into the depths of their bin when the dogs started their shenanigans. My hope is that even if there were babies that got out the conditions would not allow them to thrive even if they did survive for a bit. I know Dubias are hardy also as the colony I have now is from about a dozen adults purchased at least 6 years ago when my granddaughter got her bearded dragon. The bin somehow got put into an unused room and forgotten for at least 6 months so no food or water was provided. When I came across it there were still a handful of those buggers alive in there. So I cleaned the bin and started feeding them. I probably have 500 or more from those few.

 

[Link]

Generally the whole nuclear thing, refers to a totally different type of roach, think it specifically talks about the American Cockroach species. Tropical species are much more fragile. Except turkistan/red runners have the reputation for being the type of (I think they originally a kind of tropical roach) that can colonize pretty much anywhere.

Haha that was just a joke by the way. But they are very Hardy and mine will last months without food. Sometimes I forget I have some in containers and they're still alive. And I even completely enclosed environment for all of my chameleon and feeders. So the temperature is just perfect for them I just get worried about introducing or perhaps them breeding. Like they say don't be a Richard

 

[Andee]

Lol, definitely can last several months, they do best when they have a constant source of food, but generally when I was taking care of a small outburst of phorrid flies in their container. I ended up killing off the flies with a good cleaning, change of bins (was needed anyway due to the general size of the colony), an introduction of a good clean up crew, and then just starving them for a couple months then two to three months after that only feeding dry foods. I didn't offer any heat either and it was during the colder months, the which allowed for a quick death of the flies. And generally I kept the bin near the warmer side of the garage just in case, plus there are seriously tons of roaches so huddling for warmth wasnt an issue ever.

 

[Link]

Lol, definitely can last several months, they do best when they have a constant source of food, but generally when I was taking care of a small outburst of phorrid flies in their container. I ended up killing off the flies with a good cleaning, change of bins (was needed anyway due to the general size of the colony), an introduction of a good clean up crew, and then just starving them for a couple months then two to three months after that only feeding dry foods. I didn't offer any heat either and it was during the colder months, the which allowed for a quick death of the flies. And generally I kept the bin near the warmer side of the garage just in case, plus there are seriously tons of roaches so huddling for warmth wasnt an issue ever.

I get those little flies to the aggravate the crap out of me they always end up in the tanks hard to get out. Started putting a little honey and water and I seem to drown themselves in it

 

[Andee]

Are they actually phorrid flies? Or fruit flies? Do totally different things. It is also possible to get a type of really annoying phorrid flies that are parasitic. The problem with most normal phorrid flies is if you have an animal with an open wound or something that you are treating, they will lay eggs in it and the maggots will not be so helpful. They are not the type of maggots that just eat rotting flesh. Wonderful creatures *rolls eyes*. So generally try to get rid of them when I can, and the problem is, certain types like parasitic ones infect your live roaches and are almost impossible to get rid of. Usually if you get a colony who gets them you cull them. Generally the ones I had weren't too bad, mostly attracted to the dead stuff so it wasn't too hard to get rid of them. There are multiple ways to tell them apart from fruit flies though

 

[Link]

Are they actually phorrid flies? Or fruit flies? Do totally different things. It is also possible to get a type of really annoying phorrid flies that are parasitic. The problem with most normal phorrid flies is if you have an animal with an open wound or something that you are treating, they will lay eggs in it and the maggots will not be so helpful. They are not the type of maggots that just eat rotting flesh. Wonderful creatures *rolls eyes*. So generally try to get rid of them when I can, and the problem is, certain types like parasitic ones infect your live roaches and are almost impossible to get rid of. Usually if you get a colony who gets them you cull them. Generally the ones I had weren't too bad, mostly attracted to the dead stuff so it wasn't too hard to get rid of them. There are multiple ways to tell them apart from fruit flies though

Yeah I can never tell if it fruit flies or other ones way too small for me to see I said it's sucking them up with a vacuum. I usually only have a problem during the summer. Also when I ordered crickets from a different supplier I got a bunch introduced. It's also weird some tanks will have them in it but then others don't. It's hilarious when I sit there and try to squash them all

 

[Andee]

Usually when phorrid flies start reproducing the smell literally makes me want to puke. It smells like a mix between a sewer and rotting fruits in thousands of pounds. Usually most phorrid species will not fly or hop like fruit flies when skating your hand towards them, instead they run until you get really close. Since they are attracted to general sweetness and not just dead/rotting stuff from the sounds of it you probably just have a type of pesky fruit flies XD always annoying.

 

[jamest0o0]

Oh man i think i had/have phorid flies. I thought they were fruit flies... they decimated some succulents i had and they smelled terrrible. They disappeared after awhile, recently bought some home depot trees for my chams bigger cage and i see the same flies around again. Never had any of them in my pothos or schefflera which are planted in sand/coco fiber. Now it seems more are showing up and in my chams cage... i have dubias as well, but they are mainly around the cage. I've noticed a lot of leaves dropping lately too, but attributed it to repotting. I didn't think they could reproduce in the sand/fiber mix, still not sure if they are. Worried about my other trees i got from home depot though. Ughhh just another issue to worry about.

 

[Andee]

This actually sounds more like fungus gnats in your position James, the smell is likely the scent of your plants rotting roots.

 

[walzy444]

OMG my worst nightmare.. if my Dubias ever got lose in my house id burn it to the ground....