B. discoidalis dying - why?

A couple of months ago I bought some B. discoidalis roaches from a reputable dealer. I am trying to start a roach colony because I hate crickets. My problem is this, in the last few days I have been finding adults on their backs dying. At this point there are about 6 adults on their backs twitching. I have turned some of them back over, but that doesn't seem to help. Most of the ones I've turned back over are flipping themselves back over to their backs. I know they aren't molting because they are full grown, mature adults. Does anyone have any ideas as to why they would be dying? I clean their container once a month. I have aspen wood chips in the bottom of their container. I feed them oats, dog food, apples, bananas, romaine lettuce(occassionally), and have tried other veggies. I use water bites for their water source. They have a couple things in there to climb on and hide between. So, what do you think?

Might be old ones, Im not sure how long roaches in general live but not too long I presume.

/Lelle

What is the tempurature ? I keep my Blaberus Craniifer around 85 90 degrees F.....no loses

Bob

Might be the aspen... not sure. I keep mine on a very thin layer of peat moss and I'm actually getting ready to clean them out and put them on nothing. I'll keep egg crates in there for them to climb on and hide in, but I'm going to remove the substrate completely.

Botar

ya i reckon, probably just too old, they won't live more than 10 months as adults

I have no idea how old the roaches are. I bought them as adults. I'm not sure about the aspen thing. I will try peat instead. I know that several care sheets I have read say that aspen is okay, but not pine or cedar. I hope I don't lose too many because I don't have that many, as I am just starting my colony.

The temperature they are kept at is about 78-80 during the day and about 72-74 at night. From everything I've heard and read, that temp. is fine for them. It might cause them to breed less, but that's all.

I've not had any problems with mine breeding and they were in the low 70's all winter. If they're dying from old age, I would expect them to fade away a bit. I've had some die from old age and they usually look pretty rough by the time they die. Any chance of a pesticide exposure?

Botar

I was thinking the same thing. One major downside to feeding fresh veggies is the risk of pesticide exposure. I pretty much feed unmedicated chick mash exclusively.

Mine breed fine at low temps too, but heat does speed things up. Maybe a temporary raise in temperature would at least get them reproducing sooner.

Also, what type of ventilation does the cage have? IME, cockroach colonies fair poorly if not well ventilated. Most of my bins are topless and it works great.

Wade

Wade said:

Also, what type of ventilation does the cage have? IME, cockroach colonies fair poorly if not well ventilated. Most of my bins are topless and it works great.

Wade

Click to expand...

Good point. Mine are topless as well and I had an entire bin die due to poor ventilation. I put a lid on it to take it to a show and they were all dead by the time I took it off the next day.

Botar

Okay, I'll try to get ahold of some unmedicated chicken mash this week. It might be possible that there was some kind of pesticide on the kale I tried to feed them. I don't remember if I washed it before I put it in their enclosure and it was a day or two after I put it in that they started dying. They didn't seem to like the kale. I just thought I'd try it since I had it for my guinea pigs.

Their enclosure is a tall rubbermaid type container. I drilled 1/4" holes all around the top of it and in the middle of each side I have a 2" hole that I drilled and covered with screen mesh. I also have four 2" holes covered with screen mesh on the lid. I think I will add more 2" holes and cover them with screen. This is what they have lived in for the last 3 months. I would think if the problem was ventilation then I would have had problems before now.

I feel terrible that I might have exposed them to something that killed them. I guess we live and learn, right? Thanks to all those that replied. If anyone has anything further, feel free to share.

Lots of luck, I have no substrate and they are in a tall rubbermaid....I do have a question for all those responding to this thread.....

I started my colony in November, I had mature roaches By January. Now, I have a lot of mature roaches, my colony is 250 total.

Here is my question; I expected to have young ones by March. It is now into April and I have yet to see any young ones. Any ideas when I could expect to see some little ones???

Scott

I switched to roaches to get away from crickets, I am still breeding and raising crickets. I was hoping to be away from them by now......

Scott again.

roaches

It's really hard to know why they are dying since the age is unknown. It very very common for roaches to act this way near death. I use organic fruits, but I really don't think washed produce can cause harm, except greens. Many of them like romaine, kale, etc, absorb lots of water and possible chemicals as well. I mainly uses apples, oranges, and carrots. It key when breeding to have room. I have at least 10 egg crates half stacked vertically in every cage. I like a little peat moss with this species because they need more misted (humidity) than some of the others I keep. I keep my containers 80-85 cool and 90-100 on the hot side. Be patient and soon you will have lots of little babies. Also, in comment to another post my females live much longer than the nin months. Males usually die first, but most females live 12-24 months. I know people that have blaberus females that are pushing 3.
James
www.blaberus.com

I read it is best to have a limited amount of room for best breeding results..

Scott