Unpleasant question - culling

H

Harry

Ootheca
I keep hissing cockroaches and deaths-head (giant and standard - possibly not the true species) cockroaches as part of an educational roadshow. My problem is that the giant deaths-head cockroaches are over-breeding. I have one bearded dragon, but he can not possibly consume them all (plus he has started to brumate for the winter) and the tarantulas prefer locusts. I am going to have to cull the population unless I can find someone locally on freecycle who wants them as livefood. Although they are not supposed to be good climbers and I have a thick layer of Vaseline around the top of the tank and a ventilated lid, I keep finding odd juveniles wandering around the room. Can anyone advise me on the kindest way to cull them? If I have excessive land snail eggs, I freeze them, but I'm not sure what is best for the cockroaches - I would prefer a non-violent method! I don't think I've got the stomach for squashing... and I doubt they're that easy to squash. My hissers breed at a perfect rate, so thankfully I won't need to cull them as I'm more attached to them as I use them for handling - my online name Harry is actually my biggest male hisser! Thanks

 
Harry said:
I keep hissing cockroaches and deaths-head (giant and standard - possibly not the true species) cockroaches as part of an educational roadshow. My problem is that the giant deaths-head cockroaches are over-breeding. I have one bearded dragon, but he can not possibly consume them all (plus he has started to brumate for the winter) and the tarantulas prefer locusts. I am going to have to cull the population unless I can find someone locally on freecycle who wants them as livefood. Although they are not supposed to be good climbers and I have a thick layer of Vaseline around the top of the tank and a ventilated lid, I keep finding odd juveniles wandering around the room. Can anyone advise me on the kindest way to cull them? If I have excessive land snail eggs, I freeze them, but I'm not sure what is best for the cockroaches - I would prefer a non-violent method! I don't think I've got the stomach for squashing... and I doubt they're that easy to squash. My hissers breed at a perfect rate, so thankfully I won't need to cull them as I'm more attached to them as I use them for handling - my online name Harry is actually my biggest male hisser! Thanks
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If you must cull them here are a few ways...

You can enclose them in a back and put them in the freezer. Or you can put them in a bag and shoot co2 into the bag. Either way I'd say is rather painless. Another way is tosse a rubbing acohol soaked paper towel in a bag full of them. I would say tho the best way to get rid of overstock roaches is to give them to a pet sotre or sell them. Or someone who breeds lizards in your area. If you want to slow down thier breeding I'd lower their temperature by about 5-10F. That would slow down the breeding alot. Luckily I don't really have an overstock problem becuase of my monitor lizard and tarantula collection. The monitors are eating machines especially, they can eat a dozen roaches a day each if I'd let them. When you thin the roach population down, handpick the runty mature roaches and the ones with bad colors if possible.

 
If you send me a message maybe we can work out how much over you actually have, and I can buy them from you. It sounds like they are something other than Deaths Head roaches...

 
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Orin McMonigle said:
I'm guessing 'Harry' is from the UK since he keeps land snails. Is that right Harry?
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Yep - I'm in the UK so I'm thinking posting cockroaches to the US wouldn't be so easy! I've put an add on my local freecycle so hopefully I might find someone who either wants to keep them or feed them - if not I'll probably contact all of the local reptile shops. I think my mistake was to initially have them next to the hissers tank sharing the heat mat - hence the sudden population explosion. I wanted to increase my hisser population and only had 5 of the giant death heads so didn't contemplate the resulting 100's! The smaller death-head type cockroaches that I got from a breeder have never been on a heat mat and don't appear to be breeding at room temp - they're a bit small for handling with kids though, so I have to admit, their numbers have been shrinking thanks to Bob the bearded dragon! The giants are great fun with older children as they do slow down a bit with regular handling but are definitely more exciting than my extremely tame hissers, especially as every now and then they'll do a flapping jump from my hands.

 
Harry said:
Yep - I'm in the UK ....
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Ooops. I dd not realize your location. Too bad. But certainly there are herp breeders in the UK that need some feeders, right? Can you ship to Germany? I have heard there are quite a few people there who breed various monitor lizards. Any pics you can post for us in the States?

 
I too have a tremendous overpopulation of death heads, its now four tanks, this is causing serious problems with flies and mites but I'd never have the heart to do anything to them like that, i'm trying to sell off as many as i can or donate to universities if possible.

 
Harry, Bricktop: are these the roaches (Death's heads) you're talking about having too many of?

Bcraniifer2.jpg


 
I believe the giant death-heads that have over-bred are Blaberus cranifer - the smaller ones that I also mentioned that have not bred are definitely Blaberus discoidales. Thanks for the link to BugNation - I've never come across that forum before, hence why I asked the question on your US one. Thanks for all your help and hopefully I will be able to avoid pointless culling now.

 
Harry said:
I believe the giant death-heads that have over-bred are Blaberus cranifer - the smaller ones that I also mentioned that have not bred are definitely Blaberus discoidales. Thanks for the link to BugNation - I've never come across that forum before, hence why I asked the question on your US one. Thanks for all your help and hopefully I will be able to avoid pointless culling now.
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Yeah, no problem. I always hate looking through the for sale ads on there because I find all kinds of neat stuff that I can't have from those people due to an ocean. lol

 
No need to send our members away guys, we have as many UK cockroach enthusiast's as any other forum. A good way to get rid of large numbers would not be to enthusiasts, it would be to reptile keepers as feeders. I'd suggest posting them as available on a UK reptile forum, you might even make a few quid if you have that many extras.

 
I wasn't trying to send him away, just giving him a place to sell his roaches so he doesn't have to pointlessly cull them as he stated. Besides, BugNation is a general bug forum, thus they don't have nearly as big of a roach community on there. :P

 
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