bizarre

L

Landasaw

Second Instar
Started a wild caught colony of american roaches. About 12 adults. Next generation was 30 or so. ALL MALE! my blaberus fusca colony had mites that ate them from the inside out. I mean all that were left were empty shells. Has anyone seen this?

 
Mites commonly eat them but after they die rather than before. Also, 30 males is impressive odds.

 
I think the mites may have led to their death then eaten them. Ive learned to keep it dry since then. As for the all males i think the odds were too great. Could it be some factor can cause all to hatch male? It works with some reptiles.

 
Time to play devils advocate. Do you have proof that each adult is male? Have you inspected their rump for styli and cerci or horizontal versus vertical openings? Remember, adult Americans look the same excluding those features. I'm with Orin, those are incredible odds. Over the past few years I've always had a fairly even ratio.

 
I just wish i would have taken pics. I didnt know it was so unusual. I dont consider myself an expert but certainly not a noob and if sexing them is anything like other species. The ending abdominal segment was small on each one not the larger one females have. The parent colony had males and females and bred fine and i could see the difference in sexes. The offspring matured im almost certain all male and of course died out. No the odds are too great. Some factor seemed to cause either all males to hatch or all females to die young or something.

 
I suppose i didnt check every single individual but additional evidence is that in a tank where their parents bred there were no oothecae or any instance of coupling.

 
That is certainly unusual. I recently treated a home with an immense population of German cockroaches and a majority of what I had seen had been females. Males were certainly present but females had a vast majority. Imagine trying to observe several thousand running roaches though, haha. It's an interesting task.

 
Landasaw said:
Started a wild caught colony of american roaches. About 12 adults. Next generation was 30 or so. ALL MALE! my blaberus fusca colony had mites that ate them from the inside out. I mean all that were left were empty shells. Has anyone seen this?
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Awe! Sorry to hear about your fusca. It makes me shudder thinking it might happen to my German. Good luck with your American. I'd love to have those someday. Can't really give advice on how to prevent your tragedy from being repeted, but our friend Kyle Zepher at roachcrossing.com or David George Gordon at david@davidgeorgegordon.com should be able to help. Both are experts on all roach matters.

 
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