I have a 55 Gallon Tank of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches and before I went to college I used to raise superworms as well for my Piranha who died in the Spring and i decided to let my Hissers take up residence in the tank which i tried to make look as natural as possible to there home-land. My major question is I had like three superworms left alive before I went to College so I threw them in with my Hissers because they live in rotting wood as well and to my suprise I come home from college and now the substrate is full of the big guys, they even climb up the wood I have in the tank and interact with the Hissers. My question is, would this poss any threat to the Hissers? There kind of impossible to get rid of now. I put them in thinking they would eat food that falls that the Hissers dont eat to prevent mold and it worked, now it seems it worked too well.
Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches
- Thread starter Max93
- Start date
If there are enough of them they could kill the hissers. They kill their own adults if they're hungry.
thesavageprojects
Fifth Instar
in a similar situation i found it impossible to separate worms from the roaches. you can just keep thinning the worm heard or pick as many of the roaches out of the tank and clean everything else out (you'll lose lots of the smaller roaches but there's no ridding the substrate of worm eggs). i opted to repeatedly thin the worm heard without problems. plz freeze (or sterilize by some other means) all substrate and decor before throwing it away.
the substrate is full of adult superworms, i've searched at any given time theres only one or two adults that have the chance to change, i need to find some way of killing the superworms naturally without killing the roaches, that is my only option, there must be some food or substance that kills superworms but not roaches, any help is truly appreciated, i did not know three superworms could do this, with how the tank is set up its hard to get any of the worms out, they seem to feed on the wood i have in the tank, theres alot of hiding and climbing places only the roaches can get to so the worms don't bite the roaches at all because there kept well fed, etc. i feed supers to my tarantula he can eat a couple dozen at a time so thats one when of getting rid of them also feeding them to my turtle, i just need a way to stop breeding supers so that the adults die off, once again any help is appreciated, please no responces about sterilizing substrate, that is not an option, alternate methods are needed.
Hmm, thats tough. Can you get dry ice? If so you could try removing all the hissers you can find and placing them in temp quarter's. Then tape plastic (tightly) over the whole tank leaving one end open, place a dish of warm water in the tank, place a piece of dry ice in the dish. Seal tightly, leave it be for at least 10-20 mins. Repeat if you have more dry ice. The co2 produced from this should take care of anything left in the substrate. I have used this method with great success with collected leaves, bark, etc...even live moss. The only thing it wont kill are things like fungus, mold etc.
I would post a link to a dartfrog forum thread...but I don't know if that's allowed here...that describes a similar infestation of milli's in a large planted viv, the sub in the authors viv was quite deep, the plantings very naturalized and mature...obviously not something you'd ever want to tear down...anyway the point being that the sub was very deep and it still worked, the author claimed total success in getting rid of all milli's.
I would post a link to a dartfrog forum thread...but I don't know if that's allowed here...that describes a similar infestation of milli's in a large planted viv, the sub in the authors viv was quite deep, the plantings very naturalized and mature...obviously not something you'd ever want to tear down...anyway the point being that the sub was very deep and it still worked, the author claimed total success in getting rid of all milli's.
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