Turkistan roach infestation?

Z

Zander

First Instar
Could Turkistan roaches infest my house if they escaped somehow? I live in the desert in Arizona and heard that they're from the middle east, so I'm a little concerned.

 
They are introduced and living in your local ecosystem. If you have a very serious, persistent water leak IN your house they MAY be able to reproduce but I highly doubt it. Beyond that they come in my house in the spring and fall and I have never been infested. My culture, which is in the thousands, was started with one gravid female that wondered into my house. I have since realized that they live down in the root system of the plants in my yard. My drip system keeps these areas very moist and with our summer temperatures, they breed. I often find striped bark scorpions in my yard with one in its mouth. I hope this alleviates your concerns about infestation.

 
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If you have other tanks, they definitely could get in there. I think I got rid of the whole colony in May of last year? I was finding them running around the insect room and was getting them trapped on glue boards up until last month! Some had fallen out or escaped when I tried to box them up, which explains the loose ones. A couple managed to climb into the other roach tanks, which took a lot of sitting and waiting and catching (killing) them with tongs. I'm not sure I got them all, but I haven't seen any more in the roach enclosures at least.

They're now reproducing in both Emperor scorpion tanks as there were too many hiding places and I couldn't get them all. The scorpions won't touch them for some reason......

 
Like twitch said they are already introduced here in az. But as far as infesting the house, i've had a culture going for about 4 years-ish. 3 of those years i kept it indoors in my reptile room. I had very few problems. I would see an escapee here and there but thats it for indoors. I did have a problem when i moved every thing into the garage. Some escapees got to the compost pile i had going at the time. Soo i spread the pile out and let it dry up, problem solved. But if your still concerned there are other species to choose from. Are you wanting them as feeders? If so what are you feeding?

 
They can infest a house, but for them to do so you would have to have leaky pipes, and alot of garbage ext. I've kept them for awhile and have never issues even with a few escapes. They don't climb i've heard males can fly but have never seen it happen except when i dropped one then it kinda flutter fell. I feed them to my leopard geckos, Tokay geckos, and tarantulas. and I still have to buy them because they don't breed fast enough for me :angry: . A Plus is their movement drives all my animals wild :) .

 
MrCrackerpants said:
Weird. My emperor's eat them like candy.
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Which is why I bought a whole colony! No one else seems to have a problem with getting them eaten by practically everything. But between my allergies and the complete non-interest by 17 scorpions it was easier just to get rid of them and get the space back where the enclosure was. I can get the adult scorps to take an adult male dubia if I tong it to them, but nymphs or adults loose in the cage will always go uneaten, even when it's obvious the scorps are hungry. (Wandering the cage all night long, looking for meals, going a month without crickets, etc.) The scorplings panic even with the tiniest dubia and freak out when they get touched by them. It's like roaches don't register as food for some reason. It's bizarre.

 
wodesorel said:
Which is why I bought a whole colony! No one else seems to have a problem with getting them eaten by practically everything. But between my allergies and the complete non-interest by 17 scorpions it was easier just to get rid of them and get the space back where the enclosure was. I can get the adult scorps to take an adult male dubia if I tong it to them, but nymphs or adults loose in the cage will always go uneaten, even when it's obvious the scorps are hungry. (Wandering the cage all night long, looking for meals, going a month without crickets, etc.) The scorplings panic even with the tiniest dubia and freak out when they get touched by them. It's like roaches don't register as food for some reason. It's bizarre.
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Weird. Are they CB babies?

 
My adult males are CBB, which could definitely be the reason why. Femscorp is farmed though (and is old and beat up, missing feet) but both her and her CB babies turn their noses up as well to the lats.

 
wodesorel said:
My adult males are CBB, which could definitely be the reason why. Femscorp is farmed though (and is old and beat up, missing feet) but both her and her CB babies turn their noses up as well to the lats.
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Hummm...my CB babies eat them. Possibly some social learning going on? Can you explain "farmed" to me? I have often heard they "farm" Emperor's but usually they are just removed from their natural habitat. I have never seen or found any evidence of "farming" Emperors. Do you have any info? I would love to see it as I love the idea of "farming" them versus removal. It just does not seem feasible considering the reproductive tendencies of the animal and also seems unsustainable as a business model.

 
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Ranched usually means the set up of a large breeding number with the purpose of collecting for sale as food or pet.

 
These are not farmed very much WC , which is why CITES will be banning them after their meeting this year.

 
If there was a ban, it would be to protect the wild populations, and it has nothing to do with fear. Local and federal laws are made out of fear, but CITES is a global conference that was put in place to keep species from going extinct. (In theory, at least.) With the pandinus species it was especially important to put limits on wild collection since there are two other look alike species that are endangered and yet are constantly smuggled out of the country by labeling them as pet Emps. I haven't seen anything saying they were part of this years conference, though.

If they do ban them it wouldn't be the end - they're fairly easy to breed in captivity, it just costs more than collecting big grown ones from the wild. I've had this discussion with my pet store lady who specializes in inverts and herps and who sings the song of CBB every time she can. People want the giant emps, the ones that are huge and already several years old. People don't want the tiny, silly looking scorplings that are going to take a year or two to grow. Keeping a captive born scorpion for 3 years until it is big and impressive and then selling it for $20 isn't really cost effective. Plucking them out of the wild when they're already that size and selling them to distributors who import hundreds or thousands at a time is at that price. Cost might go up if they can't be imported anymore, but I seriously doubt they're going anywhere. :)

 
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