Extremely Serious Problem with My Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches Roaches, Unanswered from 9 Hours Ago?
Posted on Jul 13, 2009 under dried foliage | 6 CommentsExtremely Serious Problem with My Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches Roaches?
*NOTE*: If ANYONE, and I mean ANYONE dares to make a negative comment on these guys, so help me, I will report you and down- rate your answer so fast you won’t even have time to scream! I’m tired of the negative comments and I WILL REPORT YOUR NEGATIVE COMMENTS AND MARK THEM AS SPAM! This is as serious issue, not your little childish fantasies.
Well, here’s the story. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed four of my Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches were dying. Don’t say I don’t maintain them well. I got them to 64 from two in less than a year. I clean their substrate EVERY month. It’s ORGANIC (no pesticides or chemicals added) potting soil. Now, over the passed couple of weeks I started to get worried about these deaths. I change their food and water EVERY day and i spray them EVERY day, meaning that I’m not some careless person that lets them barely live a good life. I have 3 hides, a whole bunch of foliage, and I feed them strawberries, organic dry dog food, collard greens and fresh deli turkey. I clean up the spare pieces of food left around the terrarium EVERY day. Well anyways, back to the problem. I noticed four cockroaches dead in the past couple of weeks. 3 of the four were males, one was a female. I noticed the last one seem to be reacting to some kind of paralysis. She was twitching and her head out forward. One of my other females had young and all of them died in about 4 days after birth from the same symptoms as the one discussed here. Not being able to move was the most prominent symptom. But the odd thing was, is that the female that had the babies didn’t die. She’s still alive today. This is really serious. Please entomologists, help me out!
Great! I’m liking these answers so far, since none of them were stupid like the ones I had before about other questions on these guys.
Things aren’t looking good for my colony. I found another male shaking on his back. I noticed a rotting odor when I sniff this guy. He’s alive, but barely. His antenae and forlegs are the ones shakign the most. Very weird. I have an unfortunate feelign that this is no assault fro mtoher larger males of my colony, but soem kind of virus or parasite. I just changed their substrate last week. I change it every motnh and I keep their food, water and tank clean. I see no mites at all. No clumps of bacteria or mites, or fungus. Please, people, I really need your help, my colony population is about 58 or something, when I did a recount. It’s no longer 64. Is this a neurological virus? Could it be a bacterial infection. A fungus, a protist, or a microscopic mite. Please, I really worked hard on these gusy to mantain them, and nkow I don’t know how this "black death" came upon them. It was so random.
Well, I do wash the fruits and vegis well with warm water,. After all, I feed soem of those fruits and veggis that I feeed to my roaches to my reptiles as well, and none of them have these symptons, or are sick at all. I mean, I was feeding these guys the same diet for a bit over a year. I don’t know what it could be.
Well, after doign a population recount, I actually have 65 roaches, and I used to have probably about 72-74 before. Since the last documented death on Yahoo!Answers I haven’t had any others. Whenever I saw another roach dying, I put it in a ICU, and made it more humid and wamrer than their original terrarium, but they still wouldn’t make it. I fed the dead to my bearded dragon. he manages them fine. But really though. After the last documented death on this report I made, no others have passed away.
So far, at least, for the passed 3 days, none have died……..
Psh, two died…….
It could just be that they are dying of age… could be that a parasite has gotten into their cage and is killing them off. They tend to only live a little over a year to sometimes two or three years. I think the longest has been five.
If you got them at the same time it just might be their time to go.
If you are really worried about it, call your local university/college and take them into the ento lab to be checked out.
Without seeing them it is hard to say what is really going on.
July 13th, 2009 at 7:13 am
It could just be that they are dying of age… could be that a parasite has gotten into their cage and is killing them off. They tend to only live a little over a year to sometimes two or three years. I think the longest has been five.
If you got them at the same time it just might be their time to go.
If you are really worried about it, call your local university/college and take them into the ento lab to be checked out.
Without seeing them it is hard to say what is really going on.
References :
work at a zoo, have kept them before
July 13th, 2009 at 7:24 am
I’ve kept and bred these insects for several years. One thing I’ve learned is that adults are territorial, especially males. Males of course have two horn like extensions on the back of their thorax. I suppose they use these to butt other males. More often than not, they attack the extermities like toe claws and the tips of antenna. I noticed most of the mature males in my collection had cropped antenna and no feet. Even females were attacked, but they lost their toes more than the antenna. This problem resolved itself when all of the adults died, leaving dozens of babies. These have been peacefully growing to adulthood for about 9 months. I have a dozen or so half inch babies in a 2.5 gallon tank and around 15 inch long, semi adults in a ten gallon tank. All have a dirt substrate and lots of PVC pipe to hide in. Young roaches congregate in a dense cluster, especially small babies. Adults are mostly solitary and males certainly do not congregate.
My suggestion is to treat hissing cockroaches like poultry. Separate the adult males into separate enclosures and add three or more females. Hopefully a peaceful pecking hierarchy will be set up. I’ve noticed harem breeding animals have female hierarchies, and aggression can be minimized by having more than two adult females. Juvinile females will probably not be harrassed because they aren’t breeding. I’ve not noticed adult males harrasing adult females. Unless actually breeding, the males seem to ignore females. Also, breeding seems to take place in the spring and the fall. One other thing I’ve noticed is that young roaches don’t seem to hiss. However old, cranky males will hiss without much encouragement. The nice thing about this species is they won’t bite, even the males. This is certainly not true of giant cave roaches, which seem to concider naked flesh delicious. Lobster roaches are just as gluttonous, but they are too small to bite. Lobsters and cave roaches can be kept in hudge groups peacefully because they are more or less like pirahanas than poultry.
Hope this helps.
References :
My pets
July 13th, 2009 at 7:48 am
I don’t know a thing about cockroaches. I’m rather creeped out, and don’t like to handle critter with ecto-skeletons. That said, I still like, and appreciate all animals, even if I don’t want to handle them personally.
So simply thoughts about things you might look at:
I had breathing problems from strawberries I purchased at the store once. It was some sort of chemical on the strawberries, I’m not allergic. Could a new chemical have been introduced to them, via the strawberries?
Trurkey meat. All commercial poultry is pumped full of steroids, growth hormones, and antibiotics. Unless it’s organic turkey meat, could this be the reason?
I assume your roaches are in a tank? Any chance a fungus could have started to grow in there, that is infecting them? Might it be growing on the silicone used to hold tanks together?
Any changes with the water you are giving the roaches? Is it city water, any new chemicals added you don’t know about?
Could their habitat now be overcrowded, since you have been sucessful at breed them? At they killing each other due to stress?
Any toxic mold problems in your own house? A/C filter for your house clean (if you have one)?
Anything new in their room, like an air freshing spray?
Do these roaches have natural boom, and bust cycles in their natural lives?
Has the sunlight in the room changed, as the sun’s angle changed when the summer solstice happened?
Anyone in your household have a grudge against you, or your roaches?
Those are just some things to look at. Like I said though, don’t know a thing about the hissing cockroaches, just about animals in general.
~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years
References :
July 13th, 2009 at 8:38 am
It’s possible the strawberries and collard greens have pesticide residue on them. Lots of pesticides are nerve toxins which would explain the twitching.
It could be helpful to divide your population into a few different groups.
don’t feed one cage any fruit or greens; for the second cage, wash the veg (with soap and warm water), and treat the third cage normally. see what happens. (ps whole food with an organic label still often has compounds that can kill insects)
plus, if it is a disease, it may not be to late to quarantine the sick ones (though, unfortunately, i doubt it)
References :
October 7th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
you might want to stop with the soil it may have fertilizer in it which can kill them
hopes this helps!
August 19th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
I have a male with the same symptoms.He seems unable to control his legs,they are sort of vibrating and he has been flopping over onto his back intermittently since last nite—-so about 24 hrs and I don’t know what to do??? I feel really bad,I only have one male(thats sick) and one seemingly healthy female.I figure he is going to die,I’m really sad and at a loss at what to do,as you are,I wish we could get some help.
Helpless,
Cathy