# Periplaneta americana as feeders



## Andrew (Mar 27, 2005)

Does this species of cockroach make a good feeder for mantids?

Thanks,

Andrew


----------



## Barvid (Mar 27, 2005)

Hi,

I would say no, but its a matter of depinion i think. Anyway, they are very fast, i use the P americana for reptiles only, cause my mantids gets "confused" when i give one to them.  And the specie can breed inside houses!!

Regards,

Barvid.


----------



## Andrew (Mar 27, 2005)

Yeah, them breeding in my house is my #1 concern. I brought back a small colony with me from southern CA, and my mantids LOVE them. Im sure that they will get loose sometime or another(one almost got away from me last night), so I will probably feed them all off.

Im thinking about ordering some Blaptica dubia from www.blaberus.com, do you know if these would be able to breed in my house?(Northern CA)

Thanks,

Andrew


----------



## Barvid (Mar 27, 2005)

Hi,

The Blabtica dubia can not breed inside your house.

I havent tried to feed my P americana to adults, maybe they like them :wink:

If you need a good roach, then you migth shouldlook after the Shelfordella tartara, it should not be able to breed inside houses (i am not sure though :?: ) and it should be very re-productive.. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Barvid.


----------



## Andrew (Mar 27, 2005)

Thanks for the info, I will look into Shelfordella tartara, but for now im going to try and get some blabtica dubia.

Thanks,

Andrew


----------



## Barvid (Mar 27, 2005)

Okay, good luck with them. If you get any propblems with´em, just make a post here :wink:

Regards,

Barvid.


----------



## Jesse (Mar 28, 2005)

I advise for you not to keep P. americana, they are just too fast and breed like crazy! Lobster roaches are better because they have more of a "meat" to exoskeleton ratio and are better feeders than B. dubia for mantids because they can climb to the top of the containers where the mantids are. B. dubia can not climb the sides of containers and also have a tendency to burrow into the substrate if the container contains substrate, where as the lobsters run around for awhile before hiding(most of the time). Lobster roaches can survive quite awhile inside homes if they escape, but do not breed in homes.


----------



## Barvid (Mar 28, 2005)

Hi,

Jesse: What´s the sceintific name of the lobster-roach?

Cheers,

Barvid.


----------



## Leah (Mar 28, 2005)

Lobster roach = nauphoeta cinerea

I am still finding lobsters in my apartment that have been living in the plants I had in chameleon cages... they are not reproducing, but it has been almost 9 months since I moved into that place, and there have been no roaches of any kind to re-infest the plants...


----------



## Andrew (Mar 28, 2005)

What im worried about is opening the cage and having a bunch of roaches come running out. I thought I read somewhere that you could put vaseline on the side of the cage to keep the roaches from climbing out? Ill do some more research on the net...

Thanks,

Andrew


----------



## Jesse (Mar 28, 2005)

Vaseline does work as long as you re-apply often enough so that it does not become ineffective (about once a month or so).


----------



## Leah (Mar 28, 2005)

Teflon type paints work much better than vaseline, but are a lot more expensive. They run around $8/oz. Although an oune lasts a long time...

Its usually called bug stop, bug barricade, roach stop, something like that.


----------

