# Question. Can Idolos eat these species of cockroach?



## MantidBro (Oct 3, 2015)

Can Idolos eat Lobster cockroaches, Dubia roaches or Hissing roaches?


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## MantisMatt14 (Oct 3, 2015)

Idolos eat flies, moths, and bees


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## Danny. (Oct 3, 2015)

MantisMatt14 said:


> Idolos eat flies, moths, and bees


And wasps...


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## MantidBro (Oct 3, 2015)

MantisMatt14 said:


> Idolos eat flies, moths, and bees


I know they do enjoy those prey items, but im wondering if anyones ever tried feeding them roaches and had negative side effects or if they were alright with it? if they even showed an interest in eating it?


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 3, 2015)

You'll have a very difficult time getting them to capture crawling insects and their raptorial claws are not quite strong enough to pull something with a good grip off grippable surfaces.

They tend to prefer anything that flutters and buzzes around to something that crawls towards them.

You also run the risk of roaches nibbling on them if they are left uneaten.


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## LAME (Oct 4, 2015)

What if you decap and hand feed?


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 4, 2015)

I occasionally do that when I run out of flying insects, but it's pretty tedious since they'll go into defensive mode and perceive the prey item as a threat most of the time. If you can manage to get them to nibble on it and then grab it, you can feed them that way. They'll usually refuse to nibble and grab, and will rather flick at it with their raptorials and run away.


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## LAME (Oct 4, 2015)

Nice.

Have you ever had any issues on that in terms of illness or death?


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 4, 2015)

I have not had issues with illness and death from feeding roaches, but I had encountered problems in the past when feeding them bees and wasps--most likely due to trace amounts of pesticides that they've picked up and able to tolerate. It was most definitely not the sting that did them in, as I had watched and they were quite good at positioning the ends of the abdomens safely away while feeding.

I do have to point out that I keep my roaches clean and feed them a varied diet, so the lack of illness and death in my case may be related to how clean and well-fed I keep my feeders. From what I've observed, Mantises will usually eat even the guts of their prey with the exception of caterpillars, so you have to be aware that if the feeders are starving and feeding on corpses or decaying food items, their guts may contain high levels of microbes that the mantises may not be able to deal with. Perhaps the vomiting everyone keeps seeing is them purging themselves of the undesireable gut contents of their prey, because I certainly have never seen my mantises vomit from "eating too much." They've always dropped what remains of their prey if they've had their fill.


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## LAME (Oct 4, 2015)

Awesome.

I appreciate your feedback on that. I must admit I keep my roaches tanks pretty clean myself and feed them a wide variety as well. Really I've yet to encounter any issues from feeding any of my other mantids roaches since I've switched (some many months ago) but was kind of questionable about feeding them to my idolos.


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