Periplaneta americana?

[xxdreamchas3r913]

Hello sorry if this question has been asked before but I've been searching the forums and couldn't find much on just regular American roaches. Mostly people seem to think they don't make very good feeders since they are very quick, breed easily if they escape, and are likely to start an infestation if they did manage to escape. My question however is just whether or not they should be fed to mantids at all and if there are normally any risks involved with the more common household species. I don't plan on raising any or breeding my own feeders but our family did catch a single roach over a week ago. if anyone has read my other posts, this is the culprit behind the whole exterminator business. Since we caught the little guy before the exterminators came, i'm not too worried about traces of pesticides on him but what do you guys think? My family wanted it to die and so they just put it in a container for a week without giving it food or water. I dont know why no one bothered to just spray it with raid or squish it or something but since they can go much longer without food i thought it would probably be a bit less wasteful to feed it to one of my mantids instead of waiting another month or so before it dies from starvation or thirst. But i don't know very much about roaches in general so could this one be carrying any diseases, bacteria, fungi, or anything that could be harmfull to my mantids? I also put it in with my feeder crickets before really considering any possibilities so is there a chance that if it did carry anything, that it passed it to my feeders? Would i have to get rid of the whole bunch and go out and get fresh feeders? or can i proceed to feeding the roach and crickets to my mantids? A couple of my mantids are probably pretty hungry so i really wanna give them something. There's a chance that they won't even attempt to take on the roach but would it be wise to try it out? I've actually fed a limbata an adult American roach last year without thinking about it too much and it was fine after, it just got really really fat but kinda had a bit of diarrhea or something for a couple days after. I'm a bit more cautious this time around and perhaps i was just lucky nothing bad came out of the last experience. But i really don't know so that's why I'm asking this. If anyone can let me know about any risks that are commonly attributed to using this kind of roach as a feeder please! I would really appreciate it!

 

[Ryan.M]

Hey johnny, if its a wild roach it will be fine, but just keep in mind you don't know what it was exposed to over its lifetime. However, if its been alive and kicking for over a week while in your care, its fine.

Also, you mentioned your house was sprayed by exterminators for a roach problem... Cockroaches and mantids are fairly closely related so any pesticide that works on a roach will most likely be just as deadily for a mantis. Just make sure you keep your mantids away from any area of the house that has been sprayed by the exterminators, as most pesticides have a lasting effect so they continually kill for weeks or even months.

Cheers

 

[xxdreamchas3r913]

Thank you Ryan! I can't believe I didn't even think about the pesticides having lasting effects! Luckily i've been keeping my pets far from the kitchen! But thanks for the heads up! I'll be much more careful from now. And thanks for the assurance I'll see if my adult female would want the roach. Take care!