mass die off of roaches - New data 3/31/11

[infernalis]

I have had no luck researching this...

Last night I went to feed the lizards and found more than half of my roaches dead, they were consumed from the inside leaving an empty shell.

Some had the heads missing, like some parasite ate the flesh and left the exoskeleton sitting there empty.

I immediately removed all surviving roaches and set up a new colony box, then I discarded the old tote and everything in it.

does anyone know what sort of parasite would eat roaches from the inside?

would thrip larvae or fruit fly maggots do this?? I did find that thrips will consume other insects by puncturing the shell and sucking out the insides, and they are attracted to decomposing vegetable matter (fruit)

I will admit, sometimes I forget to take out the fruit (after a day) and it goes bad, bananas will turn into a black liquid in just a couple days time, I never thought of it as a threat, but something killed those roaches.