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

[NennaMeerkat]

Meh I worked at a zoo for nearly 5 years and I dealt with all kinds of poo. Then while in college in Biology (2 separate years) I did all my disections bare handed as well. And we aren't just talking toads or starfish. We also did fetal pigs, kittens, birds, all kinds of wonderful things to get your hands messy.

[infernalis]

I grew up farming, so I don't think that after cleaning pig stalls and preparing cattle for steaks and burgers that there is really anything much worse to handle.

No dead roaches today, and I think I'm sticking with apples, they don't decompose into mush as quickly as other fruits do. And the big females seem to park themselves right on top of the apple slices for what seems like forever.

[presspirate]

Roach poo is just like grains of dirt anyways. People sanitize way too much imo. A few germs are good for you. Builds your immunity.

[NennaMeerkat]

Originally Posted by presspirate

Roach poo is just like grains of dirt anyways. People sanitize way too much imo. A few germs are good for you. Builds your immunity.

It is true. People that live in very clean homes and such are far more susceptible to getting sick than those of us that take a bit more risk in general.

[Lankyrob]

Scientists seem t think that a lot of todays allergies and illnesses like asthma etc is down to too much sanitising by parents. When we were kids hands and face washed twice daily and a bath once a week was all we got!! No central heating either, in the winter our living room was heated by a coal/log fire and the rest of the house was pretty much as cold as the outside temperature. In winter you had to put a couple of jumpers on to go to the toilet as the difference in temp from living room to upstairs was phenomenal.

Within common sense parameters we let our daughter do wahtever she wants and play in the dirt in the garden, parks etc. Just as long as she washes hands before eating.

[presspirate]

You go to the market, and there is sanitizer by the shopping karts. I even saw some next to the pen at a checkout counter.! When I buy school supplies for my kids, one of the items on the list is hand sanitizer. People look at you funny if you sneeze in public and wipe your hands on your pants. I don't know what this world is coming to. I grew up on a farm, I've had two kids, I've been crapped on by so many different species of animal, I couldn't begin to list them all. Usually I washed my hands under the garden hose or whatever was handy, and went back to it.

[Sapphyr]

Yeeeahhh... My bf's a farmer boy, which is funny, 'cause I always thought I'd never fall for a farmer guy, but here I am 1 1/2 years+ down the road by far with a guy that grew up, and still lives, on a farm. I'd imagine he's endured some things I'd find disgusting just as you all have.

Couldn't bare to think of an animal taking a crap on me. :l I'd either gag something awful or just vomit. Probably have to take a shower and get a change of clothes before I did anything else :l but that's me.

I guess I can kind of understand as far as parenting goes. I'm sure I'll have to deal with poopy diapers at some point... Though, I may still use gloves but, once again, that's just me.

I don't necessarily overly sanitize. It's just, I'd rather not touch crap with my bare hands and moldy plates. Touching fecal matter and well developed mold, bare handed, is just crossing my own personal line. I know, I can always wash my hands after that, but I'd still feel like my hands weren't clean enough just because I did touch one or the other.

Edit: Interestingly enough, blood and guts don't bother me. I did my middle school dissections bare handed. Didn't bother me. It just smelled funky, really. My only issue is feces and mold. Not afraid to dig in the mud or things like that, just don't like feces and mold.

[infernalis]

I stumbled into this quite by accident on a roach site...

Mold & Mold spores are lethal to roaches.


Sure enough, I found mold growing under one of the egg cartons.

Since Dubia eat fruit, I highly recommend keeping the fruit rotated frequently. a banana will begin to liquefy in 48 hours, I found that if I place the banana slices on a coffee filter that all I have to do is lift out the filter and discard the whole thing.

Apple slices last about a day longer, the key is to make sure no storm flies or mold co exist with your roaches. The only time I want them dead is in the bellies of my lizards.

Storm flies look very much like fruit flies, however a fruit fly has a very accurate flight, storm flies are clumsy and can't steer well in flight. If you watch close enough you can see them often flying in spiral patterns, like they have no sense of direction.

The term "storm fly" comes from this inability to fly well, strong air currents preceding storms will sweep swarms of them from one location to another.

[mistersprinkles]

Originally Posted by NennaMeerkat

I had something similar happen to some caterpillars I got from the wild last summer was really sad. Whatever ate them made little brown cocoon things but never hatched so I don't know what they were. Wouldn't doubt it was some sort of wasp or fly. There are supposed to be plenty of species of flying insects that lay their eggs in adult insects and have their babies live inside them for a while for food before leaving and making a cocoon nearby.

It's a kind of wasp. I was about to post this exact same story but you beat me to it. It's a small wasp. It lays eggs in the caterpillars when they are still pretty small- I've seen it, just lands on a tent and goes Poke poke poke poke poke and leaves and you'd never know anything was wrong I don't think the egg hatches until the caterpillar goes into pupa and then the caccoon doesn't open when it's supposed to- takes way longer and instead of a moth you get a wasp.

[stephanbakir]

Parasitic wasps? Crazy looking suckers, their "egg laying stinger" is like 2-3 inches long....