Escaping Discord Roaches

[ThatOneDisease]

Hello!

I wasn't sure where to ask this but lately we've been finding discord roaches throughout the house. My Panther eats them right as I put them in so there is no way for them to escaping from his cage nor their container I keep them in.

I have a few Roach Motels around the house but we keep finding them. Previously a few months back, I did have a couple escape(maybe more) due to the feeder cup I was using not being substantial to keep them contained.

I'm asking for any advice and maybe some solace to hope they didn't Breed. From what I read here and online, it takes an extremely high temp and humidity for them to Breed as well as a male and female.

Hope to hear from ya'll soon

 

[MissSkittles]

Are you sure they are discoids? There are some other roaches (not sure what type - maybe palmetto bugs?) that look an awful lot like adult discoids. The only way that I can tell that they aren’t is the few I’ve found, I’ve caught in a tall deli cup and they are superb climbers. Discoids suck at climbing and can’t climb smooth surfaces. Florida is chock full of roaches and many look similar to discoids. Over the years I’ve kept a colony of discoids, I have had several escape. They never bred and most of them I later found hiding or dead in my garage (where I keep them). Keep up with your regular pest control (avoid near your chameleon’s delicate lungs. Set out baits and traps where you’ve seen any roaches. If you can catch one alive, put it in a tall deli cup and see if it can climb or not to determine if it’s an escaped discoid. In places where I can’t use chemical pest control, I’ve been using diatomaceous earth and also boric acid.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

Are you sure they are discoids? There are some other roaches (not sure what type - maybe palmetto bugs?) that look an awful lot like adult discoids. The only way that I can tell that they aren’t is the few I’ve found, I’ve caught in a tall deli cup and they are superb climbers. Discoids suck at climbing and can’t climb smooth surfaces.

They are definitely discords, with the stripes and also they are little and have that hard shell. And yes, the container I keep them in is plastic with egg shell carton peices and some tubes to make it easier to just dump them in my feeder cup. My feeder cup is a deli cup actually lol(I was inspired by you and neptune). They haven't ever escaped that unless my cham tilts it or drops one but again he's a good hunter. He'll go after it right away.

Also thank you, I didn't think they could Breed. Max, the house is at 74-76 with humidity at 30-40 so I didn't think so. I just think these ones were finding are previous ones and they are just surviving somehow-

 

[Carlton]

Discord roaches? Hmm, and here I always thought these bugs were peaceable little things

IME juvenile roaches loose in a cham cage can often squeeze through the small gaps around the doors of a screen cage. Your cham isn't seeing or hunting them at night, so there are hours in each 24 hour cycle when they could escape his watchful eye to explore your house.

 

[ThatOneDisease]

Discord roaches? Hmm, and here I always thought these bugs were peaceable little things

IME juvenile roaches loose in a cham cage can often squeeze through the small gaps around the doors of a screen cage.

I actually have tape on that gap lol! I make sure to press it down everytime I close his enclosure and make sure none slip out.

 

[Carlton]

It could always be so much worse OP!

I had a well-established dubia roach colony that lived in a big truck tote on a shelf in my water heater/boiler closet. Periodically, when the colony really got too large and needed a clean-out, I'd cull it by sending boxes of surplus roaches over to the big city pet shop in Juneau via air taxi. I didn't tell the pilots what the boxes contained, just that they were "perishable". They didn't need distractions from flying. The pet shop gave me a store credit. They could either sell them or give them away for free. My one colony was productive enough they didn't bother starting one of their own. Not too many herp keepers in the area but some started feeding them to their poultry.

One afternoon I came home from work to find disaster. The roaches must have held a street party and somehow managed to rock their tote off the shelf and dump it on the floor upside down. Frass, food, egg cartons, nymphs and adults everywhere. Luckily my house usually hovered at about 66F so the farther they all got from the boiler closet the slower they moved and the easier they were to catch. I found live roaches in that house for months, dead ones for years, but didn't worry too much because it was much too cold for them to breed. I did not tell any visiting houseguests what they might find in their shoes either. Ignorance is bliss, right?

 

[MissSkittles]

It could always be so much worse OP!

I had a well-established dubia roach colony that lived in a big truck tote on a shelf in my water heater/boiler closet. Periodically, when the colony really got too large and needed a clean-out, I'd cull it by sending boxes of surplus roaches over to the big city pet shop in Juneau via air taxi. I didn't tell the pilots what the boxes contained, just that they were "perishable". They didn't need distractions from flying. The pet shop gave me a store credit. They could either sell them or give them away for free. My one colony was productive enough they didn't bother starting one of their own. Not too many herp keepers in the area but some started feeding them to their poultry.

One afternoon I came home from work to find disaster. The roaches must have held a street party and somehow managed to rock their tote off the shelf and dump it on the floor upside down. Frass, food, egg cartons, nymphs and adults everywhere. Luckily my house usually hovered at about 66F so the farther they all got from the boiler closet the slower they moved and the easier they were to catch. I found live roaches in that house for months, dead ones for years, but didn't worry too much because it was much too cold for them to breed. I did not tell any visiting houseguests what they might find in their shoes either. Ignorance is bliss, right?

Dear Lord! In another time, I would have said you needed to burn the house to the ground! After living in roach central (aka Florida) and keeping insectivores it’s amazing how drastically perspectives change.