Lateralis (turkistan) Roaches

[MonsterPyxie]

Do they need the same temperature as dubia? These roaches seem perfect for my gastrotheca! Finally had my first dubia nymphs, but I'm needing all the dubia for my bigger frogs and salamanders. I'm breeding crickets, but if breeding these turks is a bit like breeding dubia then I'm done with crickets.

Oh yeah, what if one of these escapes?

you breed dubia, and havn't thrown your cricket's out the window yet?


lateralis are considered up there with dubia. If it where me, I would stick with dubia, just focus on them and before you know it you will be overrun with the buggers.

I also have lobsters, but I can't stand them. SUPER fast spazz of a roach, and even with my best attempts to have my 3 bearded dragons eat as much as they can..... trying to kill off the colony... they are still out breeding what I can feed off. Even with there insane breeding.... I wish I could just kill them off

[MonsterPyxie]

just found this

8 Thousands Mixed Blatta lateralis Turkistan Feeder Roaches | eBay8,000 roaches for $85. Seems like one hell of a deal to me!

I have no interest in lateralis, but I'm still tempted by that deal, haha


Edit: then again, looking at it. The seller doesn't have much rating on ebay, and the picture does not look like 8,000 could even fit in that egg crate in the picture. I would be asking the seller for PROOF of the numbers, atleast ask him t knock the egg crates out into the bin, and take a picture of all the roaches in the bin without egg crate, or any hide's.

[Niels D]

I just had my first nymphs, so I'm still needing the crickets. I've fed the gastrothecas small dubia, but I guess they need critters which are more active, cause they hardly gave any response when I put dubia in their tank. Maybe these lateralis will do the trick.

[MonsterPyxie]

I just had my first nymphs, so I'm still needing the crickets. I've fed the gastrothecas small dubia, but I guess they need critters which are more active, cause they hardly gave any response when I put dubia in their tank. Maybe these lateralis will do the trick.

understandable, lucky for me none of my critters have been that picky.

[Niels D]

Could they cause an infestation?

[JeffreH]

No - I'm convinced this species (Shelfordella lateralis)won't be able to infest the house. They are prolific breeders, but they're egg cases are simply too sensitive to really be any bother in standard home conditions. They can most certainly survive and will breed and much lower temps than B. dubia and other common feeder roaches, though. I've had ooths laid at temps as low as 72 degrees...whether or not they were fertile is another question and these ooths never hatched out. A heard of rumor of someone having them breed in a shower drain; but it was a quick fix (apparently a very unused area of the basement, giving them a chance to go unnoticed). Other than this, I've not heard a single thing.

My lobster roaches (Nauphoeta cinerea) on the other thand... I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. I guess thats poor wording, but I've witnessed litters being born at temps as low as 69 degrees F. They climb smooth surfaces, breed quickly, and as mentioned by MonsterPyxie, they are fast. Not heard of an infestation case, but I wouldn't put it past this species. I've convinced anything in the Blaptica, Blaberus, and Eublaberus genus could never infest a home even if you wanted them to, though.

[Niels D]

Thanks. I like the fact that lateralis can't climb, but it would be perfect if they were life bearing. I've red that some people don't use any substrate though.

[JeffreH]

I know - a lot of people don't; but I've had limited success with this species without a substrate. I actually separated a two cultures of about 5k each this summer to be sold: one was allowed a substrate and one only had the bottom of the bin. I was only witnessing about a 50% ooth hatch rate in the bare bottom bin, and a lot of dried up ooths within the mix of frass and skins. Depends on the individual conditions, ambient humidity in the enclosure, what you are using to heat them and the temperature, etc.