# roaches



## Avarice29 (May 30, 2013)

It's been a very long time since I've had to deal with roaches. The other night as I went to feed my dogs, I noticed around a dozen roaches on the wall. A few have come in the house and when I tried to clean where I found the roaches, short of a hundred came out running in every direction. 
Last time we had this problem, we fumigated but back when we didn't have our torts.
I was wondering, could roaches pose a threat to my torts? 
I know they carry tons of diseases but could they harm them in any other ways? 
Surely using chemicals would be bad as my torts could be exposed but does anyone know of something that's safe to repel roaches? If possible, kill the suckers. They're pretty disgusting especially when you wake up around 4 am and see a few in the restroom >,>


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## 7oasty23 (May 30, 2013)

I think the best thing to do would be calling an exterminator, a good one. I'm sure they could help you out. Good luck.


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## wellington (May 30, 2013)

I am having my house checked for termites and/or carpenter ants. They assured me that what ever they use is animal safe. They should have one that is animal safe for the roaches too. I had called orkin.


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## Avarice29 (May 30, 2013)

Okay that is much better. As long as its safe for my torts and dogs, I'll give it a try. Thanks guys!

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## Tom (May 30, 2013)

Avarice29 said:


> I was wondering, could roaches pose a threat to my torts?
> I know they carry tons of diseases but could they harm them in any other ways?



No. They are no risk at all to your tortoises. I breed roaches and at one time I had around a million of them of 18 different species. There are 4000 species and only six of them are listed as pest species. One of the benefits of using roaches for insectivores is that any leftovers or escapees will not bother or harm any living animal when they come out at night to feed. Crickets are notorious for chewing on sleeping reptiles. Roaches won't bother them. Roaches are detrivores and their job is to go around cleaning up the worlds messes. I think they do a pretty good job of it.

Roaches don't carry any diseases. Like any insect they are as clean as the environment that they live in. Their exoskeletons are clean, smooth and dry. It is possible that if they came into contact with spoiled food they could track the bacteria around, but so could any other living, moving thing. If your house is clean, so are the roaches living inside your house. If your roaches are dirty, well...


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## 7oasty23 (May 30, 2013)

Tom said:


> Avarice29 said:
> 
> 
> > I was wondering, could roaches pose a threat to my torts?
> ...


http://www.planetcockroach.com/cockroach-disease.html

Hate to disagree with you, but the roaches you raise, and roaches invading your home are completely different. Pest roaches do carry disease, and can also cause a ton of respiratory problems also. Get rid of them asap, for your health and your family.


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## RosieRedfoot (May 30, 2013)

We get palmetto bugs (American roach) in the house from time to time but it's usually just two to three adults in the house every few weeks so I vacuum them up and put boric acid around floor boards/entrances. We give the dogs water outside and it attracts a lot of roaches. Usually I have to fish out dead ones (or my dog kills the live swimmers). I've never found one in the room where my tortoise enclosure I'd, but I have rodents in that room and I've heard roaches don't like rodent scent. Not sure if true or not but if you're suddenly seeing dozens to hundreds an exterminator call should be priority.


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## Tom (May 30, 2013)

7oasty23 said:


> http://www.planetcockroach.com/cockroach-disease.html
> 
> Hate to disagree with you, but the roaches you raise, and roaches invading your home are completely different. Pest roaches do carry disease, and can also cause a ton of respiratory problems also. Get rid of them asap, for your health and your family.



Did you read that website? It basically says the same thing I did, they just have a different spin on it since they want you to pay them lots of money to spray chemicals in your home. That website is using technicalities to play to people's emotions. Did you also know that if you swim in the ocean you could be eaten by a great white shark. If you go outside you could also be struck by lightning. People getting sick because of the presence of any detrivore is an equally rare occurrence. Everything on that website could also be said about ants, spiders, flies, rollie pollies, springtails, etc...

Personally I wouldn't call bacterial contamination a disease, although I suppose technically it could be classified that way. You stand a much greater risk of getting sick if some raw chicken touches your counter tops than if a roach crawls across it. Would you consider bacteria from raw chicken a disease? I don't. I consider it bacterial contamination. When I think of a disease, I think about transmitable pathogens like malaria. Malaria is a disease. Spoiled food touched and tracked by roaches is what I would refer to as unsanitary, not really a disease. Insects CAN carry diseases. Like lyme disease from ticks, or bubonic plague from rat fleas. Cockroaches don't carry any diseases of this nature. As I said, they are only as "dirty" as their environment.


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## thatrebecca (May 30, 2013)

We don't have roaches but lately there are a ton of crickets hanging out in the tort enclosure at night. Our torts are still coming in at night, but once they start sleeping outside, do the crickets pose a threat? We've started bringing in the water and food dishes at dusk to discourage them, but they still like it there. Anything we can do?


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## Tom (May 30, 2013)

thatrebecca said:


> We don't have roaches but lately there are a ton of crickets hanging out in the tort enclosure at night. Our torts are still coming in at night, but once they start sleeping outside, do the crickets pose a threat? We've started bringing in the water and food dishes at dusk to discourage them, but they still like it there. Anything we can do?



In theory, yes, crickets can and will do harm, but I don't think there is much they could do to a large armored tortoise. Small tortoises and young lizards could certainly be injured though. Molting tarantulas have been injured by crickets too.


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## 7oasty23 (May 30, 2013)

Tom said:


> 7oasty23 said:
> 
> 
> > http://www.planetcockroach.com/cockroach-disease.html
> ...



And roaches are extremely dirty, live in filth, and carry diseases. I really don't understand why you would tell someone that pest roaches won't get you sick. Disease, filth, whatever you would like to call it, they can and do get people sick. I understand you're point Tom, but roaches do make people very ill, and it is best to get a professional to get rid of them. Any infestation can and will make you sick, and roaches are notorious for living in filth. It is not rare at all, and your shark and lightning analogies are just ignorant. I personally know people who have had roaches, and had health problems.


I guess spread is a better term, not to mention the respiratory problems that they pose, even to healthy adults.


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## ascott (May 30, 2013)

Oh come on now----may we please be more creative vs attack mode?



> and your shark and lightning analogies are just ignorant.



I personally can not stand the common little dirty bas%&!rd German Roach---this is due to many years living/visiting downtown Los Angeles....stinky nasty oookie sneaky fast creaturea, ugh....these are the only roach that I would freak out if seen within our home....

The "water bug" ones (apologies for my ignorance in species specific names Tom ) only catch the shoe if there is no way for me to wrangle them into a cup and transport them for the toss out the front door into the plants....(side story; my Grandmother is from the Ozarks and she use to run round barefoot just about all the time other than church and the market--and if she came across one of the big ole armored black water bug roach she would step on it, do a quick flick of her foot (barefoot) and it would be squished and launched all in one fluid motion---of course while all of us kids were freaking out laughing and screaming....lol)


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## Millerlite (May 30, 2013)

My box turtles would love some , they munch them like chips , I wouldn't worry to much about them effecting your tort


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## Tom (May 30, 2013)

7oasty23 said:


> Tom said:
> 
> 
> > 7oasty23 said:
> ...





Sorry we are not going to agree. Roaches are not dirty. They are in fact "cleaner" than any mammal as they don't excrete any fluids from their skin. They only live in filth if there is filth present where they live. Roaches in a clean filth free house are also clean and filth free and so are any of the other insects mentioned above. And no, they don't make people sick any more than any of the other insects listed above do. This is like people saying that snakes are slimy, gross and dirty. They aren't. Their skin is dry and they are only dirty if they've recently been crawling in the dirt. Even then, the dirt just falls off since there is no moisture for it to stick to.

I get it. People don't like roaches and find them to be yucky. They are the most detested, vilified, hated insect on the planet. Totally understand. Seen it my whole life. But to call them dirty, filthy or carriers of disease is just not true. The keyboard you are typing on right now is dirtier that the roaches living outside my house right now.

You go ahead and think what you want, but if you go outside and collect one, and look at him/her under a microscope or magnifying glass, you won't find much dirt, you won't have any breathing issues and I promise you will not get any diseases. Now you MIGHT get an awful case of the "willies", but I can't help you with that.


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## Yvonne G (May 31, 2013)

A couple years ago my property was invaded by those big black and brown roaches. I use a monthly service called EIPS (Eco Integrated Pest Solutions LLC). It just so happens that the fellow who comes each month has two sulcatas so he understands the importance of not poisoning my animals. When the roaches first appeared he put down some granules in out-of-the-way places where tortoises wouldn't come into contact with them. 

Slowly, but surely, the roaches are being eliminated. They never did come into the house, but I now see fewer and fewer of them outside. 

Besides what the bug man does each month, I put down roach traps too. You can buy them at any home improvement store. The sticky paper works good too. During the summer months I have about 6 empty and covered turtle pens on my car port. I put down three or four sticky paper traps in each one and catch an awful lot of the roaches that way.

And now a message from our spon...er...moderator:

There's no need to discuss in this thread the merits or health benefits of having roaches. The OP merely wants to know how to get rid of them and if there is a threat to the tortoises.


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## tortadise (May 31, 2013)

The thing with any pest like roaches. Is that they can transmit zoonotic diseases. The likely of them causing an epidemic of coccidias or some wild strain of parasite is pretty high. But the conditions in which it will be species specific to a tortoise/turtle is rare. I would worry about leptosporosis, parvo, distemper, etc to any canine or felines you might have. Also the leopto around children. Its a very rare occurance that this could happen. All it takes is one roach, cricket, or even a butterfly to land in pool of a parasite somewhere outside your house, then land on your torts food, dog/cat/child touches or ingests it. 

I would definitely work on getting them out of your house. Not only for the reason they can be pests. Best thing I would do would be to pantry/fridge clean anything open expired and grainy like. They like cereal, wheat, cornstarch, sugar, Food in general really. Start with maybe removing all the contents even pots, pans, bleach wipe the entire cabinets after shopvacing them out. Pull the fridge back clean clean clean, disinfect and then get a pest control place out. Wintergreen usually works really well against these guys, also spiders too. They will take care of that for yah though.

The possibilities are definitely there for issue of transmission. Its a small possibility but one I would want to eliminate ASAP.

Good luck. Hope you get rid of them.


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## JennBell0725 (May 31, 2013)

Cheap and easy way to eliminate roaches is to use diatomaceous earth. Just make sure to use food grade. You can add cocoa powder or flour to make it more attractive to the roaches. 

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## PapS (May 31, 2013)

Not sure if roaches are dangerous, I just don't want them around my tortoise because they scare/disgust me and there is more of a possibility I will drop the tortoise (they don't scare/disgust me as much as giant brown grasshoppers flying in my face though, or giant brown spiders making webs in the corridors of my garden).

You could call an extermination service and keep your tortoise somewhere else until they are done. Even if they say that chemicals don't harm pets, poison is still poison and I would rather take the safe route...


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