Cockroaches in outdoor enclosure eating all the food

[TeamZissou]

All summer, my Greek tortoise has been living it up in a large outdoor enclosure densely planted with TortoiseSupply broadleaf testudo mix. Over the past few weeks I've noticed the food disappearing at a faster rate, an figured he was eating it and even planted more at one point. Well, I went outside one evening to find tons of roaches all over the various plants. Now the food in the enclosure is essentially decimated, with only a few dandelion and burclover plants remaining.

It's probably too late in the season now to rectify the roach issue, and I have started putting food out daily, but I'm interested if anyone has dealt with this, and if so, what worked? I see Orange Guard recommended a few places on the forum for different bugs. I also found some ultrasonic cockroach repeller devices on Google.

The roach species appears to be of the oriental variety

5 Types of Cockroaches Found In New Mexico! (ID GUIDE)

Learn the different types of Cockroaches in New Mexico, AND how to identify by sight or sound. How many of these species have YOU seen?

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[SinLA]

I have had success with Diatomaceous Earth, but not tried it with roaches. i did use it well with crickets.

 

[Yossarian]

You can buy nematodes that kill cockroaches - they kill a lot of other insects as well but do kill cockroaches, not sure how effective they are or how fast acting but may be an alternative to diatomaceous earth which I would also try.

 

[Yvonne G]

I have, or rather, had a bad roach problem too. I've thinned them down quite a bit by setting out Combat roach bait that comes enclosed in little plastic containers. The poison can only be accessed by insects ,but even so, I only put it out of reach of other animals. I have never seen a dead roach, so I don't think a poisoned dead body is worrisome.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

You've got those BIG, AMERICAN COCKROACHES?
The only thing that I've found that kills them for sure is my size 14 shoe. And even then, sometimes they still manage to crawl away.
They LOVE moisture. I had some in my house in a wall that had a leaking drain pipe. I busted out the wall. Repaired that pipe and not long after, they were gone. And have never returned.
Is that area damp? And can you do anything about it if it is?

 

[Tom]

All summer, my Greek tortoise has been living it up in a large outdoor enclosure densely planted with TortoiseSupply broadleaf testudo mix. Over the past few weeks I've noticed the food disappearing at a faster rate, an figured he was eating it and even planted more at one point. Well, I went outside one evening to find tons of roaches all over the various plants. Now the food in the enclosure is essentially decimated, with only a few dandelion and burclover plants remaining.

It's probably too late in the season now to rectify the roach issue, and I have started putting food out daily, but I'm interested if anyone has dealt with this, and if so, what worked? I see Orange Guard recommended a few places on the forum for different bugs. I also found some ultrasonic cockroach repeller devices on Google.

The roach species appears to be of the oriental variety

5 Types of Cockroaches Found In New Mexico! (ID GUIDE)

Learn the different types of Cockroaches in New Mexico, AND how to identify by sight or sound. How many of these species have YOU seen?

birdwatchinghq.com

Show a pic of yours? Blatta orientalis and B. lateralis look very similar. The females are difficult to tell apart except for a small size difference. Male lateralis have that orange color and male orientalis do not. I currently still breed the lateralis, and they are an excellent cricket replacement. I also bred the orientalis for fun a while back, but they have a bit of a skunky odor when kept indoors in a crowded plastic bin, so I fed them all out after a couple of years.

Poisons kill insect predators. @Yvonne G , the reason you don't see dead bodies is because they get eaten.

Diatomaceous earth has never worked for me on any insect, and I've tried several times over several years because so many people recommend it and say it worked for them. I've literally had little ghost fire ants walking around coated in the stuff and it didn't even slow them down or reduce their population at all.

I have no experience with the Orange Guard or ultrasonic repellents, so please let me know how those work for you. Lots of the lateralis roaches in all my outdoor night boxes here.

I've found roach motels to be effective, but you have to replace them often and keep them dry. Pro Tip: when they get a bunch of roaches stuck in them, flip the trap upside down to double its effective lifespan.

 

[TeamZissou]

Show a pic of yours? Blatta orientalis and B. lateralis look very similar. The females are difficult to tell apart except for a small size difference. Male lateralis have that orange color and male orientalis do not. I currently still breed the lateralis, and they are an excellent cricket replacement. I also bred the orientalis for fun a while back, but they have a bit of a skunky odor when kept indoors in a crowded plastic bin, so I fed them all out after a couple of years.

Poisons kill insect predators. @Yvonne G , the reason you don't see dead bodies is because they get eaten.

Diatomaceous earth has never worked for me on any insect, and I've tried several times over several years because so many people recommend it and say it worked for them. I've literally had little ghost fire ants walking around coated in the stuff and it didn't even slow them down or reduce their population at all.

I have no experience with the Orange Guard or ultrasonic repellents, so please let me know how those work for you. Lots of the lateralis roaches in all my outdoor night boxes here.

I've found roach motels to be effective, but you have to replace them often and keep them dry. Pro Tip: when they get a bunch of roaches stuck in them, flip the trap upside down to double its effective lifespan.

Here is a photo I took last night in the dark. They are eating some old mazuri. I’m not sure if the smaller ones are just immature orientalis or are lateralis. The largest dark roach near the top of the pic is more typical of what I usually see.

 

[Tom]

View attachment 360992

Here is a photo I took last night in the dark. They are eating some old mazuri. I’m not sure if the smaller ones are just immature orientalis or are lateralis. The largest dark roach near the top of the pic is more typical of what I usually see.

The adult males are the give away when trying to distinguish between these two species, and there are none in your picture. Do you see orange colored winged adult males too? Or are the ones with wings all black? Females of each species look almost identical. The orientals tend to be a little big larger, but I regularly get larger than normal lateralis, and smaller than normal orientalis females.

The bi-color appearance of the juveniles looks like lateralis to me. I don't remember the orientalis nymphs looking like that, but its been a few years...

Another factor is that orientalis tend to like more humidity and moisture, while the lateralis can thrive in drier desert environments.

I realize that it doesn't matter which species you have as far as your concerns about their presence, so thank you for allowing me to nerd out on your thread. If it is any consolation, I have them all over the place here too. They inhabit all of my night boxes. I think they clean up the leftovers and feces to a degree, so I tolerate them. I actually started my lateralis colony from a couple dozen that I collected wild around the ranch. Started my orientalis bin from ferals that I collected at my childhood home which was about three miles from the beach here in SoCal with mild weather and relatively high humidity compared to more inland Los Angeles areas. I don't see orientalis out here at my current house which would be the desert area north of Los Angeles.

I cannot recall the roaches ever eating my live growing plants, but everything else does. I get tons of those ear wigs/pincher bugs in my planters, and I see those chowing down right along side a host of different caterpillar species. One of my bug management strategies was to try to "outrun" the bugs. That seed mix grows really fast for me, so at the first sign of bug damage, I would harvest it all up and feed it out. This would decimate the bugs food and shelter areas, leaving them exposed to the elements and predators, and the plants would re-grow so fast that I'd be cutting again in a week. If I waited too long to cut, the bug population would really explode.

 

[TeamZissou]

Another factor is that orientalis tend to like more humidity and moisture, while the lateralis can thrive in drier desert environments.

I definitely get why they like the enclosure and food source. I've been hosing it down morning and evening to keep the humidity up and the plants alive. The testudo mix patch grew well and covered the entire enclosure, except for tortoise paths, and did well all summer. It didn't seem get majorly diminished despite being eaten from each day, and I liked that because it was low maintenance. I'll have to try and insect repeller or the roach motels or or something in the future. Otherwise, maybe the grown-and-cut method you use is the way to go. Thanks for the tips.

 

[TammyJ]

If you really don't like the roaches being in the enclosure with the tortoise and eating his food, maybe you could start to grow the food not directly on the ground, but in plastic planters that rest on stands that have legs in water to stop roaches crawling up to the growing plants. Just an idea. I don't like roaches either, except I dealt with the breeding of them once some years ago 😉.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

They look (at least superficially) like some feeder roaches called "Red Racers".
They'd make excellent Chameleon food, I'd bet.

 

[TammyJ]

They look (at least superficially) like some feeder roaches called "Red Racers".
They'd make excellent Chameleon food, I'd bet.

My Jamaica Giant Green Anole used to love them.