Imagine bumping into this guy...

[jorats]

Of course we have to have our snobby cockroaches where only the best will do. lol

That's a little sad, the story about the adults and the babies. Did you feel guilty at all? Or just grossed out. lol

 

[KMG365]

It was actually rather sad and, especially once I started believing that that's what they were doing, I did feel really guilty. I guess they were martyr bugs.

 

[Vanessa]

I have done a bit of research on cockroaches, because I love bugs and cockroaches. There are many roach and cockroach species that are kept as pets.
Many entomologists do not consider the German Cockroach to be a true cockroach species and will commonly call it a 'roach' instead of a 'cockroach'. They are a completely different type of creature to the typical wild cockroaches found throughout the world - including the hissing cockroach and my favourite the deaths head cockroach.
Hissing and deaths head cockroaches, as well as many others, make wonderful pets and are extremely clean and live in very social groups. Deaths head roaches will fly, so you have to have a top on their enclosure, but hissing cockroaches do not. All you have to do for them is to put a small border of vaseline at the top of their tank and they don't cross it. A pair of breeders will run you around $40cdn if you can even find them. It is such a shame that the German cockroach has given cockroaches in general such a horrible reputation. They are the only roaches that are considered 'pests' and should not be lumped in with all the other beneficial cockroach species.
Having tarantulas, I found that many in the tarantula community breed hissing and deaths head cockroaches to feed their spiders because of the high nutriential value of the young. The adult exoskeleton becomes too hard for a tarantula to penetrate, so you have to have enough spiders to eat the dozens of young they have or you will be overrun in no time. I couldn't bring myself to feed my girls cockroaches because I have such a soft spot for them.
In the wild cockroaches are responsible for breaking down all the dead leaves and wood and supply a much needed diet for many, many other animals. They really are an important member of many ecosystems.
German cockroaches have a ganglion nervous system, allowing their legs to operate without the benefit of their brain. They will run without knowing that they are doing so, which might result in strange behaviour like running towards pesticides. That is also why they can seem to be 'living' several days beyond having their heads removed.

 

[jorats]

That was surprisingly extremely interesting.

 

[KMG365]

Thanks for the information. As Jo said, it was really interesting!

Although it is certainly possible that the adult cockroaches were not sacrificing themselves, it seemed surprising to me that the adults would all run one way and the young would run the other way. In any case, I wasn't interested in testing my theory. I just wanted those things gone permanently!

 

[Vanessa]

I just wanted those things gone permanently!

As much as I love bugs on a whole, I would want those buggers gone too! They are a serious health concern as it has been proven with inner city 'project' apartments.
Their shed exuviums (skins) and their waste products break down into dust inside air ducts and are inhaled by those living in places where they are an abundant pest. The result has been a very high instance of asthma and other breathing related conditions in children living with high numbers of cockroaches.
Plus, they deposit waste on all your food and dishes which is not only unsanitary but absolutely disgusting.
They could very well show some sort of defense or sacrifice for their offspring, some of the most surprising animals do, but I just thought I would throw that tidbit in for those that have heard the stories about them 'living' for several days without their heads.

 

[Lucky8773]

That is fascinating, even if it does make me a little sick! uke:

Who knew that there was so much to know about something a lot of us just discount as a "great big bug"? Doesn't mean I'm gonna go cozying up to one of the little buggers anytime soon, but it's still interesting.

 

[KMG365]

They were horrible. I had never lived in a house with any type of insect problem before, so I was completely shocked by how quickly things got out of control. We went from seeing one or two every now and then to an explosion of bugs in a very short period of time.

Periodically, we'd see a white roach. At first, I wasn't sure what to make of them, but then I found out that they were newly hatched and would darken in colour within a few hours.

We had a contraption that was supposed to attract the roaches and then trap them on sticky discs. I had very mixed feelings about using this thing - I wanted the bugs gone, but I hated the idea of having them slowly die while stuck to one of these discs.

We had been putting a small amount of cat food at the centre of the discs to make them even more appealing to the roaches, but we finally gave up on using the discs when we found one of our cats running around with a disc stuck to her face.

Finally, we had to call in the exterminator. All of the bugs were completely gone within a week, but we were left with a tremendous clean-up job. The roaches had been everywhere and into everything.

We decided to throw out small appliances like the coffee maker and even the microwave (at least one roach survived a two minute trip in there) and we had to wash all the dishes and scrub down the shelves.

Years later, we'd still occasionally find a bug body in some crack or crevice we had missed in the original clean up.

 

[jorats]

Oh god, that's like my worse nightmare.

 

[Moon]

I think I would have no problem with a tarantula as a pet. But Roaches, cockroaches, beetley things... anything other than spiders? No thank you!

 

[chicky82]

I found another pretty scary animal :lol: I was watching Dirty Jobs on Discovery and they had a Alligator Snapping Turtle :shock:

here's a good pic, isn't it pretty?

 

[Tara]

Holy cow!

Those things get pretty big, too.... dont they? :holysheep:

Not that I'd ever go wading around in a swamp anyway..... 8)

 

[Vanessa]

A couple of years ago I helped a snapping turtle across the road once, near my home. He was the size of a small coffee table, and some people who came along to watch (not to help, thank you) told me he was probably 75-100 years old.
I pulled over because he was in the road, and at risk of getting run down. He was very angry with me and was snapping all over the place. I had to use my snow brush thing to push him off to the side which was extremely difficult because he weighed a tonne and was fighting me the whole time!
One of the people told me he had probably be displaced from his home because of the harvesting of the farms in the area.
Their necks are very, very long, longer than any other type of turtle I have come in contact with, and they can reach all the way back to the sides of their bodies. Their legs are very strong and he was fighting me all the time, even though I was pushing him in the direction that he was going. They have huge heads and beaks.
They are incredibly beautiful creatures, and I was in awe of that guy being almost a century old. Their legs and necks are like dinosaurs with plates on them. I watched him for a long time after I got him to safety, I was concerned he would turn around and I knew that I probably wouldn't see another one at such close range again. He slowly disappeared into the tall grass.
Just be extremely careful if you ever come across one, they are dangerous and have a huge amount of attitude. They can easily take all your fingers and toes off if you aren't careful - especially the full grown ones.

 

[jorats]

Kudos to you Vanessa for saving that big guy!!

 

[KMG365]

I found another pretty scary animal :lol: I was watching Dirty Jobs on Discovery and they had a Alligator Snapping Turtle :shock:

here's a good pic, isn't it pretty?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the turtle in the picture has been dead for a while. :wink:

Vanessa, I'm glad you took the time to help the turtle across the street. As you said, many people will stop to gawk, but very few, unfortunately, will get their hands dirty and help out.