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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tortoise Tom" data-source="post: 132824" data-attributes="member: 27883">We have red runners living wild here. That's how I started my colony, in fact. I just went around at night and caught a couple dozen and put them into a bin. In Houston, I'm pretty sure they would survive outside, and I wouldn't be surprised to find them outside near you already. Of the 4000+ species of cockroaches only 6 are considered "pest" species. I've read that this one is considered a pest in some areas and a "semi-pest" in other areas. I've been using them for over a decade, and I feed hundreds of them to my cichlids every week too, and I've never had an infestation problem.As far as using them for food, I know of nothing better to start baby tarantulas on. I hate crickets for a wide variety of reasons. Crickets all die off for no good reason, they stink, they are noisy, they are comparatively difficult to breed and raise, they will chew on your animals if left overnight or during a molt, even though you can't seem to keep them alive in a cage, they all seem to survive and thrive if they get loose in your house and they will certainly infest your house and make lots of noise all night long if they get loose. I stopped keeping insectivores for a time because of my hatred for crickets until I "discovered" roaches as a food source.Dubia roaches are great for large animals, but newly hatched B. lateralis are the perfect size for tiny little slings, and the adult B. lateralis are great for larger slings and smaller species too. I feed one to my large adult female G. pulchra every once in a while just to give her something to do. I agree with the other posters here that the habit of these roaches to remain active and move around is a big plus too. I haven't had any problem with the other roach species, but B. lateralis is definitely more active than most others when you drop them into a spider enclosure.I recommend them highly. One thing I've learned from keeping them over the years is to use clear sided tubs for them. Most of the opaque, colored tubs have some texture to their sides and this lightweight fast moving species can climb if there is any texture at all. Additionally, I did several side by side tests with this species, Blatta orientalis and  Blaptica dubia, using clear bins right next to dark colored bins. I saw no difference in production. I prefer the clear bins because of their smoothness and because I can see what's going on inside and I know better when to halve the colony or unload the surplus to someone.</blockquote>

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