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Red Runners on the loose


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Hello I've noticed some of the red runners bred in my room, the other day I cleaned one of my rodents cage, there was babies and a few adults running around at the bottom (floor) then sometimes when I turn on the light I see babies on top of the containers of my other colonies I'm guessing some have escaped and some bred outside the bin should I be worried? would they infest me? we only had one infestation at home but that was cause a neighbor had the infestation at his home so when he tried to use chemicals to kill em all lots of roaches fled straight to us and other homes other than that we never had any kind of infestations, I'm hoping once winter hits in the last week of november they might not survive the cold weather cause I don't have a heather unless they get used to the weather? it also helps my room has lots of spiders and webs so lots of loose roaches get trapped there please I need good answers cause I don't want to get infested I think I'm regretting getting red runners now but lately I've been feeding red runners to my beardie and he loves them specially chasing them also hope they don't chew my wires/cables out of hunger that would suck cause I have my ps3 and speakers plugged at the moment

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Where are you located country and climate wise, red runners cannot infest a home unless your in the tropics, I'm guessing your finding Periplaneta species, which do infest homes on occasion, preventing access to food and water sources will drive them out.

Also red runners cannot climb either, so I think you don't have true "red runners" either. 

 

@Hisserdude

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Open bins and enclosures like most rodent cages with substrate that can retain moisture will probably make great breeding grounds for the red runners, they won't necessarily be breeding in your actual house, just in your other enclosures, and they'll be able to come and go as they please. So it will basically be like you have an infestation. 

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You could use glueboards to collect the escapees. You can fold them into a box and place them against the wall out of the way. I feed my bearded dragon hissers and even though I only feed a few at a time I still find a few hiding. It's possible some of them found a way out.

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20 hours ago, Tleilaxu said:

Where are you located country and climate wise, red runners cannot infest a home unless your in the tropics, I'm guessing your finding Periplaneta species, which do infest homes on occasion, preventing access to food and water sources will drive them out.

Also red runners cannot climb either, so I think you don't have true "red runners" either. 

San diego, we have had temperatures of 77 thru 84 the past days, it is lower at night but stilll hot-dry and yes they are red runners because I got them online thru a site that sold dubia (in the site they were called rusty reds) seems they were getting rid of all red runners that's why they were so cheap I checked before they no longer have red runners for sale

@Hisserdude

 

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8 hours ago, Hisserdude said:

Open bins and enclosures like most rodent cages with substrate that can retain moisture will probably make great breeding grounds for the red runners, they won't necessarily be breeding in your actual house, just in your other enclosures, and they'll be able to come and go as they please. So it will basically be like you have an infestation. 

I don't use substrate, but in the cages I use newspaper at the bottom I've noticed the bottom cage had the red runners inside the cage's floor and outside in the actual floor but the other 2 cages which are on top of that one did not have anything at all guess they found a place to hide and eat the left overs/crumbs of the rodents whenever I spot them running around on the floor I stamp on em cause thess more I get rid of the less they will breed I noticed some managed to escape the bin thru the spaces where the holders of the bin are but I didn't think it'd be a big deal if a few escaped

 

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5 hours ago, Matttoadman said:

You could use glueboards to collect the escapees. You can fold them into a box and place them against the wall out of the way. I feed my bearded dragon hissers and even though I only feed a few at a time I still find a few hiding. It's possible some of them found a way out.

What are those? like glue traps? I can't have glue traps on the floors or walls of my room cause the dogs might try to lick/eat them the other day some of my dogs were eating a dead periplaneta americana corpse

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14 hours ago, Jesus said:

I don't use substrate, but in the cages I use newspaper at the bottom I've noticed the bottom cage had the red runners inside the cage's floor and outside in the actual floor but the other 2 cages which are on top of that one did not have anything at all guess they found a place to hide and eat the left overs/crumbs of the rodents whenever I spot them running around on the floor I stamp on em cause thess more I get rid of the less they will breed I noticed some managed to escape the bin thru the spaces where the holders of the bin are but I didn't think it'd be a big deal if a few escaped

Even without substrate, they are probably eating the rodent's food, and may be hanging out near them on purpose. Depending on how humid it is where you live, they may last a while outside of their enclosure, they can't breed without moisture though, the oothecae need good moisture and humidity to hatch. 

I'd look into possibly getting a more escape proof bin if I were you, even if it's slightly more expensive than a normal bin, at least you won't get more escapees. Something like this would work nicely, the lid is completely airtight, no gaps or anything, (of course there are several different sizes, so it doesn't have to be that specific one).

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3 hours ago, Tleilaxu said:

I'm still puzzled by the fact a non climbing roach some how climbed out of an enclosure.... I still don't think they are truly red runners....

After a while of being used, lots of containers get grimy on the sides, thus allowing lightweight roaches to climb out, even if they don't have adhesive pads on their tibia. 

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8 hours ago, Hisserdude said:

After a while of being used, lots of containers get grimy on the sides, thus allowing lightweight roaches to climb out, even if they don't have adhesive pads on their tibia. 

Indeed, dirt and scratches combined with a determined roach. 
One of my adult Archimandrita tesselata males managed to climb out a plastic enclosure... Found him a few days later hidden under a cabinet. 

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On 7/18/2017 at 0:19 PM, Hisserdude said:

Even without substrate, they are probably eating the rodent's food, and may be hanging out near them on purpose. Depending on how humid it is where you live, they may last a while outside of their enclosure, they can't breed without moisture though, the oothecae need good moisture and humidity to hatch. 

I'd look into possibly getting a more escape proof bin if I were you, even if it's slightly more expensive than a normal bin, at least you won't get more escapees. Something like this would work nicely, the lid is completely airtight, no gaps or anything, (of course there are several different sizes, so it doesn't have to be that specific one).

That one is too small right now I'm using these for my hissers/red runners and lobsters

Bin

for my dubia I'm using this

Bin

wish I could take pictures but I have a crappy old camera like I mentioned before the small red runners must have escaped where the clippers are in the corners, those green clippers cause the screen mesh I put on top It's well sealed with tape

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5 minutes ago, Jesus said:

That one is too small right now I'm using these for my hissers/red runners and lobsters

Bin

for my dubia I'm using this

Bin

wish I could take pictures but I have a crappy old camera like I mentioned before the small red runners must have escaped where the clippers are in the corners, those green clippers cause the screen mesh I put on top It's well sealed with tape

Those are big bins, do you even need that many feeders? You could get a smaller bin and just maintain a smaller colony, unless you go through feeders like crazy. 

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23 hours ago, Hisserdude said:

Those are big bins, do you even need that many feeders? You could get a smaller bin and just maintain a smaller colony, unless you go through feeders like crazy. 

 

The reason I have big bins, I bought them at big lots cheap, those same bins in walmart at normal price are pricy but these had a discount, yes I have lots of feeders but it hasn't gotten to the point I can't handle it, the ones that were breeding like crazy were my hissers right now the colony is lower than before because the screen mesh wasn't secured enough and red runners got inside the hissers bin they bred inside and must have caused stress or they probably ate the egg sacks now I have roughly 400+ hissers while before I had like 2500+ so that's actually good I already secured the hissers bin

 

there was one small bin I wanted before, they had it at big lots but when I went a week afterwards they must've sold it cause I couldn't find it, I figured I saved $$$ getting those and I'm sure big lots still has lots of them if I go but at the moment I don't need a new bin, right now dubia are the ones that I have A LOT, got enough dubia to feed 25 bearded dragons or 100 tarantulas last time I cleaned the bin and changed the egg flats few months ago it was insane seeing so many dubia

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