RaZias Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 I have a female hisser that is always over the food (but not eating it). It just stays there. Any reason why ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Are any antenna damaged? Mabye she has a hard time smelling the food. Try placing a banana or white bread directly in front of her see if she eats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaZias Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 Are any antenna damaged? Mabye she has a hard time smelling the food. Try placing a banana or white bread directly in front of her see if she eats. Yes, she has only one antenna and it is damage. Everytime I remove her from the food zone she returns and stays there...she passes all the time pooping there... ...to bad for other roaches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 I would seperate her and put her in her own small cage with food and see if she eats and improves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicolas Rousseaux Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 they actually use their palp to taste the food, not their antennae, so no matter if they're damaged. Some of my roaches stay near the food to, I don't really worry about that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy1892 Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 They use antennae to smell food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicolas Rousseaux Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 antennae are definitely used to sense changes in the environement: vibration in the air, phoromones and so on. It give very little informations about food: when you add fruits or something, they sense something has change: moisture, maybe an odor... nothing more. Look at a roach, or at any insect, near his food. The antennae are moving, but it doesn't it the part of food he touch with the antennae: he taste his food with the palpae... that's their function Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy1892 Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Roaches touch food with there antennae before getting close to it. I keep my place very wet so the banana is not making it wetter I think. More will come out of hiding when I put a banana there then bread. Banana draws them the most. They start moving there antennae a lot and come out soon after I put the banana in there containers but not most other things. I have read that they sense smell with there antennae and find food that way. Where did you read that they do not use there antennae much to find food? Shelfordella lateralis rarely put there legs on the food or they do but if they do not need to they dont. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicolas Rousseaux Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 science class, entomology class (university and evening classes) and every serious book dealing with insects Antennae are not the only sensory organ. They have many function as I said, they can detect the food, but not taste it. Palpae have more precision, they can tastethe food, identify the soil, his moisture, composition and so on... Those organs are essential to find the food, when antennae are not (but they have loads of other functions that are highly useful ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy1892 Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Oh, ok I didnt know that. Are you sure the antennae are not used much to find food? If they can smell good with antennae it should be useful to find food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicolas Rousseaux Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 for the food, antennae can detect "odors", but not at the sense we would understand if I remember it well. They detect there is something new, potentially food. When it is considered as a potential food, they go near it and still use the antennae to find it. The use the palpae when they are really close to it, they firstly touch the stuff with their palpae and they identify wht is it (food, soil, well, anything!), and when it is considered as a possible food, they start eating it with their mandibles. While eating, you've probably noticed that roaches often use their first pair of legs to maintain the food in place or taking it away. And if you look closely, you'll see what happen near their mouth: they chew little part of food to get pieces small enough to swallow with the mandibles, and the palpae are used to keep what their are chewing near the mandibles. So antennae are mainly used to detect smells and things moving around them (they detect pheromones, give a first information about the presence of a potential source of food, they detect other roaches, predators and so on), while palpae are used to identify what they touch, the soil composition and to really taste and identify food Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy1892 Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Thanks. Maybe the German Roach female I have will do that. She always goes on top of food. The others (Red Runners, Gold Medal Roaches) do not do that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pierre72 Posted May 15, 2013 Share Posted May 15, 2013 Yes, she has only one antenna and it is damage. Everytime I remove her from the food zone she returns and stays there...she passes all the time pooping there... ...to bad for other roaches. You need to make sure the room she is in is above 70 degrees. If the room is below 70 degrees, hissers will stop eating! That goes for some other species as well, including Discoid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaZias Posted May 15, 2013 Author Share Posted May 15, 2013 You need to make sure the room she is in is above 70 degrees. If the room is below 70 degrees, hissers will stop eating! That goes for some other species as well, including Discoid. I have Insignis, Javanica, Princisia and Portentosa. They were at 64.4 degrees and they didn´t stop eating, Javanicas even had babies. They all poop so they are all eating... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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