Here's my unusual story: I am a zookeeper in a Nocturnal Mammal exhibit, where we happen to have a stand-alone giant cave roach exhibit full of hundreds of roaches. Great effect for visitors straining their eyes to "see the animal", only to panic when their vision registers on the hundreds of roaches lining the walls. *sinister grin*
The downside is that it's a pain to clean - it's a tight space full of branches that requires suiting up and climbing in and maneuvering a series of yoga poses to reach the far corners of it to remove dead roaches and their molts.
So my idea is to toss a colony of dermestid beetles into the mix to do the clean-up work for us.... my bosses, being fans of the critters, are psyched about the idea. But I want to do my research and make sure they will do what we hope they will do, instead of causing more problems down the road and leading to a bunch of unhappy mammal-keepers scowling at "Liz's bad beetle idea of 2007"
Questions that pop up - Will the beetles actually eat the exoskeletons? Will they overwhelm and consume the live roaches? Will they escape and forever haunt the zoo?
Does anyone have any other suggestions to help with the roach cleanup?
