Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in SE Louisiana and we certainly have roaches. We always have a number of them in the garage because of all the crap store in there (lots of roach-friendly cardboard boxes). Our local toads and geckos get quite fat off of them.

I have no idea what the species is, but the adults are pretty darn big (2 inches). Unless we have two species - a big one and a small one.

I am pretty squicky when it comes to things like roaches (crickets and superworms don't bother me a bit, oddly enough), but a set of hemostats should help with that I'd imagine.

Could I get a colony started with these local roaches to feed to my Rhacodactylus ciliatus and my Tiliqua scincoides scincoides and potentially any other insect-eating lizards I might acquire?

If you start a colony, be aware that if any escape, they will probably infest your house/garage worse than it is now. If you start to breed the local roaches, you should get some that are pesticide-free to initialize your colony. One other note, some roach species produce bad odors which can make some reptiles spit them out.

Good to know - thanks. I wish there was a local place I could try some different critters out on without having to start a colony.

At the moment I don't have a large collection of insectivores. Mostly carnivores.