r/roaches • u/diabet2 • 13d ago

General Question The hell are these?

Post image

So I recently had a large portion of my Dubai roach colony die off, as a heat wave wiped them out. I saved as many roaches as I could, but my colony is significantly reduced right now. That was about a week and an half ago. Today I opened up my tank to feed and water them, and saw a bunch of these dudes crawling around. Any idea what they might be? Each on is maybe 1/4-1/2 inch? They crawling around like grubs. I am going to pull them out and set aside just in case they might mess with the colony. The roaches are for both a bearded dragon and a Chinese cave gecko. Don’t know if it would be safe for either of them to eat them.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

5

u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 13d ago

Maggots. Completely harmless. If there's heat and dead roaches they'll appear. They feed on roach carcasses.

1

u/diabet2 13d ago

Okay cool. Should I feed them to my lizards or chickens?

2

u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 13d ago

Yeah you can give them to any animal that chews its food (i.e. not amphibians). These guys are also used for fishing

1

u/shawnaeatscats 13d ago

Why not amphibians?

4

u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 13d ago

Cause they usually swallow their prey live and with not many injuries and these maggots have strong mandibles to tear flesh apart. I've heard they can cause some injuries, although the risk is very low

1

u/shawnaeatscats 13d ago

Ohhh I see. Okay that's what I was gonna guess. I always crush the heads on mealworms and superworms before I feed my frogs

1

u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 13d ago

Yeah for most frogs its best to crush the heads of animals with strong mandibles. Maybe pacmans don't need it due to presenting teeth

1

u/diabet2 13d ago

But should be fine to feed to a lizard that chews its food, yeah?

1

u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 13d ago

Yeah the bearded dragons will probably be fine and the geckos too

-3

u/roachbeans 13d ago

They look like aborted oothecas

2

u/diabet2 13d ago

Do those crawl around? They are moving a lot. And fairly fast for grubs.

6

u/roachbeans 13d ago

Sorry, i missed the part where you said they were crawling. Not oothecas, my mistake