Tell me your horror story

[alberts mamma]

I have wanted to do this thread for a while, I want to hear about your horror stories with your pets, in a lighthearted way im not looking for my beardie ate my dog

I will tell you mine.....

Not long after the other half got his whites tree frogs he was about to feed them size 2 crickets (brown ones) and was inspecting the tub...obviously quite new to this feeding lark he was trying to figure out the best way to get them out....so he tried shaking them down one end of the tub......bad idea .......very bad idea.......I was standing watching minding my own businesss talking to his mum on the phone as the shaking was going on and there I was covered ...yes covered head to toe in ickle brown crawlie nasty orrid crickets..in my hair on my clothes everywhere.

The lid wasnt on properly! I let out a very loud squeel and started to do a mad dance that probably resembled a rain dance or similar.....the other half was in stitches I didnt find it all that funny tho.....the frogs were at my house as he had just moved and I offered to babysit them till he got sorted....I am still finding fing crickets.

So to help me get over this traumatic experience I would like to know that someone else has suffered too.

I thought Id put this thread in with the lizards as it seems to be the most popular place to be lol if im in the wrong place then I apologise and could a mod move me to where im supposed to be

[snowyj99]

Sorry but the way you put it is very funny!

[LauraMartin]

ok i got a good en. i hope it doesnt stop anyone gettin roaches tho, they are great feeders, just dont do what i did.

so i have a colony of roaches to feed my beardie and 2 salamanders, the salamanders are dead greedy and soo cute, they come out and climb the glass when they see me, basically begging for food, very cute! one night i come home after a night out, a little bit tipsy, turn on my light and see the salamanders both come out to 'ask' me for dinner, looking so sweet i decided to give them a roach each, all very good, no problems, and i went to bed. get up in the morning and see the roach rub with its lid off, well me being a bit drunk had left it off, but again thought nothing of it, put the lid on and went about my day. i have a heat mat inside the rub with the wire leading to the lid, the roaches cant fly but they could get up the wire if they were clever, but i didnt think they would have.

later on, i picked a t shirt up off the floor and found a big roach in it, thought...ahhh so one got out, oh well, and i put it back.

that night i went to bed, couldnt sleep too well with the thought that there may be some roaches creeping around. i finally went to sleep but at 4am awoke with a really itchy head, i reached round, half asleep to scratch my head and felt a big adult male (the ones with wings, about an inch and a half long) nesstled in my hair! i picked it out and literally threw it across the room and it hit the wall, but cos it was 4am and i was pretty much asleep, i just went stright back to sleep!!!! about 45 mins later i woke with a horrible loud buzzing sound, when i woke i thought the roach thing had been a drea, i switched the light on to see the same roach on its back flapping its wings trying to right its self. normally id pick it up but cos i was so freaked at the thought of it in my hair i had to do the whole glass and bit of paper thing to put it back. that night and for the next week i slept with the light on, and even now about 2 month later i still check my bedding for roaches before i get in.

tonight i moved my salamander exo terra viv to find 9 of the things under it!! the viv is on top of my beardie viv, which had vents at the top and a background, so the roaches had climbed up the background, got thru the vent which led straight to the underneath of the exo terra. i went to cover the vent with really tight mesh cos i thought that one might escape, i didnt expect to find 9 tho! needless to say, im not sleeping too well tonight either, hense the reason i am writing this essay at 2.30am!

lesson: if you ever go out and get tipsy, make sure beforehand you put the roaches away or put a combination lock on or summit!

im never drinking again hehe.

[snowyj99]

Ahh, That aint good! I am now looking around making sure nothing is crawling around!

[LauraMartin]

wel the thing is, i may have caught 11 roaches in my bedroom, but i will always wonder, was it only 11 that got out, would be pretty great if 11 got out and i caught them all on 3 seperate occasions, hmm when i think of all the hidy places they could go, i pretty much doubt there was only 11 escapees!! worst thing is my bed in a divan, with fabric outside so they could climb it, i used to have a metal bed with 4 legs, i wouldnt be so scared then cos they wouldt be able to get onto it.

[LauraMartin]

oh and another thing, i dont use crickets not since gettin roaches, cos i hate crickets more than anything, but when i did have them one time i found a big adult black cricket in my make up bag!! ahhh i hate the things, they are soo gross!!!

[snowyj99]

The other thing is If there is more they could breed and you could have a continuous flow of roaches!!

[LauraMartin]

well my main concern is that more will have gotten out via the vent where i found 9 tonight, in which case no adults will have cos these are the escapees from my beardies viv, and i only feed her medium sized ones, so no adults, well untill they turn into adult, but my house is prob too cold for them to move right now let alone breed. i did have a good clear out and totally turned the room upside down cos i didnt sleep for about a week, and i didnt find any. the biggest clue is thier poop, they do really distinct little droppings and loads of them so if there were any loose id see the poop. ok im off to look for poop now lol.

[tommyjacobs]

just had my horror story thank god for my oh's nose she woke me up cos there is a strange smell sort of like burnt toast so obviously i go down stairs to check the oven etc but no smell down there so straight to reptile room and to my horror smoke cuming out from under the boscs viv so i turn off all the electrics manage to lift one end of the viv only to find that the heat mat had started melting! any way managed to get it off the bottom and cant believe it i dont understand why this has happened so will be sending it back to the manafacturer asap thank god my oh smelt it im still in shock wont be sleeping for a while now. horrified!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LauraMartin]

oh my god, thats terrible!!! you dodged a bullet there!

is there not a thermostat?

what brand is the heatmat? i have heard a few people say exo terras seem to over heat and some have said they have melted. i think when you have a heatmat under a viv and its sandwiched between the viv and whatever surface its on, there is no ventilation and its very easy to overheat.