feeders are hiding!!

Question
ok so I know this isn't DIRECTLY reptile related but I really didn't know where else to go.  My dubia roaches just came in for my 3 leo's so after gutloading for a day I threw some in last night.  What I noticed is that, while my girls got a few bugs, most ended up disappearing into various parts of the tank.  I have a pretty decent desert viv in my opinion and I really don't want to tear it apart and stress them out just to find these things..especially when I know they'd just hide again after I got them out.  So basically what I'm asking is, should I worry about these roaches hiding for good and possibly growing too big for them to eat? Or do I trust my leo's hunting skills to eventually get the roaches whenever they do decide to come out looking for food maybe?  I put an apple core in the middle of the tank last night to try and draw the roaches out in the open.  Is there something else I could use that would be more effective at drawing them out? I know people use potato for crickets so I kinda used that idea but I feel like roaches are a bit more skittish and reluctant to come out.  I feel like I'm going to have to fill in small nooks and crannies in my caves and logs...but i'd like to draw them out first to fulfill their destiny!!!

Answer
Hi Mike,

Feeders that run for cover is certainly a reptile related problem and it happens to varying degrees with all the different live insects. I breed a couple different species of roaches and they are naturally more likely to come out into the open at night which will give your nocturnal leos a good chance to eliminate them. Putting their only food source in the middle, as you are doing, should also help. Roaches have a sweet tooth so fruit may work best. The occasional roach may manage to run the gauntlet long enough to grow too large but I find that to be a rare occurence. Roaches don't seem to have the same inclination to nibble on reptile toes and tails the way crickets tend to and providing some food for them will help avoid that completely.

Dubias are not good climbers on slick surfaces so you might try using a small smooth sided ceramic feeding dish as well. It would have to be not much more then a couple inches deep for leos. You can make it more accessible for them by burying it in  the substrate. It it still seems too high for your leos to see down into  then you can place some pieces of slate rock around it to give them a platform to climb onto and look down into the dish. I used that technique to feed roaches to terrestrial skinks (that were housed with a burrowing substrate) with good success. The skinks quickly learned to check the dish for food!