Dubia Roach setup before/after

[Sublime]

Yeah I do the same thing... Spent good money on these guys and want to make sure I get the most production out of them before they die... Seems kind of harsh, lol.

[ConVexity]

Crafty! lol
Macgyver!

[Kreamcheese]

Copied the idea from a link that somebody posted on a previous thread of mine. Hopefully I get some breeding soon!

[MonsterPyxie]

VERY good information in here, and I mostly approve of your new set up.

Only thing I have a problem with is the egg crate.

FYI, I have around 1300-1400 dubia....... on 2 egg crates. haha. They love to be cramped. I have my egg crate flipped over to match each other, and glued together with a glue gun in a few places to create a "hotel" of sorts. Mainly to be sure the egg crate doesn't settle onto one another restricting space. I will have to take a picture probably to show you.


As per stated earlier about avocado. I heard from a insect forum about a guy that fed avocado for a while to his dubia, and they always ate it up. I have since fed mine avocado a few times with no issue. So I wouldn't hesitate to feed them it again.

Also I have been feeding them banana's this week. Wait until the banana is starting to brown, I pulled the stem out to give them a starting point, and 2-3 days later, there is nothing left but a few paper thin parts of the peel

you should feed a 1/4 or 1/8th of what I do, due to you having a small colony. So cut the banana, or avacoto in 1/4 or so, and drop it in there. Too much and it will go bad and mold, or such after a few days with that heat.


Mine bunch up on each other sometimes on the bottom. I open the top and they scurry over back to the egg crate.

I'll have to take a few pictures today. My males have been acting crazy, dancing/fighting, and in general just being unusual. dunno if its just heavy mating, or the banana's are fermented and there all drunk and routy. lol!

[steest]

NICE!!! I see you went with the blanket insulation! Wonder who post that idea haha... I am glad it works, that is so weird that your roaches are not going on the egg crates... Mine hardly leave them.. Cant wait for my 2,000 dubia to get here on thursday!

[Kreamcheese]

Monster thank you for that tip! I'm gonna go do the egg crate thing right now. I have about 350 large nymphs who will hopefully start molting into adults soon. Already noticed a few have. Probably have around 20 adult females and 15 or so adult males. Soon as those nymphs make it to adults I should be seeing loads of tiny ones! My temps are perfect ever since I re-did my set up.

Steest it seems now that most of the roaches crowd on the bottom of the egg crates now. I'm gonna do what monster said and I'm sure that will help the situation. And dang you bought 2,000?? Did you get nymphs or adults? or a mix? That probably cost a ton!

[MonsterPyxie]

heres how it sits as I open the top. little piece of egg crate is so they can climb onto the big bit. If you look at the bottom left, by the oranges, that black bit is all of whats left of two bananas, peels and all. just the stem's pulled out.



some stay under the little bit, as I put the oranges under there. The oranges where put in less then 24 hours ago



Heres how they are glued together, hard to see in there, but these two egg crates feel to be about 5lbs. they are absolutely jammed together in the bottom of it.



here are a few laying at the bottom.



Waiting just a bit longer, another week or two, then I will remove them all, clean up all the frass, shed exoskeletons, and such. then I will paint the clear bin black on the outside to block out more light. (clear plastic is said to have less pores in the plastics. Not even the babies can climb the sides of this container, so thats why I bought a clear one)


here is a picture from almost 2 weeks ago to show there numbers.

[steest]

Nice Monster, cool setup!

@Kream Yeah thats weird that they do that. I am sure it is nothing to worry about though.
I bought small nymphs, was $80 so not too bad.

[BG]

Good work fellas. That is a nice healthy amount. Keep it coming. We have hungry mouths to feed.lol

[Kreamcheese]

Like the setup monster. I did the same with the egg crate and they seem to like it. They're crammed like crazy in there. The only problem i see with that is when I go to clean out the bin it will be hard to get them out of the egg crate. Guess I can just put the egg crates in another container while I'm cleaning it out.

[JeffreH]

As per stated earlier about avocado. I heard from a insect forum about a guy that fed avocado for a while to his dubia, and they always ate it up. I have since fed mine avocado a few times with no issue. So I wouldn't hesitate to feed them it again.

The issue isn't actually with roaches becoming harmed by the avocado, they can virtually eat anything lol. Roaches have extremely powerful antibiotics in their bodies in addition to vast arrays of digestive enzymes that allow them to virtuallly chug through anything. This is why the pest species can live in such repulsive environments; I think more studies need to be done on roaches in universities to explore the power of these natural antibiotics honestly...

The problem is the unknown toxicity to birds. Which translates into potential hazards for pet reptiles who are very closely related on the phylogeny tree to birds. Because most of us use B. dubia as feeders, its best to avoid foods that are known to be toxic on the chance that insects who consume it might transfer it to the herp in their gut. It's known to be deadly and lethal if consumed by birds and it is also speculated to be harmful if ingested by cats, dogs, horses...

I don't think its an issue for frogs, as avocado seems to only be a known hazard for birds and potentially lizards, but I'd opt to avoid it "just in case" and to anyone who owns phibs and reptiles and are feeding dubia to both from the same dubia colony.

[steest]

Thanks jeff, you sure know your sh*t.

And I am soo looking forward to the roaches you sent! Should be here today or tomorrow!

[MonsterPyxie]

The issue isn't actually with roaches becoming harmed by the avocado, they can virtually eat anything lol. Roaches have extremely powerful antibiotics in their bodies in addition to vast arrays of digestive enzymes that allow them to virtuallly chug through anything. This is why the pest species can live in such repulsive environments; I think more studies need to be done on roaches in universities to explore the power of these natural antibiotics honestly...

The problem is the unknown toxicity to birds. Which translates into potential hazards for pet reptiles who are very closely related on the phylogeny tree to birds. Because most of us use B. dubia as feeders, its best to avoid foods that are known to be toxic on the chance that insects who consume it might transfer it to the herp in their gut. It's known to be deadly and lethal if consumed by birds and it is also speculated to be harmful if ingested by cats, dogs, horses...

I don't think its an issue for frogs, as avocado seems to only be a known hazard for birds and potentially lizards, but I'd opt to avoid it "just in case" and to anyone who owns phibs and reptiles and are feeding dubia to both from the same dubia colony.

Ah, ok! good info! I didn't think of it from that "angle"!

[Sublime]

There should be a B. Dubia section with other feeder roaches on this forum run by Jeff. That would be pretty sick, we could put together a care sheet.