B. Dubia Theory 2 month results

[Mentat]

Thanks for the information ! Will try veggie/fruit diet with my roach colony and note results here in a few weeks .

[JeffreH]

Very cool DA - glad you are seeing some notable results. It will be interesting to see the net effect on larger sample sizes.

I'll be in Amazonian rainforest for the next two weeks but I'd like to be updated on anything new in the workings on this experiment. If you can get some solid numerical data on everything you are testing fo; I might be able to generate some hypothetical population models for each test group in order to see how statistically significant your data is and I can model the average difference after X replications seen between each experimental group. Modeling isn't going to yield real-world, conclusive data in its own right... but we can run something like 1000 replications and see a sort of hypothetical population growth rate to compare with each group.

[demon amphibians]

certainly Jeff. I will do the best i can to get the most detailed information I can. Just PM me and give me details on how particular you want this information annualized I just bought about 4 dozen different sized containers for an upcoming sale in July so i have plenty of material to work with now.

[demon amphibians]

My next experiment will be on cannibalization between hissers and dubia. To better find out if they can truly be housed to gether. Like the last experiment, i will have many containers with a variation of different conditions to get a more certain result. When i start i will give the full details and pic's. And at the end a solid answer to the question.

[demon amphibians]

So just as an update on the protein theory. It has been about 3 months since i started giving nothing but plant matter to my roaches. And as of a week ago i have really begun to see the difference in big ways. I have only added about 150 new breeders to the colony with in the month so my number reproduced would naturally be larger then before. Anywhere from 500 to 1500 a month. But the new roaches i place in the breeder bin takes about 2 months before i start seeing this improvement. Anyhow I did my normal 2 week harvest and which normally i get about 7000 total sometimes less sometimes around 8,000. That is about half of what i should be getting. last month i harvested about 10,000 for the month which isn't bad but it is 8,000 less then where i should be and it was twice the improvement from when i was feeding protein. for this two week cycle i harvested over 20,000. this is with 1200 breeding females. IF i have this same out come a week from now when i harvest i will be producing 40,000 babies each breeding cycle that is 4,000 more then where i should be at with the number of breeders i have, if they each have 35 young each batch. so i am getting close to 400 percent more than i was when i fed protein. now my first assumption is i am just getting lucky but i took a sneak peak today at my breeder bin and it is looking like another 20,000 plus harvest.
my point in all of this is protein is bad news when you mix with dubia. at first i thought a 60 percent improvement was the answer i was looking for but this month i have come to find that it will quadruple your production. As i explained before protein promotes mass death in your colony and does NOT contribute to a speedy growth. I have also had conversations with people who will swear up and down that females need protein to reproduce. This could not be more incorrect. I know i am just beating a dead horse repeating what i have already stated but this is a subject that needs reiterated. If anything i would say use protein as a control method if your colony starts to become to large and out of control.

[demon amphibians]

this is 10,000 this is where i stopped counting because it took just to darn long this is roughly half of what i harvested last week for a 2 week breeding cycle. the container they are in is 14 inch by 9 inch.

[Mentat]

...As i explained before protein promotes mass death in your colony and does NOT contribute to a speedy growth. I have also had conversations with people who will swear up and down that females need protein to reproduce. This could not be more incorrect. I know i am just beating a dead horse repeating what i have already stated but this is a subject that needs reiterated. If anything i would say use protein as a control method if your colony starts to become to large and out of control.

Thanks for information! I'm going all veggie myself for my small home use colony, just trying to reduce their deaths. Ten thousand baby roaches... wow; my whole colony does not reach 1 thousand !