dubia roaches - fresh molt

[KMAC]

Hello,

Thought you would like to see a fleshly molted roach, it looks cracking:

[KMAC]

These roaches are very easy to care for. One thing I dont do is dust them as I mix calcium D3 supplements through the bug grub that they eat so I feel my frogs get enough from gut loading when using these.

I use decent sized plastic storage tubs From home bargins to house them in. I Pearce holes in the lid for ventilation.

I then place 2 of these inside a larger storage tub to help combat escaping but these guys find it harder to escape than crickets.

I change the bug grub, water gel once a week, I use very small caps as the smaller roaches will hide in the food if you use large ones.

I have some spare wood and aluminium mesh so im going to build a simple stand for the heat mat to sit on and them mesh on top and bottom to save the plastic from melting at each end.

I bought egg crates as I didnt want to to use ones from super market incase they hold a salmonella strain.

Im still squeamish with insects so I have a hoover designed to hoover them up and then place them in the feeding cups.

Ill post some pictures so you know what I mean.

You dont need to feed as many roaches compared to crickets so I place 4 for each frog every second night.

My frogs are still quite young so I feed <10mm size.

Pics to follow...

[KMAC]

So heres my food and water, arkvits is mixed in the grub





The tools for the squeamish kind...

This hoover is from China and is designed to remove bugs and to dispose of them without killing them, I use it for getting bugs into a feeder



I also find these quite useful, these are also used for removing bugs or picking up animal poo



Although I use digital hygrometers and thermometers I recently bought a thermometer gun that I use for spot checking and also my sons bath

I am on the lookout for one that also reads humidity



I also use a small cheap UV LED torch, this is more for spot cleaning and identifying frog urine.



Moving on to roach hotel....

The large tub for holding the roach enclosures, I do need to punch more holes in the lids but if I have any aluminium mesh I will cut a hole and glue it to the lid...



The 2 hotels, one is holding a group of adults near maturity and once they do I have spare tubs for males, females, feeding stock and breeding



The adult roaches





The young and ones used as food






Any suggestions for improvements bar a bit more ventilation?

[elly]

no suggestions here, but do you know approximately how often your roaches have young?

[KMAC]

This is a new set up so the adults are sub im waiting on them being mature, the young are ones im buying until im established

[KMAC]

This is my frog setup if you havent already seen it: https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...8&share_type=t

[elly]

Very nice setup, both for frogs and bugs. With my own I made the mistake of not keeping it warm enough and not having enough roaches to begin with so my population growth has been slow.

[KMAC]

Im going to build a stand for the heat mat out of some spare aluminium mesh that way the mat is aerated and doesnt touch any of the plastic, ill post a pic when im done to give u an idea

[KMAC]

This is the mesh im going to use to make the stand and provide better aeration for roaches.



Some spare 2" x 1" wood for the stand frame

[KMAC]

Started the construction of the 2 layer heat mat stand so this is the stage im at. I will be applying a top layer of mesh the roach hotels will sit on and then a raised bottom layer for the heat mat to sit on.....

Wood is cut and ready to be glued together



Wood is glued





Ready for mesh



Once ive added the mesh ill post a pic of it complete......

[KMAC]

Very nice setup, both for frogs and bugs. With my own I made the mistake of not keeping it warm enough and not having enough roaches to begin with so my population growth has been slow.

So here you go elly the KMAC way of making heat mats safe for plastic tubs.....

Glue some aluminium mesh to the wooden stand



Put some draft excluder or glue rubber feat to the base of a kitchen tile, this is what the heat mat will sit on



This will then slide under the stand



The roach hotels can then sit on top of the stand.

To me this is the safest way of housing heat mats.

[KMAC]

The final touch, the heat mat in place





Then the roach hotels sit on top...





Plenty of aeration that helps your heat mat last longer also.



Hopefully this helps you build a safer enclosure for you and your insect.

[KMAC]

Roach hotels have been updated for better ventilation.

I had spare mesh left so I cut a square out of each lid got some mesh and glued it to the inside of the lids.
I then got clear weather tape and went round the edges for a bit more added security but mainly to cover sharp ends of the mesh.

This is a picture of my sub adult and my <10mm feeding roaches, each in separate boxes and include the update



A close up





As mentioned these boxes are then placed into a larger storage tub that usually has enough space to house some daily tools used.



Close up



It might look as if insects could escape with gaps, but here is the opposite side showing its sealed with glue and tape.





The ventilation has improved a great deal as I had slight condensation on walls beside the food, this is now gone.

[Dace]

no suggestions here, but do you know approximately how often your roaches have young?

They have young about once a month. Some of the smaller species like turkestans reproduce faster and make better feeders for frogs.

[KMAC]

I might give them a try dace, do you have an in house link to the species you mention so I can have a look at them?

dubia wise any time I feed them I have none left in morning, but I have over 300 <10mm size which is a good size for my young Agalychnis callidryas. I use this species because I hear nutrition wise they are better compared to crickets for nutrition, but they dont lay eggs as you know unless they abort but the big plus to me also is they 'generally' cannot breed in a Northern UK home unless you provide the correct environment, this helps me justify things to my wife.

When my frogs are older I will feed a slightly larger size.

But please do provide a link