How to sort dubias (or roaches)?

[combadao]

Can people share their own methods for sorting nymphs and juveniles from adult dubias?

I was doing it by hand, but I would love to hear ideas. I guess we can use different mesh sizes, buckets with holes, etc... but if anyone can be more specific I would be very grateful. Photos would help too.

 

[clear]

Get 4 tubs, drill large holes in the top one, smaller hole in the 2nd to top and smaller holes in the 3rd one. Make sure that the top holes are small enough adults can not get through.

 

[gothra]

I do it by hand too, just move the adults to another container and leave all the nymphs and babies behind...

 

[stewy84]

can some more ppl chime in on this one im about to abort the roaches cause it will take me half of a day to feed if i sort them by hand. and having more than one tub is not an option because i just dont have the room for it. thanks in advance

 

[Stl_Greaser]

For the method I use, the first thing you will need is 4 buckets from the hardware store. I use 5 gallon buckets from Home depot.

One of them you will leave they way you bought it. This one will catch all of the frass from the colony

The next one you need to drill 1/8" holes all across the bottom(there will be hundreds of holes). This one will allow all of the frass to fall through but only very few of the smallest nymphs will make it through the holes.

The third one you will want to drill 3/16" holes all across the bottom just like the one before. This will allow the smaller nymphs and frass to fall through to the next bucket with the 1/8" holes.

The forth one you will drill 3/8" holes all across the bottom like the previous two. This one will allow all but the adults and largest sub-adult nymphs to fall through.

Stack them all together largest holes top down tho the solid bucket on the bottom and pour some of your colony in. Shake the setup a bit to get the sorting going!

Hope this helps everyone.