Starting A Dubia Colony

[italipinos8]

I just ordered 180 mixed dubias from the roach guy. I wasnt sure if 90 would be enough so i doubled the order to make sure. I got a couple of questions though:
1. Do you need to use egg carton flats or is there something else you can use?
2. Is 180 (not sure how many adults) be enough to feed a stabilized diet to 5 leos, and 2 bearded dragons?
3. Has anyone had any escapees? My mom doesnt want them infesting the house.:main_huh:

 

[Barbel]

YAY! As grossed out as I was at the thought of roaches in my house it is 1000 times better than crickets! I only started out with 50 roaches back in November and I have a lot now and it's wonderful!

1. I personally do not want to spend money on eggflats, so I just use whatever cardboard I can find. Like if you guys eat eggs, when you run out of eggs, use the carton or use a small cardboard box or two and just kind of arrange them so they make a dark place for the roaches to hide.

2. 180 is a lot of roaches! I would probably not touch them for about 6 weeks and let them breed a little bit. It took mine about that long to have their first litter. Once you know they are breeding then you should be able to start feeding off of them. You may have to feed sparingly at first, but a few months from now you should be good.

3. I did have some get out, but that was my kitty cat's fault. I have the bin with the screen set up just like the roach guy suggests. She (the cat) is always listening to them scatter around in there. I didn't see it happen, but I know it was her! She either was laying on the screen or jumped onto it and it collapsed into the tub. Some of them climbed out and we found them in that same room. That was probably two months ago and we haven't seen one since. Unless you guys like never clean your house, they are not going to survive long enough to infest your house. If you get a tub with a little bit of texture and they climb up, a row of smooth packing tape around the inside of the tub will keep them from getting out.

Hope that was helpful; good luck!

 

[houseape57]

I would suggest not using any used egg cartons. Reason being that if there was a broken egg in one of them, that festers, roaches eat it, geckos eats roach, sick geckos. :main_thumbsdown: I learned the hard way when I first started using crickets and used egg cartons. Just my two cents...:main_yes:

Kathy

 

[Barbel]

I would suggest not using any used egg cartons. Reason being that if there was a broken egg in one of them, that festers, roaches eat it, geckos eats roach, sick geckos. I learned the hard way when I first started using crickets and used egg cartons. Just my two cents...

I use it all the time and it's fine. You obviously want to check and make sure anything you put in there is clean. If something does spill or get onto any cardboard you intend to use, don't use it. Even if you clean it as best as you can, some of it will have been absorbed.

 

[LizMarie]

I ordered from the roach guy too just a week or so ago. He's fast and easy but some advise open the box IN THE BIN before you have them running all over the place because he now he packages the roaches as a box within a box. Just beware. I didn't know and was very annoyed to open the box and find a nice BIG male dubia looking at me like, "Hello, I was sleeping!." I order 117 when he was throwing the sale. I got a mix of really small nymphs, very large nymphs and around 3 - 4 pairs of adults. I actually have a thread around here of how I have them set up. I personally like the use of egg cartons but I can't seem to find any so I used the cardboard box they came in and cut off the flaps, then I threw in some paper towels rolls and they don't seem to have a problem with it.

Which I could help with your other question but I can't since I just have one leo, lol.

That I know of Dubias aren't considered an invasive species of roach because they need very High Temperatures to breed. So if you live in a state with really high temps and lots of humidity you might want to watch out.

 

[italipinos8]

Thanks for the info. I was planning on leaving them for a month until feeding them to the geckos. I guess i will just use some of the cardboard laying around the house.

 

[clear]

You can use egg crates. I have hardly ever seen any egg crates with egg left overs on them.

 

[italipinos8]

One More Question

How do you keep the humidity up? I was thinking that i could possible put a container in there with peat moss but im not sure if that would cause too much bacteria.

 

[Barbel]

How do you keep the humidity up? I was thinking that i could possible put a container in there with peat moss but im not sure if that would cause too much bacteria.

I probably wouldn't do that because of the bacteria issue. I just spray down the whole tub every once in a while. Even being here in the desert where it is dry as heck, I don't spray everyday and they are still doing fine and breeding like crazy. You also need to watch out for mold. When I was researching that was something a lot of articles said to look out for because it can harm your colony. Just make sure any food you put in there stays pretty fresh. I don't usually have an issue with mold though because they eat a lot and it's usually gone before it has time to turn.