YAY!

[Barbel]

I am so excited! I checked on my dubia's this morning and after nearly two long months they have finally popped out some babies! Who knew that roaches breeding in your house would be so exciting!! My mealies have also started pupating over the past week. I know it will still be awhile until I can start feeding from my colonies, but I am that much closer to being off crickets for good and that makes me REALLY HAPPY!!!!

I do have a couple questions about mealies.
Do the pupae move or do they pretty much just lay there?
Can the beatles crawl up smooth surfaces?
I had them in a 10 gallon tank without a top for the past couple weeks. I moved them into a plastic tub with a locking lid. Do I need to drill air holes into it, or is it okay closed off?
Thanks for any advice!

 

[Spooki]

i would drill air holes in your container. bugs need air too.

i haven't raised meal worms since 3rd grade (lol.. class project), i don't think the beetles can crawl UP a smooth surface but they can move pretty well on flat smooth surfaces. (in class we had beetle races, mine lost because he went the wrong way)

 

[HepCatMoe]

definitely need air holes!

then put some kind of screening over the holes. i used a hot glue gun to seal the mesh over the holes..

 

[nats]

I am so excited! I checked on my dubia's this morning and after nearly two long months they have finally popped out some babies! Who knew that roaches breeding in your house would be so exciting!! My mealies have also started pupating over the past week. I know it will still be awhile until I can start feeding from my colonies, but I am that much closer to being off crickets for good and that makes me REALLY HAPPY!!!!

I do have a couple questions about mealies.
Do the pupae move or do they pretty much just lay there?
Can the beatles crawl up smooth surfaces?
I had them in a 10 gallon tank without a top for the past couple weeks. I moved them into a plastic tub with a locking lid. Do I need to drill air holes into it, or is it okay closed off?
Thanks for any advice!

Congrats on the dubia babies, I still dont have any
Beetles can not climb smooth surfaces, in fact, they cant do much of anything except make more mealies.

No, the pupea (aliens, as I like to call them) dont move very much.
They sort of "wiggle" creepily when touched.

 

[thekooliest]

That is how I felt (although I only had time to read the first two sentences ). But it had been 2 long months with nothing, and I was like...what is everyone talking about, they have a lot of babies. And then I checked again and there were a ton. I almost jumped with happiness

 

[thekooliest]

Congrats on the dubia babies, I still dont have any
Beetles can not climb smooth surfaces, in fact, they cant do much of anything except make more mealies.

No, the pupea (aliens, as I like to call them) dont move very much.
They sort of "wiggle" creepily when touched.

They will come :main_robin:

 

[Snowy & Petra de Gecko]

Mealies

I do have a couple questions about mealies.
Do the pupae move or do they pretty much just lay there?
Can the beatles crawl up smooth surfaces?
I had them in a 10 gallon tank without a top for the past couple weeks. I moved them into a plastic tub with a locking lid. Do I need to drill air holes into it, or is it okay closed off?
Thanks for any advice!

1) The pupae move only when touched (as someone else mentioned.)

2) I do not think that the beetles can climb. However, they do have wings. It is said that they do not fly as long as they have a nice home. I have not heard where they fly out of the box ... at least not yet.

3) They need airholes. I took a plastic shoe box, cut out a portion of the lid and used a glue gun to attach screen mesh.

4) You might want to use two or three plastic shoe boxes. One for the beetles and their eggs, One for the mealies and the last one for the pupae. I have heard that mealies and beetles will eat the eggs and the pupae if they do not have enough moisture. But, that may not be a problem if you do not need that many mealies.

 

[hoppslover]

It was amazing for me the first time I saw that my Dubias had babies. I pulled out an egg crate to see the mother with about 20 little guys all huddled up under her. I was like wow. As for mealworms I have mine in a 3 drawer sterilite container. I think the drawers are about 3" deep, and I have never had any beetles escape. Give them what they need and some places to hide "paper or egg crates" with their food, and I dont think they want to leave all that good stuff.

 

[nats]

They will come :main_robin:

I think it's too cool in there for them.
In spite of the fact that I have the UTH crancked way up, the floor is still only 78F!!
When I get my Protean terrarium from Jason, I am going to transfer the roaches to Newpy's tank, since it has a properly mounted UTH, and it's larger.

 

[Barbel]

Thanks for all the responses. I checked on my mealies today and since I have reduced the amount of moisture for them, the pupae have more than doubled over the past week. Even more exciting, I saw a beetle roaming around! I only saw the one, but I know more are soon to come. I am so glad because spending 50+ bucks a month on crickets is really annoying! I am going to start breeding my geckos soon, so that number would just increase. Hopefully by the time we get some babies, I will have plenty of self-sustaining food.