My Dubia bin got mold ):

[Jess]

Yup. Some loser at the reptile show told me that it was an awesome idea to put my orange slices on top of the egg cartons, so they wouldn't be covered in crap and I can just take off the peel when they are eaten. I've been doing that for the last 3 weeks, and today when I opened my bin the tops of the egg cartons had grown mold. I'm so ticked off right now. That stupid roach vendor ripped me off on water crystals too...

I cut off the moldy tops of the egg cartons, threw away the remaining oranges, and gave them some fresh ground dog food and orange halves. I put the oranges in the water gel dish this time, so they aren't touching the egg cartons. Will my colony be OK? They are all doing really well so far, and are breeding already even though my colony is small. They all look really healthy still. There was one male at the bottom who looked like he had just died, but IDK if he was just old, or maybe it was because they had run out of dog food.
Dud is brumating, so I won't need to feed them off until another month or two. If they ate some mold, that will give them some time for it to pass through their systems right?

Please tell me I don't have to start over!

I'm not having a good day.

 

[randommonks]

I don't think you should see too much loss because the mold was localized to the egg carton. I lost about 1/5 of my colony to mold when I first got them (high humidity in contant with cat food and being outside) which sprung up overnight, but the remaining roaches didn't seem to have an ill effect. Since you caught it early and it didn't spread to anything they were eating, they should be fine. It's a shame that the roach breeder would give you such bad advice and rip you off. When I feed fresh food I normally put it on top of the water crystals (like you're doing) or as far away from the cat food as possible.

 

[Jess]

OK, thanks. I was worried I might have to start over with them, because they were "contaminated" from the mold! They don't seem to be affected by it, other than the one dead male. They don't hang out at the top of the cartons anyways.

My bin is really tiny (Like, smaller than a 10 gal) so I'm kinda bummed that I can't keep food on top of the cartons anymore.

Yeah, I know. When I confronted him about ripping me off with the crystals, he was mean too!
Thankfully I didn't get my roaches from him though... I got them from JenFid on here. I just bought egg cartons and crystals from him, so he only got $3 out of me LOL.

 

[randommonks]

I'm thinking by the time you start feeding them, all the mold should be out of their systems. Just watch for any unusual deaths, and remove them (I've noticed missing heads on some dead males).

How did he rip you off and why on earth was he mean?

 

[clear]

Its usually when they eat molded food that becomes a problem. I think your be fine.

 

[Jess]

I'm thinking by the time you start feeding them, all the mold should be out of their systems. Just watch for any unusual deaths, and remove them (I've noticed missing heads on some dead males).

How did he rip you off and why on earth was he mean?

Missing heads? Fun. *Shudders* (Dead roaches really disturb me, even with their heads still on :shock: )

And I bought the water crystals from his table because it was the first one I saw there, but later I saw twice the amount for the same price. So I went back to his table to tell him, and he got really ticked off and insisted they were the same amount even though they obviously weren't. The first time I talked to him he said his crystals would make 1 gallon, and when I came back and complained he told me it would make 2-3 gallons like the other crystals I saw. :roll: It was only $2, so not that big of a deal, but it annoyed me that he lied and was so rude the second time I talked to him.

 

[randommonks]

Ugh it's a shame that there are people like that. If you have a Lowes near you, I got a pound of water crystals (Soil Moist) for $12. I bought it about 2 months ago, and have barely used 5% of it.

I know what you mean about the dead roaches. I've gotten to the point where I can handle the live ones without problems, but I still need a garbage bag over my hand to pick up the dead ones. I also screamed like a little girl when an American cockroach was scuttling around my bathroom cupbard and freaked me out. I had to do the cup/postcard and flush capture technique. Although any escaped dubia I can handle with no problem... :roll:

 

[Jess]

Well, apparently my mold problem is from the oranges themselves! I places the orange halves so that they weren't touching anything, and they had mold again when I checked on them today (It's only been 2 or 3 days since I put them in there). Will my dubia still breed if I don't give them oranges?

I can't even touch my dead roaches through a paper bad... I have to use tweezers! And I'm looking into getting a much longer pair of them.

The good news is that no more roaches have died, so I'm guessing that the mold didn't effect them.

 

[randommonks]

I've honestly never fed oranges, but I do give them baby carrots a couple times a week. I think the general rule is that you should pull out the fresh food after a couple of days, just in case mold does set in. So if you give oranges, maybe give it every other day or so.