BlitzTheBeardie
Member
Hello everyone!
I've been breeding dubias for about 6 months now. My setup is a 40 gallon tote, 24" Flexwatt heat mat under, 160 Watt CHE in a 10.5 inch metal dome up top, Lid has big air vent holes cut in it with screen hot glued for protection, and a Hydro Farm Jump Start Thermostat controlling the temps. I keep the bin at 90 deg.
My colony has been doing awesome. I have tons of babies, but I've been noticing almost all my adult mature males are dying off! Every 2-3 days when I feed them... I find 3 or 4 dead males. This has went on now for about 2 months. I would guess my colony is about 1000-1500 total.
I recently cleaned out their bin. I removed all the frass and roaches and cleaned the tote with soap and water and put them back in the tote. It had no effect and didnt help at all. I have roughly 10 mature adult males and the rest of the 1500ish are females and nymphs. I would guess I have a good 500-750 mature adult females.... and only 10 (if that) mature adult males.
I feed them kale, carrots, celery, apples, oranges, bananas, etc and also make my own roach chow from chicken feed, fish food, and cricket gut load.
Does anyone know why my males are dying off? I just noticed this in the past few months...
But.... I could just be typing all this for nothing. It could possibly be my "girlfriend" selling them to the local pet store or something or someone? It's hard to tell what goes on around here esp when I'm at work.... and she is a compulsive liar and lies to me about anything and everything... so who knows! The local pet store around here was out of dubia, but they did just start selling them again! I just dont see how it's possible to have a colony of 1500.... and only have 8-10 adult males all of the sudden? hmm.....
Anyways,
Thanks....
I've been breeding dubias for about 6 months now. My setup is a 40 gallon tote, 24" Flexwatt heat mat under, 160 Watt CHE in a 10.5 inch metal dome up top, Lid has big air vent holes cut in it with screen hot glued for protection, and a Hydro Farm Jump Start Thermostat controlling the temps. I keep the bin at 90 deg.
My colony has been doing awesome. I have tons of babies, but I've been noticing almost all my adult mature males are dying off! Every 2-3 days when I feed them... I find 3 or 4 dead males. This has went on now for about 2 months. I would guess my colony is about 1000-1500 total.
I recently cleaned out their bin. I removed all the frass and roaches and cleaned the tote with soap and water and put them back in the tote. It had no effect and didnt help at all. I have roughly 10 mature adult males and the rest of the 1500ish are females and nymphs. I would guess I have a good 500-750 mature adult females.... and only 10 (if that) mature adult males.
I feed them kale, carrots, celery, apples, oranges, bananas, etc and also make my own roach chow from chicken feed, fish food, and cricket gut load.
Does anyone know why my males are dying off? I just noticed this in the past few months...
But.... I could just be typing all this for nothing. It could possibly be my "girlfriend" selling them to the local pet store or something or someone? It's hard to tell what goes on around here esp when I'm at work.... and she is a compulsive liar and lies to me about anything and everything... so who knows! The local pet store around here was out of dubia, but they did just start selling them again! I just dont see how it's possible to have a colony of 1500.... and only have 8-10 adult males all of the sudden? hmm.....
Anyways,
Thanks....