Self Cleaning Dubia Roach Bin?

Hi, I recently got a beardie and have been doing lots of research in dubia roaches. I just stumbled across this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sWZE-43-Ts and it shows a "self cleaning dubia roach bin" which seems amazing! Obviously eventually I would have to clean it out, but this would delay this by a lot wouldn't it? What is the downfall of this method since I don't see many people doing this at all.

Little roaches can squeeze through some remarkably small holes, but as long as the holes are small enough shouldn't work. What it won't do is sift out molts and dead bugs which was more a hassle for me.

If you aren't feeding lots of tiny roaches anymore.... I use a soil based substrate and keep superworms with my roaches. The supers eat the molts and dead roaches, leftover food etc and the grass mixes into the dirt. Stays much cleaner than when I kept them in a bin and I just have to water from time to time to keep the dirt moist. Haven't cleaned it in a year or two.

Taterbug":28zfisly said:

Little roaches can squeeze through some remarkably small holes, but as long as the holes are small enough shouldn't work. What it won't do is sift out molts and dead bugs which was more a hassle for me.

If you aren't feeding lots of tiny roaches anymore.... I use a soil based substrate and keep superworms with my roaches. The supers eat the molts and dead roaches, leftover food etc and the grass mixes into the dirt. Stays much cleaner than when I kept them in a bin and I just have to water from time to time to keep the dirt moist. Haven't cleaned it in a year or two.

Click to expand...

What kind of soil do you use? How big is the bin? This sounds pretty interesting. Is there a smell from this?
Also, how do you harvest? Just straight off the cartons?
What do you consider "tiny" roaches?

I'm also very interested in the supers and dubia soil subtrate set up. I have a spare 30x30x45 exo terra sitting empty. Perhaps this is a usr for it.

Do you let the morios pupate into beetles? I have a feeling that if I tried this the set up would be overrun with morios.

It's a mix of sand and potting soil with a bit of cocohusk mixed in. It only smells if I put too much food in, or food that gives a bad smell. Keeping it watered and damp (at least on the food side) the soil bacteria help decompose the stinky stuff and it is more of a outdoorsy smell.

The morios do pupate but the population of beetles seems low typically. They dont like to pupate in very crowded conditions, but use wood and stuff to burrow into and pupate.

I don't use egg crates, but some branches, tiles and other "debris". The bugs cluster under things and the smaller ones like to burrow.

Anything smaller than 1/2" is tricky to gather since you need so many per meal. Over that I just pick them out, flipping logs/tiles if I need too. Supers come up to the food or when I add water and also cluster under tiles so are easy to collect. I even dig around for tiny super for my betta fish.

My setup is in a 20L
http://thelizardmadness.tumblr.com/post/163447355673

Wow that actually looks really great! Do you think you are able to feed off the supers? Also, how many reptiles do you feed with this kind of set up? I assume there's an heating pad under to keep temps up?

There are two pads, one on the side and one on the bottom off to the right. My house is pretty cool in the winter. I feed off both roaches and supers from this. I only have one adult dragon but I could probaly feed more easily. A bigger setup or more places to hide + more food would mean more production. I don't need a huge population so I just don't feed them a huge amount.

They are also really fun to watch interact with each other and their environment.

Thank you for sharing the picture and info on your set up. I have everything available to start this sort of set up. I'm thinking of putting 10 adult females, 2 adult males and a bunch of mixed size, along with 5 or so mature supers.

Having cleaned out the colony yesterday, I can appreciate not needing to clean out.