It's possible to breed crickets. I did it for a year. I don't recommend it. Breed roaches. There are so many advantages to roaches compared to crickets:
How to Convince One’s Parents or Spouse to Own Dubias
Get a nice big order of crickets in and let your parent/spouse smell those nasty suckers for a few minutes. Take a nice, deep breath. Especially if the crickets have been in the bin for a week or so - Dubia are odorless.
Then place that nice order of crickets next to his/her bed for the night and see if he or she sleeps - Dubia are silent.
Leave those crix by his/her bed for just a week and let him or her see how fast they die. A cricket's entire life cycle is 8 weeks. Dubia live for 18-24 months. Do the math on the economics with him. -You’ll get free baby dubias out of the deal if you use a heating pad.
There's far more meat per roach as a percent of body weight (less chitin) than a cricket, making them easier to digest for your dragon.
At the end of a month with your parent/spouse having completely lost their sanity due to sleeplessness and he/she smells like a giant pile of decomposing organic waste due to sleeping with the bugs, look around the house with them and see how many fugitive crix you have. Some of them escape. I don't care how careful you may be, they get loose! So, after a mere 30 days, you now have a cricket infestation because Mom/Dad/Spouse didn't want tropical roaches. The Japanese may believe finding a cricket in the home is a lucky omen, but I’m willing to bet they kill the second one after a few nights!
Adult dubia are entirely too lazy to climb out of a Rubbermaid bin. If you want extra security for the tiny nymphs, smear Vaseline around the top 4 inches of the bin on the inside or, if you can get it to stick, put clear packing tape around the rim with the slick side facing the interior of the bin. They definitely will never make it over the clear side. - Dubia can be contained. This will also contain/entertain your now insane parent/spouse as they smear that Vaseline around and around and around the rim of the bin with mad-eyed intensity.
Further, if you drop one while feeding your dragon, dubia aren’t that fast…and they get slower as they cool off. You’ll catch your escapee. Throw out a handful of crickets in the living room and have your glassy-eyed parent/spouse chase those babies down!
Crickets cannibalize their young and keeping the different sizes of crix separated when you breed them is a pain and takes up a lot of space. - Dubia do not eat each other. If you have way too many adult males, the most they'll do is chew on each others' wing tips. If your parents raised you properly, they certainly don’t want you associating with a bunch of cannibals.
Unlike the dreaded German and American cockroaches, dubia can't survive by just eating anything (like wallpaper paste, animal dander, etc.). They eat pretty much what we do, especially fruit so, if your home is clean, dubia couldn't survive due to lack of food. Even in their native homeland of Guayana, they do not infest homes. Tropical roaches actually prefer to live in leaf litter, such as a jungle floor would have.
Dubia can’t reproduce very successfully below 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t know about yours, but my home is cooler than that. Ever been down in a basement in winter and heard a cricket? They’re much harder to freeze.
Dubia don't carry any parasites that I know of. Crix, on the other hand, can harbor pinworms and, since their cousin the grasshopper can carry tapeworms, it's likely crix can, as well, though I haven’t verified it yet.
To my knowledge, none of the bacterial or viral illnesses transmissible from common American or German roaches to humans can be carried by dubia.
If this doesn't convince your parents/spouse to buy dubia, it is a moot point because, by the end of your experiment, your parents/spouse will be clinically insane and legally unable to exercise judgement, which will leave the decision to buy dubia completely within your control!
Frank
