can male dubia roaches climb surfaces the females cant?

[jscott]

i know male dubia roaches can flutter short distances but can they climb any better than the females and nymphs?

ive had no top on my colony for weeks and i dont tink ive lost any :roll: ...

reason i ask is, i used to have ONE male who looked like he was about to die. then one day i couldnt find him. is it possible the other roaches ate him or did he climb out :shock: ?!

before putting my colony in this container, i put the adult male, an adult female and a couple little ones. i wanted to see if they could climb the edges but the couldnt, not even with my assistance; i tried helping them up the side but their legs always slipped. i never saw them climb up so i just moved the colony in.

i figure theres no reason theyd want to climb the sides since they have a heat pad, fresh veggies, water crystals and all the other stuff.

if somebody could help me on this, it would give me some piece of mind :| .

 

[LQDragons]

I've never had them climb out, but I've had them grab the screen (some how) and try to escape (males only). But my jack russell is right there, he'll get anything that moves

 

[augsburg1530]

I have never had one escape on its own and while I've heard they can, I've never seen an adult male even flutter.

Why don't you have a top on your tote?

Eric

 

[NickZafo]

ive havnt had a problem with my guys yet...

but from what i hurd a top will help keep moisture in and keep it dark while giving you some peace of mind lol.

the only thing is my tote has ridges on the inside and they have no problem walking across the tiny ridges no matter how smooth they are.

 

[gregorydragon]

Are you saying you only had ONE adult male total or just one that looked bad? Maybe he ate a drank and was revitalized so now he doesn't look like he's near death.

 

[jscott]

theres no lid because i didnt have money to buy a new container. i had to rummage through my garage and backyard before i finally found an old rubbermaid storage bin.

i plan on getting some vasoline and rubbing it around the inside rim. that should hold em right?

yea i got a colony of 125 or so shipped for free, bestroach was kind enough to help me out there. i didnt feed off any of the adults so i know i didnt lose any that way.

there was only one male when they arrived and he disappeared shortly after. ill probably order a small shipment (50 or so) just to get some males in there. i figure some of the young i have will turn into males, i just have to wait. i already see a couple molts every day. im always taking out "roach sheds" :roll: .

 

[augsburg1530]

A lid is necessary to maintain humidity, especially in a more arid climate like So. Cal. You might want to think about making a cover out of something like cardboard for your dubia. You could cut out a square in the middle and glue a piece of screen over it or just poke holes in the cardboard so some airflow occurs. The lid will help hold in some moisture from the water crystals which will raise your humidity which the roaches need to breed well and be healthy. Plus a lid will help keep it darker in the tote so they are more comfortable which will also help with their breeding and it will help hold in heat. You could even put a towl, an old t-shirt or a blanket over the container. I would use whatever I had to make a lid for them as it will aid in their health and breeding. I think a lid is really important to maintain humidity, provide darkness and help hold in heat. Without humidity, darkness and heat you cannot hope to have a healthy breeding colony.

Hope that helps,

Eric

 

[patrickb]

Ditto what Eric said. But as for the original question, the males actually climb worse than the nymphs (more weight and less grip) and maybe a tad bit better than the females, though their climbing is so bad that once they reach a certain size, they can't climb the same surface they would be able to as smaller nymphs. A perfectly smooth tote fixes any issues with climbing completely.

But the males can jump and flutter for short distances. Now, this jump is more of a hop really if you compared them to crickets. The highest I ever seen one get is about 4" vertical which is nothing compared to their body size. The average is about 3-3.5" or so. The more males you have in the colony, the more likely they are gonna try to jump and flutter away to new territory due to the increased competition. It could be that there is a spot they can climb to in the container that is just close enough for them to get over after they hop and flutter. Try reducing the highest spot in the container by a few inches. Keep it under 6" and you should never have to worry about a male escaping without the lid on. Keep in mind, roaches can "ladder" up on top of each other and get an extra inch or two, thus the recommendation for a 6" minimum from the highest point inside the container to the top. Also make sure there is nothing like screen or something else near the top that they could flutter onto and get another hop/flutter routine off from as well.

And another note on the original post, I am not sure about whether Dubia would eat any of their weak or dead counterparts, but many species will as it is a good protein source. I just have yet to get a dead Dubia in my colony to know how they respond to it. Maybe one of the big breeders that sells them can chime in on that point. Either way, I doubt the male climbed out of the container and the use of vaseline would be a messy solution to a non-problem.

 

[jscott]

hey everyone, thanks for the input . ill try to get a lid on for humidity.

good news, i just found my first male has molted today:

hes the only one i have and there are plenty of females for him to "make friends with" :mrgreen: .

 

[patrickb]

Congrats on the male! You will have way more of them than you need before long.

Just a note, from your picture, it looks like there are no hiding places for them. The half of the container you photographed showed all the food being closer to the hidden half, and the one hiding place in the second photo was a paper towel tube. I assume that was part of the other half not in the original photo. If that is the case, increase the hiding/crawl space for the roaches a LOT. Eggcrates are good and reliable because they produce a lot of internal surface area in the container. If you can't get ahold of any, a myriad of pieces of folded cardboard, more paper towel tubes, even crumbled up paper would work. Anything a roach can climb into and feel secure will work just fine. The easier it is to get them out, the better it is for you (this eggcrates being ideal) If you can look into the tote in normal light and see that many roaches, they don't have enough hiding spots.

 

[jscott]

hi . i have an eggcrate flat in there, ill post some better pics;

here is a pic of what i see when i normally look into the tub:

here is a pic taken after flipping the crate over:

they group mostly in the area of the egg-crate adjacent to the under-tank heat pad.

 

[jscott]

another question;

could i use saran wrap to cover say, 75% of the top? would that help keep the humidity up?

 

[augsburg1530]

Saran wrap would help but wouldn't create the darkness they need. I would just cut out a piece of cardboard a little bigger than the top of your tote and just lay the cardboard over it with some holes punched in it. That should work for the short term until you can afford a proper top.

Also, I highly recommend you go to http://www.theroachguy.com and look at the info he has on his set up. The way you are set up now, your roaches will breed but they will quickly get under so much stress for lack of habitat that you won't get the optimum breeding out of them. The tote is just the container that holds their habitat, their habitat is really the egg crates. For a colony large enough to feed off, you need way more habitat than you currently have. I think you are moving in the right direction and you are doing a great job wanting to create space for a successful breeder colony. You just have to tweak your set up and fine tune it a bit and you will be on the road to breeding all the tasty morsels your dragon can eat. Keep asking questions and fine tuning your set up and you will be fine. I do, however, suggest you copy how the experts have their colony's set up and http://www.theroachguy.com is one of the best to copy.

Hope that helps,

Eric

 

[jscott]

i forgot to add, i have two extra egg crate flats but didnt think i needed them yet. all the roaches should be together for easy breeding right? i mean, as the colony grows i plan on adding more flats. would it benefit them to have 3 flats instead of the one right now?

 

[blondie098]

I would add the extra egg crates... they need the hidey spot to be happy -- and we have seen the nymphs climbing the first few inches (from bottom), but think that is when there is "food dust" accumulation... they don't get very far.

This is ours ~ you would never guess there are 750 in here! but they are happily "doing their thing" and we hope the colony explodes over the next few months. we bought the eggcrates in bulk (50) on ebay, they were about $.50/ea that way, including ship'g. Then we hotglue 2 together at a time.

That's food in the groove, we have a lot of nymphs that were struggling to get up into food dishes, so we sprinkle food/watergel loosely for little guys.