Cleaner Crews Bad!?!?!

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Bailey91990

Hatchling Member
So the other week I got 1000medium mixed roaches from WestCoastRoaches. I love going through them. And everytime you find a few beetles in with your roaches to clean up what there being shipped in. This time I literally found about 30beetles and a few different worms. Which thats a Cleaner Crew. There was enough for me to pick them out and start my own Crew and add them to my Dubia Colony that I been breeding for 5months now. I was pretty excited because they cost like 5-10$ to buy on there own and I just pretty much got them for free & I wanted one anyways.
Next day I went to my local pet store to buy some Superworms. The girl who works there and breeds all there insects and takes care of all the reptiles telling me how her sister bought a cleaning crew and added it to her Dubia Colony and that it was the WORST thing shes ever done. They started eating Roaches who just shed, or eating Roaches who are alittle sick and even eating just perfectly fine healthy roaches. That they would gain up on a Roach and start crawling inside them and kill them. She started noticing after adding the Cleaner Crew that her Roaches were dying and she was losing numbers because she kept track. One day she went in there and seen a Roach laying on its back fralling its legs around, she picked it up and looked at it & thought possibly there was some disease in the Colony. She put that Roach in a container and kept and eye on it. Next day she checked on it and it looked like a shed, all the meat and insides were gone and there were a few Cleaner Crews in there which she didnt put any in there. & she told me how they multiple soooo fast.
Wanted to know if anyone else ever had this kind of a problem with a Cleaner Crew before or heard about it? & this girl has been breeding Dubias for years.
 

Pixall

Sub-Adult Member
Yup. Problem is the CCs are dermestid beetles. AKA corpse beetles. when they don't have enough meat, they WILL hunt. However, they can do fine in a dubia colony if properly maintained.

Personally, I pulled mine and set up a dermestid only culture. But I mess around with taxidermy and other random hobbies so it works for me.

Your call, but they can fly in temps over 80*F and will nom any bug collections, pelts, leather, etc in your house so make sure they cannot escape if you choose to raise them.

I am having fun with mine, though. :)

Pix
 

Bailey91990

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Yea thats what my friend told me too. I asked WestCoast if that can happen & they said no but its probably because they do this for a living so eerything is perfect. Well my Colony has alittle over 120 females, like 30-40males. Around 150medium-large and few hundred babies. Which seems like a really big Colony but it reallllllly isnt. So Im not going to bother with a cleaner crew. Ill just keep cleaning it myself every few months. For the first time I cleaned it out yesterday and it wasnt hard at all.


Adam Bailey
 

Pixall

Sub-Adult Member
Heh heh yeah I know. You mention numbers like that to someone who isn't in the hobby and they start freaking out. To someone who keeps dubia, though, that is a small colony. :p when my colony hit 100females I was thrilled with how "big" it was, but amazed how small it actually was.
 

icelore

Juvie Member
I love my clearer crew and definitely think they're an asset to anyone who keeps feeder insects. As long as you don't put too many into your colonies, they do great. If you just put a bunch in there and there isn't enough dead ones for them to eat, they will turn predator on your living bugs. They will only act like that is there isn't enough to scavenge on. I only add a few bugs and worms to a tank and see how it is after a week. If I think it needs another few, I ad them slowly.

Seems like people get excited about what they're going to do, overload on them, and it ruins their colonies. You're basically trying to create a mini ecosystem and need some balance. If you exercise caution and use your brain, I think they're great. I don't think I could keep crickets without them. :3
 

Bailey91990

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Yea Pixall I know what you mean! When I first started mine I had 25females and like 15males. After few months I had a average amount of babies for that many females and males. Nothing that I would feed out of though. And by time 4months went by I was sick of waiting and waiting. Becayse I started just with adults I literally needed to wait anywhere rom 6-12months or my babies to reach adults. So I had a buddy on here who sold me 100females, 40males, 200medium&large nymphs all for 60$!! And I added it to my colony and I loveee just going in there and looking at them and seeing how many there are. When I had it small I had 4egg crates and if you went in there you would only find 1side of and egg crate with all them there and that was it. NowI had 8crates, 2 large paper towel rolls and small toliet paper roll and 2food dishes and no mater where I look or flip something theres hundreds in every spot! Lol I loveee it!

But alot of times when you buy cleaner crews if you have say a small dubia colony, they advise you to buy a small cleaner crew. Which even more a Colony of 30females, 10males and like 100babies, a small cleaner crew is wayyyy to much especailly when they lay eggs. So your be over ran by them in no time. And no one ever tells you that this can happen. Im not saying any names but I asked one of the most respected Live Feeder Breeders in this hobby about it and they said no it cant happen. Which I no it can. So I do see why this happens and do understand it. I dont think its a stupid mistake that someone makes this mistake because they arent thinking. Because if you buy something and they tell you to just add them, thats what your going to do, then your Fu***d. But you do have a point a really good one! You need to add them slowly and see what there doing and then decide. Which is maybe what Ill end up doing. Problem is, I dont have many roaches that die, close to none which is great, so if I got cleaner crew it would be to keep the fecal safe and things like that which idk if they do that.
 
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