I have a seven-month old beardie and a small dubia colony that I feed him from. I've only had the colony since July and haven't had to clean the bottom of the breeder bin out yet. Today I tried to clean it but realized I have no idea how to separate the small babies burrowed in the fras. Any tips on how to get them out of there before throwing the trash away, without spending hours picking through?
Also wondering how often folks recommend cleaning out the fras from a small colony. I'm concerned about developing allergies to them, though I have no symptoms yet... I have about 70 females and 14 males.
You can make sifters - drill a bunch of 1/8" holes in a bucket. The frass will fall out and the babies don't. You'll still collect the molts though. You can also make sifters to sort by size.
I'm not worried about production right now, so when I clean my bin I take everything out, put the frass in a tub under a bright light, spread it thin and leave a few egg crates in for the roaches to hide in. Catches most of them. I clean every few months.
You can wear gloves and a dust mask to minimize irritation.