Creepy!

[Thinker]

I told Mrs. Thinker what I was ordering and why. I told her that they are related to our native cockroaches, to lessen the shock when she would see them for the first time (but I didn't say that they ARE roaches). I described how they can't climb, how slow they are and how much money I would save in feeders. She bought in.

I received my Dubias yesterday. EEEw! They are huge and creepy! Even I was a bit taken aback at first sight of them. I'm not so sure that I will have the nerve to touch them myself. I have even taken to using tongs when offering superworms, ever since I was bitten by one.

When wifey saw the Dubias she was horrified :shock: .

The colony is now nicely set up in an obscure corner of my office where she won't even see the bin often. When the subject comes up I will only refer to them as "Dubias," never "roaches." I'm hoping that she will overcome the creeps. I must ensure that escape is impossible. I call the colony bin "Alcatraz." :lol:

Are you or your spouse creeped out by these or other feeders? What steps do you take to avoid shocking your spouse or others, and prevent the ultimate banishment of your precious feeders from your property?

 

[LittleRob]

Yes, my lady was grossed out after she saw them. But in there bin their out of mind out of sight.

 

[diggerdrake]

took a bit to get the Mrs. to agree to dubias but she relinquised once I pointedout the benefits. That and the crickets were getting to be a general pain. Also she thought that anything good for "her" Sappy is worth any price. Awaiting my order of dubia (the mailman put them in a locker and forget to mention that they were there as I had another package in another locker that was locked and the key provided) we got them a day later. I came home to find her "playing" with the roaches and had fed a couple to her baby. Dubia are much easier to deal with than crix. In the week and a half we have had themthe colony has grown. Always seeing new little ones daily. I am going to go thru them and separate the feeders out and see where we are. I do believe we are now sitting on nearly 600 and there are plenty of adults for breeding. I saw the post about sexing the nymphs and will attempt to keep many of the females and use the males as feeders. I am thinking we have enough to start feeding regularly once the crix are gone.

 

[Thinker]

Yes, being rid of nasty crix will be great. I will get used to the dubia. Can't wait to start feeding them regularly. It may be awhile for me. I'm starting with around 50 female and 10 male breeders and 140 or so mixed nymphs. I have 3 hungry dragons.

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

The only time I was a bit creeped out was when I got one of my original batches and a couple of nymphs had molted into males. They are a little quicker and took a little while to learn how to grab them properly w/o hurting them. (For those interested just pin them behind the top of their headplate and snatch them up.) My daughter loves them and will play w/ them and the little lady just shakes her head and says there's something wrong w/ me.

However I was sorting some nymphs the other day and picked up a big pregenant female that was about as long as my pinkie finger and thought to myself. "YEP! That's a big bug!"

-Ian

 

[gregorydragon]

I have only had my colony for 2 months and I feel like I've got stories to tell. Basically, the Mrs. is fond of "out of sight, out of mind." This works until you are sorting and counting (to see if you have enough to start feeding with) and one or two happen to get loose in your house (only you don't happen to notice). One of those is an adult male, which only makes it worse because these big guys are the ultimate in "creepy!" My 4 year old daughter likes to hold and pet them. I am glad to have started with a baby dragon that eats small nymphs because now my only remaining anxiety is the adult males. I get more and more comfortable each time I go into the tote. My wife was feeding our beardie one day and a baby nymph crawled on her hand...she cried and my 4 year old daughter laughed at her. :shock: :laughhard:

 

[Dmatt]

LOL So funny!

We have a colony of about 300 at the moment.

I think the males are icky but the babies and females are fine.

We also own a preschool so we have a pair at the school as well as a colony of Hissers. The kids call them "buggies" They love to handle the hissers. The dubias are too fast. Slow my patootie, who says they are slow?!

As long as they don't crawl up my arms I'm ok.

 

[blondie098]

we've just recently started our colony, and understand that the warm side is really important for breeding ~ we have about 750 mixed in a 29-gal tub, with all the suggested setup items... the papas are the ones that give me the willies, big time... but we saw "vanilla" ones (freshly molted), and they are really pretty!

I think they look like little military hovercraft tanks ~ but you're right, the boys are creepy grown up!!!

Our daughter loves to play with them (10 y.o.) ~ hubby can handle them no problem, but I am still trying to get my heebie-jeebie meter under control Hubby did find out that if you cover their eyes, they hold still to handfeed dragon (I guess they are just dumb enough to think it's dark even tho these giant fingers have ahold of 'em?)

I pulled out a few of my eggcrates the other day, just to look at 'em (trying to calm the willies) -- the grown females are kinda pretty, all striped with their little shrug-type wings... it just takes time, I think!

BTW, the other night hubby and I were up late and fell asleep on couch, and we kept hearing a noise... finally figured out the bug bin was the source, the biguns were crawling up to the top of the eggcrates and divebombing the food dishes from the "cliff"... oh my, they're weird creatures

 

[Thinker]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one to get the willies, especially with the big males. By the way, aren't full grown dubias too big to feed to even an adult beardie? and if so, what shall I do with those who are ready to retire?

 

[patrickb]

The adult males definitely are creepy. I just don't mind them that much since I know what species they are. Still willy wiley.

An adult beardie can eat adult dubia, but you should never be feeding the mature females off. Let them reproduce until they pass away. The males on the other hand may get out of control. Feed them to your beardie or other animal that can eat them, or just remove them and put them into a container in the freezer overnight.

 

[gregorydragon]

They are not too big to feed your beardie. It just means you have to feed less of them. I have read that some people will clip the wings on the males before feeding them to their beardie. I doubt anyone uses females as feeders since they keep your colony strong.

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

The adult males are perfect for Adult Dragons. They plow thru them. When I have excess males I either sell them off to people or just bring a bunch down to one of the stores I deal w/ and we have a good ol' time feeding them off to the in house dragons.

Once you get rid of the willies they are easy to handle. Just use a little preasure and pick them up w/ your fingers like foreseps behind the head. Then just chuck them in the cage and watch your little buddies go wild. BTW if you have substrate they like to burrow so don't throw too many in at once or your dragon will loose track of them.

-Ian