Dubia Roaches - Cleaning the bin and Sexing.

[PuffMagic]

Hello all! Long time no talk. I have been doing really well with my two dragons they are healthy and amazing. I have had my roach colony since the end of May and have a few questions. It is getting a bit messy in there home and was curious about the easiest way to clean it out. I looked at roach guys way by drilling small holes in the bottom of a bucket but that way seems really involved. Just looking for other peoples opinion and what they do to clean your own roach home. As for sexing; the guy I bought my roaches off of said no need to sex them just remember to not feed your females otherwise you are good to go. But I read on here a lot and everyone seems to sex their roaches. What is the purpose of this? and do you need different homes for male and female?

Thanks for your time to read and reply to my post.
Everyone have a good day and night!

 

[clear]

To sex dubia just flip them over and look at the last plate, if its large its a female if its small its a male. Once you see it your know. Also the way I clean the tubs takes a while but its not time consuming at all. I have 2 bins, the bin they are in and a clean bin. I just move all the egg crates to the clean bin and play a few in the old bin, ever so often i take the egg crates in the old bin and knock all the nymphs into the clean bin.

 

[Theroachguy]

check out my page look towards the bottom this is the best way i have come across
http://theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm

 

[PuffMagic]

check out my page look towards the bottom this is the best way i have come across
http://theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm

I guess that is the most simple of ways so far. I do not understand this whole sexing thing. I do understand what are females and what are males but why bother separating them.....when it comes time to feeding wouldn't I just pick out the males to feed? That way I don't run the risk of separating to much and loose valuable mating time? My plan when my colony is ready is just to shake an egg crate into a separate container and pick out the ones I want to feed Puff and Blaze. Nymphs and Adult males would be best right?

 

[Grumbles]

You don't have to separate all your roaches by sex every time you clean, but the object of sexing is to keep the ratio of your males and females at the most beneficial level for mating.
-John

 

[PuffMagic]

You don't have to separate all your roaches by sex every time you clean, but the object of sexing is to keep the ratio of your males and females at the most beneficial level for mating.
-John

What level is the most beneficial? Should I have two homes for them once my colony is big enough to feed from?

 

[Grumbles]

You want to keep a ratio of around 1:3 males & females respectively. A lot of people just put their extra males into a feeder tub and their colony in a separate tub because then you don't have extra males chowing down your supplies.
-John

 

[Navan94]

A lot of people will do around 1 male to every 5 to 10 females. I'm doing 1:7 now.

Woops, Grumbles already posted.

 

[Grumbles]

A lot of people will do around 1 male to every 5 to 10 females.

1:10? Wowzers. :shock:

 

[PuffMagic]

You want to keep a ratio of around 1:3 males & females respectively. A lot of people just put their extra males into a feeder tub and their colony in a separate tub because then you don't have extra males chowing down your supplies.
-John

Okay cool! Do I want to do this after I have established a full colony that I am ready to feed off of or do it as soon as males start to dominate the female population?

Thanks so much for answering my questions, you have been of great help and helpful info

 

[Navan94]

A lot of people will do around 1 male to every 5 to 10 females.

1:10? Wowzers. :shock:

Lucky males. :mrgreen:

 

[Grumbles]

Okay cool! Do I want to do this after I have established a full colony that I am ready to feed off of or do it as soon as males start to dominate the female population?

Thanks so much for answering my questions, you have been of great help and helpful info

From what I understand, you want your colony to become fully established before feeding heavily out of it. But I don't think there is anything wrong with making sure that gender ratio stays anywhere from 1:3 to 1:10 (still, wow, i can only imagine, sigh...) so I would just feed from the males you've plucked.

Also, from what I've read and been told, once you get 50 mature females, you should be able to start feeding regularly as 50 females will yield almost 800-1000 nymphs a month.

 

[PuffMagic]

Again Grumbles Thanks! You have no idea how much you have helped me understand something that I have been fighting to understand since I have started my roach colony.

Have a good one

 

[Grumbles]

No problem.
I pretty much learned eveerrrrything from this this forum and especially clear, he runs http://www.thefeederstore.com and I'm actually waiting for his breeder kit special to arrive. :]
Best of luck with your little creepy crawlers!
-John

 

[clear]

I was trying to keep a low male to high female ratio and ended up hurting my self! I try to keep a 1:2 ratio now 1:3 at max.