Dubia Roaches

[LouP]

Hi Taffer,

I try and resist the urge to "peak" but sneak up on them once in a while to see if they are eating the feed I give them at night. I've been throwing the leftovers from my Dragon in there that he doesn't eat, usually a combination of romaine and dragon pellets that were left over from when he was little lol. I leave that stuff for the dragon during the day while I am at work but he rarely finishes it. I also cut up a couple of slices of fresh potato last night to see if the roaches would eat that. Tonight I'll give them some carrots. I'm still trying to figure out what the roaches like besides the orange I gave them the other day that got devoured.

LouP

 

[Taffer]

Yeah, it's hard to put that much work into making their little castle all nice and comfy and not peek in :lurk: and see that they are enjoying it. But if you were truly OCD and interested, get an IR night vision capable camera for $30-$40. When you get bored you can move it to the front door...you know, the "use" you told your wife you were actually buying this camera for when you try to justify it. :whip: :laughhard:

Sad thing is so many of us put tons of time into finding out what our bearded dragons can eat to stay healthy, study what we can feed their food to keep them healthy, but we as the human owners still eat garbage LOL

 

[Rankins]

Taffer, I think you will like the orange heads better than dubias. They breed quicker, and your dragon will eat less of them because they are fatter than dubias.
For the cleaner crew I just use the lesser mealworms (buffalo worms) I didn't want dermestid larva because when I bought my dubias the seller said he used them and wished he wouldn't have. He said the are a pain constantly trying to cull them out. The lesser mealworms tend to stay in the frass once the frass builds up to 1/2-1 inch deep. He also said he could feel them trying to eat his flesh if they crawled on him. Not too sure if any of that is true, but I chose the lesser because of it.
Also if you build a Colman cooler bin you won't have to work so hard trying to heat it. You'll also save money on electricity costs. I have never heard of anyone else using a cooler for a bin before, but it seemed like a good idea so built one. I'm glad I did, it looks nice and works really good. My refrigerator incubators are built the same way, the cooler is just a smaller version of it. In fact the cooler could even function as an incubator, obviously not with the roaches in it though I have used the same design for my incubators for nearly 30 years because they function really well. In fact I'm in the process of building two more and I just finished one for a friend. I don't remember how many incubators I have built using the design, but its gotta be over 20. No one has ever had a problem with heating it or maintaining perfect temps. This is the incubator I'm building using the same concept.
[ximg]85426 6210529748[/ximg]

 

[Taffer]

Rankins, what are you incubating?

Those dermestid larvae are beasts...I just looked them up on YouTube on a time lapse video. NOM NOM NOM!
https://youtu.be/lYHXgHTEKvU
Not sure I want to risk those getting loose in the house...plus there really isn't any way to get rid of them without also killing all of your roaches short of manually separating them. Not sounding fun.

Are the Buffalo beetles predatory in that they will eat the eggs laid by any flies or anything that gets into the bins and lays eggs? I had 60 buffalo beetles when I started this colony, but from what I've ready they breed really fast, laying 200-400 eggs at a time, and up to 2,000 eggs.

Your Coleman cooler set up...how many gallons/quarts is it? What do you do for ventilation to the outside world? I see the images in this post, but the fan looked like it was only for circulation, not removing air and bringing in fresh air? And I don't see any wires for the CHE...how did you pull that off? Did you disassemble the lid? I may price it out and see if I can sell my (sort of) established Dubia colony and bin set up for enough to trade up to the "Rankins Coleman masterpiece"! :0)

 

[Rankins]

Right now I have 11 beaded lizard eggs I have been sitting on for 5 months. I got 23 gila eggs last season, saddly only 2 were fertile and failed 2 weeks after incubating.
The Colman cooler is 150 quarts, I just noticed Walmart jacked their price up to $120!! I just bought one online from them and it was only $60!! But they do have a 120 quart for $55. I think walmart screwed up on price of the 150 quart and sold it cheaper than they should have. The cooler has four 2" slip in drains I put in the cup holders. I used a hole saw to cut through the lid and slip in the drains. I put the ceramic socket in the lid by magic Actually I cut the hole in the lid and took the ceramic socket apart so the threaded end could be screwed into the lid. Then I put a hole in the back of the lid and made a channel from the back of the lid to the light hole and pulled the electrical wire through that channel.
As for if the lesser mealworms would clean up fly eggs...they probably would. They eat mites, and those are pretty small. Some websites do say that they could infest a home. But I have never found any valid reports of that. They do infest chicken farms, cricket farms...or any place that has a bunch of animal stool. So I think the risk is probably really low for a home infestation. I have had them in my bins for about 2 years, and haven't had a single problem with them.
(Edit: forgot to address the fan, I put it in the cooler to help vent out humidity. My colony is huge and was getting too humid. The 2" drains probably wasn't enough venting. I didn't want to put any more holes in the cooler because it looks nice the way it is)

 

[cornbred812]

We just started our own Dubia colony. We are using a completely blacked out 55 gal aquarium and have a room in our house set at a constant 90-95 degree temp with a ceiling fan on low for circulation. I do not feel comfortable using dog or cat food; we are trying out a combination of ground rabbit pellets (oat, alfalfa, etc), calcium, bee pollen, and herbtivite. For humidity we poked holes in the lids of 2 spaghetti jars half full of water. Fresh veggies and fruits are given daily.
Puff (our beardie) has an extremely picky appetite so my concern is that the only way he will get some essential vitamins, etc is through the feeding of the roaches; therefore I have chosen to go completely organic for Puff's best interest.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we can improve our setup or as to what to feed them to help Puff to recieve some of the vits and protiens he refuses to eat??

 

[Rankins]

Ditch the calcium for daily feedings. Gut loading roaches a day or two before feeding them off is fine, but a daily diet of it isn't healthy for them. Dog and cat food isn't healthy for the roaches and the dragon your feeding them to, so I'm glad that your not going to use it.
The diet I feed my roaches is really varied. Its mainly chicken crumbles and wheat bran, but I have a bunch of other stuff in it...I even put kelp meal in it.

 

[cornbred812]

Thank you Rankins

 

[Rankins]

Sure thing, if you decide to use wheat bran and chicken crumbles, make sure the crumbles are the nonmedicated kind. Both the bran and crumbles can be purchased at a farm and feed store. A 50 lb of bran is about $20, 40 lbs of chicken crumbles are about $30. Alfalfa meal is also good and can be bought there as well. The only problem with alfalfa is once your colony gets big the nitrogen gets converted to ammonia. So it can stink up the bin really bad, so use it sparingly. I'm assuming the rabbit food is mainly alfalfa and timothy hay...

 

[cornbred812]

Ya, the primary ingredient is alfalfa....Ill keep that in mind. Thanks.
On a separate note: Ive read where its common to develop allergies after being exposed to them regularly....ever happen to anyone you actually know or another one of those over hyped internet myths?

 

[Rankins]

Its not hype, I'm highly allergic to certain species. A colony of hissing roaches sent me to the emergency room twice for asthma. I'm not asthmatic... Took me awhile to figure out the roaches caused it.
I'm okay with my dubias, orange heads, and ivory heads.

 

[cornbred812]

Really? Hmmm....
My daughter has asthma and quite a few different pet allergies. The reptile room (also where we keep the roaches) is right off her bedroom. Initially we thought it a great idea because she is always cold and we thought the heat from their room may help keep her bedroom warmer as well, but we may end up needing to rethink that.

 

[Rankins]

That is a concern, but you may find out they don't cause any problems. If you can house them in a garage or a basement that would limit the exposure.
Sad thing is I think about 60% of the population are allergic to roaches. Its odd I'm not allergic to the species I keep now, I'm really thankful because I never have to buy Rankins their food. I even have enough to sell at an upcoming reptile show. I can sell off over $1000 worth of orange heads and still have plenty.

 

[cornbred812]

Thats awesome!

 

[Taffer]

Really? Hmmm....
My daughter has asthma and quite a few different pet allergies. The reptile room (also where we keep the roaches) is right off her bedroom. Initially we thought it a great idea because she is always cold and we thought the heat from their room may help keep her bedroom warmer as well, but we may end up needing to rethink that.

Cornbread, For your favorite pet of all (your daughter), have you ever tried an Ionic Air Purifier?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013VQ5I3I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That is the one I have. Don't use the ozone feature while anything alive is in the house as it is harmful to living things. I just say that because so many people in the Amazon reviews were commenting how bad it smelled and it wasn't clearly stated in the documentation on Amazon by the merchant when I purchased mine (it may have been updated by now). The Ionizer works well though. I'm allergic to cats and my friend used to sell these Ionizers about 20 years ago and I could be in a room with their indoor cats and feel myself starting to get congested and my nose would start to run, and he could turn his ionizer on and aim it towards me and my symptoms would subsided shortly after. I had company up over Thanksgiving and one of the guests was hacking and coughing, and I moved this from my daughters room (she was sleeping with us anyway) into the living room where the guest was staying much of the day and where she slept, and she was fine the rest of her stay.

You probably already know this, but even though the adults cannot climb out of the aquarium, I've read the newborn nymphs are good enough climbers that they can climb the silicon in the corners if you don't use slick tape.

You seriuosly keep an entire room in your house at 90-95 degrees insetad of just heating the enclosure? Hmmm, I bet that feels great after climbing out of the shower in the winter time. :lol: