Where do you guys get the egg crates for roaches? Do you buy them somewhere or just hit the local markets and ask for the used ones they would discard? Ordinarily I would be okay snagging some from like a Walmart or something, but is it possible the crates might harbor something bacteria wise that could either kill the colony or perhaps transfer to the reptile?
Went down to my local breakfast place about 11am Saturday morning and the manager gave me 15 or 20 egg crates for free. I've done this 3 times already and they last me quite a while!
I personally wouldn't use egg crates from stores since you have no idea what could be on them. Could have pesticides or some other "foreign" thing on it. Not worth the risk to my colony since we all know that starting these colonies is not a cheap affair. I just use egg cartons i buy down at the local feed store. They are cheap and i just tear the tops off and then lay down the bottoms 3 wide and 4 high horizontally and then lay the tops on top of the bottoms also horizontally 3 wide 4 high as well. The males love the flat tops to run on and they for some reason love molting up on top of there too. They also like to breed on the flat parts for some reason. I've caught 3 pairs "hooked" up together on top of the flat parts.
I ended up placing an order for those crates in the first post. I've got several stacked vertically in the dubia bin now.
Do people toss out the egg crates when they get too dirty then? Like once a month depending on the colony size? I mean, when I ordered these, 70 seemed really excessive but if you dump old ones that it doesn't seem so bad.