Feeding the Roaches/Preventing escape.

[MrHM1020]

Okay well thankfully i got a free colony of around 1-2thousand dubias with a few red racers in there a couple of days ago. I found an old heater i dont use that keeps the temps around 90 degrees. And everything seems great. But the only thing im worried about is i heard some red racers have been known to escape even though they arent climbing species.. The bin is next to my bed and i really dont want to wake up with a roach on my face! So is it true that red racers can escape? I keep my roaches like 98% dubias and 2 % of the red racers in a 60 gallon tub that is maybe 26 inches tall. The packing tape is just above the tip of the egg crate which are maybe 16 inches. So the tape is at 22 inches. Will i have escapes? Should i add another layer of tape? Second question is people say get a shallow food and water dish to feed roaches dog food and to keep water gels. Thing is i tried small shallow plastic lids and they seemed to ignore the food. Maybe 1 or 2 made it into the 1/2 inch deep lids that i used as bowls and just died in there... So i am now dumping the food on one side of the roach bin and the water just next to the food and they immediately started swarming. So i want to know exactly wat do u use to feed ure roaches pictures please. Thanx

Edit: Also what are quick ways to get them out. It seems that every time i need some i am "fishing" for small nymphs for a while. And when im in a rushed schedule it gets difficult... Any suggestions, especially if i prefer not touching them (if i have to i will touch them mainly nymphs need to work up to the adults lol).

 

[Sapphire]

I don't know about your red racer escapee problems. I just keep dubia. I do know that it isn't really recommended to keep two different species together.

As for the food dish, as you mentioned these roaches aren't a climbing species. If the dishes were 1/2" deep and didn't have any texture on the inside to help the roaches climb out, then that's why they would get stuck in there and die. I just pour food on the bottom of the bin and put the water gels in a margarine lid which I scraped up with a serrated knife to give some traction on the inside and outside.

There is a "roach bin pics" post on this forum where I and a few other people have posted pictures of our roach bins if you want to get some ideas for your bin.


Edit response to your edit: Check out the caresheet on www.theroachguy.com and the videos on www.theroachranch.com to get an idea how some "professional" roach breeders separate their sizes out.

 

[raposak]

Don't listen to the above post. I'm the one he got the colony from. I've been keeping them together for years with no problems. I haven't had a single rusty red escape but I have had a couple baby dubias make it to the top of the bin when it gets a little dirty. If your truly worried about them, separate the rusty reds into a small container (there shouldn't be that many) and feed them off first. Do you have a separate feeding bin for the dragon?

 

[Sapphire]

Don't listen to the above post. I'm the one he got the colony from. I've been keeping them together for years with no problems.

I didn't say it couldn't be done, I said it wasn't recommended. That's just from what I've read, not from personal experience. Keep them together, do whatever you want. I don't really care.

Beyond that, does my post meet your approval, raposak?

 

[StlGreaser]

Don't listen to the above post. I'm the one he got the colony from. I've been keeping them together for years with no problems. I haven't had a single rusty red escape but I have had a couple baby dubias make it to the top of the bin when it gets a little dirty. If your truly worried about them, separate the rusty reds into a small container (there shouldn't be that many) and feed them off first. Do you have a separate feeding bin for the dragon?

That was incredibly rude. He made several good points in his post. Just cause you gave the original poster the roaches does not mean that anything you say is correct. The Red racer roaches will eat the young Dubia and the Dubia will eat the young Red racers so you are effectively slowing down the production of both of the species. So he is correct that they should not be kept in the same container!

On an other note I use shallow fake rock type food/water bowls for the food and water jell. All of the roaches can climb in to and out of both bowls for food and hydration!

 

[MrHM1020]

Alright thanks for the info. ANd i havent had problems with the different species eating each other, so no need to attack each other lol. I am just saying that i read a article saying that some escapes of red racers have been noticed and i just didnt want one since they are kept in my room like 4 inches away from my bed. So i just added a 2nd layer of tape and im getting vaseline just to be extra safe. I hate bugs and the only reason i have them is to watch Shadow kill them :twisted: lol. So thanks raposak for the colony i already see a dubia with an egg sack, and i only see like a few red racers! So everything is great, and thanks for the food bowl suggestions. Oh and raposak when i was picking them up from you u had the food and water in a dog bowl? Isnt that slippery, can they reach it, or did you scratch it up like another poster mentioned?

 

[nair88]

The bin is next to my bed and i really dont want to wake up with a roach on my face!

why wouldn't you want that???? :shock: ;-)

 

[raposak]

I just re-read my response and it did come off a bit rude and I apologize for that.

As for them eating each other and slowing production, I just gave away about 3k bugs this weekend and i'll be giving away more in the near future because I have way more than the 4 dragons I have will eat so I don't think they are slowing my production at all. Its all a matter of keeping them fed properly. Full bugs are happy bugs.

I originally mixed them because I only had about 20 or so rusties left and just threw them in there. They just keep doing there thing and multiplying.

Again, sorry for the rudeness.

 

[Sapphire]

I just re-read my response and it did come off a bit rude and I apologize for that.

Apology accepted.

Just out of curiosity, how long has your colony been producing? I imagine it would take quite a while to reach such numbers. Then again, I guess if you start out with about 50 adult females and they each have 20 babies, there's 1000 roaches... And once those 1000 reproduce..........

 

[raposak]

I've had them for about 3 years now giving away a bunch every so often. I started with a few adult female. I must have given away well over 200 adult females this weekend and i still have tons left so I have no doubt I will be up to my eye balls with bugs again lol.

 

[spyder79]

Yeah the problem with Turks (red racers) is that they are cannibals, much like crickets. So in essence anything they can eat they will. This includes your dubia nymphs (though the Turks numbers do not seem to be high enough to cause a noticable problem) and your beardie if they are left loose in the tank. I personally would not suggest keeping them together. I keep hissers, dubia, and had turks until I started finding them loose in my home (because yes they can climb a surface that has any texture to it at all, which means the glue in a glass aquarium at the edges and the plastic in rubbermaid totes, the only thing they cant climb is the type of plastic used in the clear/opaque sterilite bins which is completely smooth).

 

[Sapphire]

clear/opaque

Which one?

 

[spyder79]

clear/opaque

Which one?

they are both smooth.

 

[Sapphire]

I have my roaches in a grey sterilite bin. They can climb the sides, but not extremely well. The only time I've seen them do it was when I first put them in there and they were freaking out after being in the mail for two days, lol. They ran all over the place before they finally settled into the egg crates.

 

[MrHM1020]

Wouldnt the turks fall once they reach the rim of packing tape i placed? Im literally obsessed with preventing escapes. Im even thinking of removing all my roaches from the original bin, then lining the entire inside with tape and returning the roaches. The only problem is that would be a pain in the a** to clean.