Finally!

[Katie007]

Going out today to buy supplies to start my dubia colony! I think I did enough research and it seems pretty easy, but any final tips?

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Just add the dubia and have patience. :wink:

 

[r35gtr]

remember to add food/water or they will eat each other.

buy 4 5gal bucket from home depot and drill 4 buckets wit holes to make separating and cleaning easier and less time consuming. One bucket should have really small holes, then next should have medium holes and the 3rd should have large holes. Leave the other bucket with no holes. Stack the bucket in order of no holes to bigger holes. So when you're cleaning, just dump it slowly into the first bucket and shake. The last bucket with no holes should have the frass and some really tiny dubias

After a while, you wont even need a heat pad since they'll warm each other up.

 

[Paradon]

Fruits like cantaloupe, water melon and oranges are their favorite, which provides a good source of moisture; and oranges and cantaloupe is, like, roaches Viagra. they seems to do well on dry pasta noodles also. You can buy chick and poultry mash at the local feed stores for extremely cheap price, or order online at farm supplies for cheap price...

 

[Katie007]

Thank you so much for the advice! That cleaning process sounds confusing, I hope dont mess up and end up with roaches all over the place.

I actually haveny gotten them yet. The space I was going to use for them I realized was way too small, so this weekend im going to rearrange the garage a little to keep them in there. Hopefully it doesnt get too cold in there.

 

[AJD]

I keep my colony in my garage and they breed fine! I'd suggest a human heat mat. I can send you a link to the specific kind I have when I get the chance. It keeps them at 90-93 during the day, and 85-89 at night. Good luck!
-Ayden

 

[Katie007]

That would be great if you could send me the link! Thank you! I was planning on using one of those. You can set the exact temperature you want on it, or is it just settings like low, medium, and high, and you measured the temps?

 

[r35gtr]

So you have a total of 4 buckets.

1st bucket has a lot of holes with sizes 3/16
2nd bucket 3/8
3rd bucket 1/8 or 9/64 or both
4th bucket with no holes

stack the buckets in that order. 1st bucket being on the top and 4th being on the bottom. So whenever you're ready to clean, just shake the egg crates in the first bucket and anything smaller than the hole will fall through. Then scoop up the rest of the stuff on the bottom into the bucket. This is a faster way of separating he sizes and cleaning the bin. Even if you don't need to separate, you can still use it and dump everything back.

 

[Katie007]

And the babies won't get mixed in with the dirt/trash in the last bucket? And you're making the holes with a drill? ( this is a good idea btw!)

 

[buddee4515]

dump the babies and frass into a sifter, thus allowing poo and such to fall through without losing any babies. youtube is your friend

 

[Katie007]

dump the babies and frass into a sifter, thus allowing poo and such to fall through without losing any babies. youtube is your friend

Ah, I see. very good advice. This is going to be really helpful, thanks a lot.

 

[AJD]

It has a low-med-high controller. I have a digital thermometer on the floor of the bin, and its pretty accurate. Id say until you have your set-up down pat, you should have a cheap temp/humid guage from Menards or Lowes in there. Just makes things a lot easier when you're figuring out if all your temps and ventilations are right where they need to be

 

[AJD]

That would be great if you could send me the link! Thank you! I was planning on using one of those. You can set the exact temperature you want on it, or is it just settings like low, medium, and high, and you measured the temps?

I couldn't find it online, nut I got it for about $20 at Walgreens. The brand is SunBeam, and it comes with a 3 setting controller, and blue felt case
Hope this helps
-Ayden

 

[Katie007]

Yes it does, thanks. Theres a wallgreens right around the corner from me so Ill check it out.

 

[Katie007]

On craigslist I found a guy selling 120+ females, 25+ males, and "thousands" of nymphs, and a 27 gallon bin for $100. He's a 2 hour drive away though... think its worth it? (I might be able to talk him down some too, because it seems like he's been trying to sell them for a while.)