Help with my Dubia colony please

[Dmatt]

Okay I bought a mix of sizes and put them in a tote, nice little vent on top, lots of egg crates, water gel and roach food.

I could only find heating pads with automatic shut off. It turns it self off every 2 hours. They are on top of one of my female dragons tanks so they are warm during the day and I turn on the heating pad periodically throughout the day.

I have about 6 or 7 adult males and probably 40 or 50 adult females.

How long til they actually breed? I have had them for at least 4 months. How big will the babies be? Is it possible we have been sucking them up when we clean the tank? We always make sure they are all hiding in the egg crates and there is no movement in the roach poo.

 

[patrickb]

Well, the ones hiding in the poop won't move. They tend to burrow and play dead, so you could be sucking them up. However, you only had them 4 months and not knowing how many you have, I am suspecting it is not enough to need to be cleaning them that often. The roach poo is quite harmless to them, and actually very beneficial to the newly hatched nymphs as they consume it and it helps to jumpstart their digestive system with the micro fauna and bacteria present in it. As long as the frass (ie: poo) is not wet, stinking, or covering up any dead bodies, there is no need to remove it. It also leads me to believe that you may be disturbing them too much. They like to me left alone and daily maintenance will stress them out. The adult females will have a lower production rate as a result.

Being warm during the day doesn't help as much, as they are much more active at night. What are the temperatures in the tote at nightime? You should be aiming for around 90-95 degrees or so at nightime. If you aren't hitting that, then you need a new heat source for maximized production. If the adults you mentioned are fresh adults (less than a month or two in age) then you wouldn't be seeing babies yet, they should just now start producing actually. If they were adults when you got them and 4 months later you haven't seen babies, then there is a problem.

 

[Dmatt]

Oh okay. After looking at your reply and a couple other posts I think they are just really young.

I don't clean them every day actually. Only about every 3 or 4 weeks. I will start leaving them alone though if the babies need the frass.

I may look for another heat source. Would a under tank reptile heat pad be okay? Woud it get too hot?

 

[patrickb]

Yes, a UTH should be fine. If you could hold your hand or other body part on it for any length of time and not get burnt, it would not melt the plastic. You will suffer a burn well before the plastic would melt. Something myself and a lot of others do is to use basic human heating pads that don't have the auto-shutoff capability. They work just fine and are relatively cheap compared to the reptile UTH's. Might have to try different heat settings to get the ideal temp in your tote, but start low and work your way up.

http://theroachguy.com On the top of that page is a pic of a mature male and a mature female plus a couple of nymphs. If you don't have those roaches that look like the mature ones, then they are still too young to breed. They take about 2 months from the time you notice the first ones looking like that before you will see babies.

As for the cleaning requirements, pick out any dead bodies when you replace the food or water and whenever the frass gets to the point that it completely covers the dead bodies, then it is time to clean it up some. Other than that, a little patience and neglect is all that is needed to make the roaches do their thing.

 

[bigmac1]

a reptile heating pad will work fine for the dubias i have been using one for while with not problem melting the bin so i think it wll be good to use if you cant find a human heating pad.