Here is a picture of a female dubia laying an egg sack

[HuberNS92]

Hey thanks for the link! Lot of pages to look through and I didnt see much about distinguishing male and female nymphs. Could you help me out? Thanks. And any other advice you could give me would be awesome.

By the way, how many male to female adult roaches should I keep?

 

[Megatron]

Hey thanks for the link! Lot of pages to look through and I didnt see much about distinguishing male and female nymphs. Could you help me out? Thanks. And any other advice you could give me would be awesome.

By the way, how many male to female adult roaches should I keep?

**I HAVEN'T BEEN BREEDING ROACHES LONG BUT THIS IS ALL IN MY OWN OPINION---JUST A WARNING, LOL**

The easiest way to tell the difference between the male and female is the length of the wings on their back. The MALES have very long wings that extend the length of their back, while the FEMALES have wings that are barely noticable and run rougly 1/3 of their back. It is tough to determine the size of nymphs. I have heard that it can be determined by the their stomachs and the amount of lines that run accross them.

If you intention is too keep them alive and just feed them as you go, it shouldn't matter what the ratio is. I have all them in a tote and just been feeding my beardie males and some select females and I still have a ton. They are breeding like crazy still, always seeing babies running around so I am doing something right.

HOWEVER...

If you plan on breeding them, obviously the higher the female to male ratio the better. Keep a 5:1 or even a 8:1 Female to Male ratio will keep your ladies producing and a handful of lucky guys. If you have the room, keep a couple totes. I would love to but I live in an apartment and you can see in my signature the amount of animals I have. Other wise I would have 1 breeding tote, keeping the ratio as high as possible; another tote would be where I would put the babies after birth, and the next tote would be my feeders (primarily males).

I havent had any type of system to my madness and I am still going strong. I started with 200 mixed nymps I got from someone on a forum and I have about the same number. Just have to watch out for fruit flies (hate them) and mold, other than that, you should have no problem breeding them. Also allow a proper ventillation or you will have some nasty smelling, moisture built up totes. *happen to me, yuck *

If you have any questions, you can message me and Ill do my best to pass on what I learned.

PB

 

[nair88]

the easiest way to tell if a nymph is a male or female is to look at the last segment on their abdomen. the female's is noticeably bigger than a male's. i don't have any pictures right now, but i could take some if you'd like.

 

[Sherri]

the easiest way to tell if a nymph is a male or female is to look at the last segment on their abdomen. the female's is noticeably bigger than a male's. i don't have any pictures right now, but i could take some if you'd like.

If it is not too much trouble, I would love to see the pics! I am going to check mine tomorrow and see if I can tell.
What size do they need to be in order to tell? Is 3/4" too small? I have a lot of 3/4-1.5" and a few a bit larger is the reason I am asking

Yikes, sorry I don't recall who posted that they empty out the babies after birth......eek. My question is; There are new babies a couple times a day some days! I waited about a month before doing my first clean out after starting my colony. That was 2 days ago and there are likely 90 or more new babies.

Is it important to empty the newly born ones fairly quick after birth so the adults are not stressed? Mine seem to be breeding just fine for me so far LOL

Thanks!
Sherri

 

[HuberNS92]

Hey thanks for the link! Lot of pages to look through and I didnt see much about distinguishing male and female nymphs. Could you help me out? Thanks. And any other advice you could give me would be awesome.

By the way, how many male to female adult roaches should I keep?

**I HAVEN'T BEEN BREEDING ROACHES LONG BUT THIS IS ALL IN MY OWN OPINION---JUST A WARNING, LOL**

The easiest way to tell the difference between the male and female is the length of the wings on their back. The MALES have very long wings that extend the length of their back, while the FEMALES have wings that are barely noticable and run rougly 1/3 of their back. It is tough to determine the size of nymphs. I have heard that it can be determined by the their stomachs and the amount of lines that run accross them.

If you intention is too keep them alive and just feed them as you go, it shouldn't matter what the ratio is. I have all them in a tote and just been feeding my beardie males and some select females and I still have a ton. They are breeding like crazy still, always seeing babies running around so I am doing something right.

HOWEVER...

If you plan on breeding them, obviously the higher the female to male ratio the better. Keep a 5:1 or even a 8:1 Female to Male ratio will keep your ladies producing and a handful of lucky guys. If you have the room, keep a couple totes. I would love to but I live in an apartment and you can see in my signature the amount of animals I have. Other wise I would have 1 breeding tote, keeping the ratio as high as possible; another tote would be where I would put the babies after birth, and the next tote would be my feeders (primarily males).

I havent had any type of system to my madness and I am still going strong. I started with 200 mixed nymps I got from someone on a forum and I have about the same number. Just have to watch out for fruit flies (hate them) and mold, other than that, you should have no problem breeding them. Also allow a proper ventillation or you will have some nasty smelling, moisture built up totes. *happen to me, yuck *

If you have any questions, you can message me and Ill do my best to pass on what I learned.

PB

Thanks for the detailed response. I think I got old adults through the life cycle unfortunately :| . It may take some time. Approximately with 50 medium and 50 mixed roaches, how long should it take until I can feed my one Bearde Dragon?

Also, what is a tote? Haha. And I have a rubbermaid bin so obviously it isn't airtight. I have had the lid kept on with no problems, so I think the humidity and ventihilation is okay with it, since it's not close to air-tight.

 

[HuberNS92]

the easiest way to tell if a nymph is a male or female is to look at the last segment on their abdomen. the female's is noticeably bigger than a male's. i don't have any pictures right now, but i could take some if you'd like.

If you could get pictures and describe what i'm looking at that would be great, i'm new.

 

[TASTIGER]

male

female

 

[nair88]

If it is not too much trouble, I would love to see the pics! I am going to check mine tomorrow and see if I can tell.
What size do they need to be in order to tell? Is 3/4" too small? I have a lot of 3/4-1.5" and a few a bit larger is the reason I am asking

If you could get pictures and describe what i'm looking at that would be great, i'm new.

here are a couple of pictures i just took:


female:

male:

i attempted to circle the portions that i'm referring to in green, though it's a bit difficult to see the actual circle. and yes, you can definitely tell on 3/4" roaches and even smaller. if you look close enough, you can even tell on newborns

Yikes, sorry I don't recall who posted that they empty out the babies after birth......eek. My question is; There are new babies a couple times a day some days! I waited about a month before doing my first clean out after starting my colony. That was 2 days ago and there are likely 90 or more new babies.

Is it important to empty the newly born ones fairly quick after birth so the adults are not stressed? Mine seem to be breeding just fine for me so far LOL

Thanks!
Sherri

definitely not important, nor is it advisable to empty the babies out after birth. dubia are a colony insect and do best when all generations are present.

 

[HuberNS92]

Thanks for the pictures. Gross by very informative haha. You said for 3/4" or smaller? Then how do you tell between that and adulthood. And do you have any idea how long it should take till, with 50 medium and 50 mixed roaches (so 100 total), I should able to start feeding my one 10 month, 13" Bearded Dragon?

 

[nair88]

Thanks for the pictures. Gross by very informative haha. You said for 3/4" or smaller? Then how do you tell between that and adulthood. And do you have any idea how long it should take till, with 50 medium and 50 mixed roaches (so 100 total), I should able to start feeding my one 10 month, 13" Bearded Dragon?

you could actually use the abdomen method with any size - even adults, however, adults are much easier to tell just by looking at their backs - the post above mine by tastiger shows what the adults look like

as far as how long your colony will take, i would say at least 3 months before you start feeding them off. if you want to speed things up, you could always buy some adults - mainly females - the more adult females you start with, the faster things will go.

 

[HuberNS92]

Thanks for the pictures. Gross by very informative haha. You said for 3/4" or smaller? Then how do you tell between that and adulthood. And do you have any idea how long it should take till, with 50 medium and 50 mixed roaches (so 100 total), I should able to start feeding my one 10 month, 13" Bearded Dragon?

you could actually use the abdomen method with any size - even adults, however, adults are much easier to tell just by looking at their backs - the post above mine by tastiger shows what the adults look like

as far as how long your colony will take, i would say at least 3 months before you start feeding them off. if you want to speed things up, you could always buy some adults - mainly females - the more adult females you start with, the faster things will go.

Damn 3 months! That's a long time. Could I at least feed of the smaller ones right now? Eh I don't think I want to spend more than I have. Tell me if the set up of this is okay. Don't want to find out there are problems down the road.

One good sized rubbermaid container. I don't know maybe 1.5 feet by 1 foot. The rubbermaid container is kept indoors. I have three egg cartons inside and replace them occasionally if they get to damp. I have the lid on top, it is not airtight so some ventihilation is allowed. You've seen these containers. Also keeps the humidity up some more. I have a repti-mat underneath half of it on between 12am and 12pm (not sure if they last long if it is on 24 hours a day). I occasionally put some chow in, and a damp paper towel. I take the damp paper towel out before I go to sleep and make sure it doesnt touch the egg cartons. I also pout in some collard greens occasioanlly.

Does this sound good?

 

[Megatron]

You may want to take some packaging tape and line the inside of the tote near the top so they can't climb out. Important. They can climb the tote but they are unable to get a grip on the tape. I would also say to cut the lid maybe five inches by eight inches and put a screen over for ventilation. Easiest way. Other than that You sound good to go. Also oranges are said to help with reproduction. Best of luck.

 

[HuberNS92]

You may want to take some packaging tape and line the inside of the tote near the top so they can't climb out. Important. They can climb the tote but they are unable to get a grip on the tape. I would also say to cut the lid maybe five inches by eight inches and put a screen over for ventilation. Easiest way. Other than that You sound good to go. Also oranges are said to help with reproduction. Best of luck.

But what if the humidity doesn't get high enough with the screen?

 

[Sherri]

quote]But what if the humidity doesn't get high enough with the screen?

Take a container (like margarine, sour cream etc. and put 3/4 full with water then put the lid on that has little holes in it from a knife etc. This will raise the humidity w/o the babies getting into it and drowning.

Do you ever get horns or other worms etc.? The containers they come is are PERFECT for this. There is a cloth type liner in the top with holes in it. I just punched through the cloth where the holes are and it is my favorite way to up the humidity. My humidity stays around 67% and there are new babies every day

Sherri

 

[Fredsdad]

Just ordered 10 male and 10 female adults to add to the 200 or so nymphs I already have. Im gonna feed a few of the nymphs as I go. Fred can only eat about 5 and he's done. He can usually eat 20-25 crickets at a time. Is this normal to only have this many dubias?