Lost our colony

[acidburn01]

We've had a very successful dubia colony for the last several months. We've never lost more than just a couple at a time. We've kept the temps at 85° at the most, (it can get a little chilly in our house sometimes) and we feed them a mix of dubia food, their water crystals, potatoes, carrots and mandarin slices. Last week, we harvested babies. We had *SO MANY* adults, we shook them off their cartons into another bucket and scooping out the babies. We've done this a few other times. But we came to xheck them today and we lost SO MANY roaches. Literally, there was probably 20 or so roaches. The most We've ever lost. And the ones that were alive were huddled in the corners off the egg cartons. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could have happened and how we prevent it again.?

 

[CooperDragon]

Thats odd to lose so many like that, as you mentioned. It's possibly environmental but such a large dieoff makes me lean toward something foodborne. I would probably move the remaining roaches and isolate them in a new bin just to err on the side of caution. Try tweaking the diet a bit and see if tha thelps. The thing I'd suggest on that front is stop offering water crystals and let them get hdyration from food. I've had good luck offering them summer squash (any squash or pumpkin, really) so that might be worth a try. Hopefully the ones left will be able to re-establish quickly and you'll be back to a healthy colony soon.

 

[acidburn01]

Thats odd to lose so many like that, as you mentioned. It's possibly environmental but such a large dieoff makes me lean toward something foodborne. I would probably move the remaining roaches and isolate them in a new bin just to err on the side of caution. Try tweaking the diet a bit and see if tha thelps. The thing I'd suggest on that front is stop offering water crystals and let them get hdyration from food. I've had good luck offering them summer squash (any squash or pumpkin, really) so that might be worth a try. Hopefully the ones left will be able to re-establish quickly and you'll be back to a healthy colony soon.

I think we figured it out. Upon further investigation, the temp probe was out of the box and on the floor. As I said, our house can get chilly feeling but never below 70, if that makes sense. (Our ac takes two hours to cool the house one degree so it feels much cooler than it is) and as a result, I think the heating pad just stayed on under the bin and they got overheated. I hope they can reestablish, we had so many adults, we almost needed a second bin and now, it seems like we maybe have less than half.

 

[xp29]

Ouch, that sux I'm sorry to hear it. It seems like it takes FOREVER for them to grow into adults.

 

[acidburn01]

Ouch, that sux I'm sorry to hear it. It seems like it takes FOREVER for them to grow into adults.

Good lord it takes an ETERNITY. And we just harvested like all the babies -- literally like 300 babies or so. So we may need to buy more mated pairs.

 

[xp29]

I get lucky here once in a while and can get the "extra large" and get males and females both that are breeding size. 15 bucks for 20 rather than friggen 6 bucks a piece for "breeders"