aussiefreak101
Hatchling Member
After reading some threads here I decided to order from The Roach Guy. It wasn't easy convincing the roomies to allow roaches in the house but after explaining to them that these kinda aren't the kinda that will infest a house it was set as ok as long as I was UBER careful. I brought it up two months ago and they don't even realize they're here already.
So I ordered Monday afternoon and received today, Saturday. You've no idea how much I despise the post office right now. The dubia got into Portland Thursday night...and yet they couldn't get them 2hrs south by 4pm the next day? Priority shipping is 2-3days, however, the post office just shrugs and says well it's gonna be 4 days instead. Literally. I went down to the post office and asked where my package was and he said it wasn't a guarantee of 2-3 days... However, pay for overnight shipping and something can get from FL to WA in 24hrs. Hmmm...anyways. Got the box this morning and it completely skipped my mind to take pictures until after I had opened it. I was more concerned with the racket my dogs were making flipping out cause I closed them out of my room in order to open it.
I ordered his 120 mixed with the free adult pair and 3 extra pairs. At a time that not many suppliers are willing to give up any adults, especially females, Jason was really nice and hooked me up as I had contacted him before a couple months ago wanting to get this colony going but then I got in my fender bender and my autoimmune acting up took away my spare $. Despite the late package, the heat pack being near dead cold by the time it got here, they were no worse for wear, a little sluggish perhaps. There was only one casualty of an extra small nymph that got stuck on the tape of the box as it tried to escape when I opened it. This is my first experience with dubia and let me tell you it was an interesting mix between fear and awe. I have a little pair of those yellow plastic tweezers but found I don't trust those so will be getting the long steel ones with the rubber tip. I scraped the dubia from the box into a large glass bowl so that I could inspect it, yes, I'm anal about everything and wanted to make sure everything was right. It's how every order should be as we are only humans and in a business sometimes mix-ups can happen. Anyways, I looked at that egg carton in the bowl and didn't even want to stick my hand near it now. I got a piece of egg crate and squeemishly tricked the adults onto it one by one and transferred them into the bin. When it came to the nymphs I would pick up the egg crate piece they came with, place mine underneath and then flip their current one upside down so the nymphs were exposed to the light and then some would scurry down to my piece where I'd then get my piece, take a quick count and put it into the bin and wait for them to scurry off of it. It got down to the point where it almost became a challenge of my will and I started picking up the smaller ones one by one from the bowl with my hand and putting them in my bin. I was pleased, I won the last half of the battle, though it took me about an hour to do so.
After setting them up and watching them for a minute seeing as some of the nymphs weren't too scared to come out being hungry and thirsty I realized I don't like my bin. I thought my babies were dying as I kept seeing a lot of them on their backs but found that when they were trying to climb the small hump on the bottom they'd fall over. I didn't think much of the small bump but considering they're so small it must be like climbing Mount Everest every time they want to eat or drink. So tomorrow I'm going to Target or Walmart to get a new bin and transfer them over. I've seen the adult males and at least one adult female out and eating and drinking and several extra small and larger nymphs in the food and water but I'm still concerned about the flipping when they're trying to get to it. I'm waiting on the heat mat to be delivered so for now I have the bin wrapped in my extra comforter and my room heater sitting by it. I'll post more pictures after I get them transferred.
++In all it was a good experience, I recommend The Roach Guy, Jason. The dubia were a good price, arrived packaged nicely, alive, and I always got a response from him to any questions I had within a couple hours so good customer service as well.
+++
So I ordered Monday afternoon and received today, Saturday. You've no idea how much I despise the post office right now. The dubia got into Portland Thursday night...and yet they couldn't get them 2hrs south by 4pm the next day? Priority shipping is 2-3days, however, the post office just shrugs and says well it's gonna be 4 days instead. Literally. I went down to the post office and asked where my package was and he said it wasn't a guarantee of 2-3 days... However, pay for overnight shipping and something can get from FL to WA in 24hrs. Hmmm...anyways. Got the box this morning and it completely skipped my mind to take pictures until after I had opened it. I was more concerned with the racket my dogs were making flipping out cause I closed them out of my room in order to open it.
I ordered his 120 mixed with the free adult pair and 3 extra pairs. At a time that not many suppliers are willing to give up any adults, especially females, Jason was really nice and hooked me up as I had contacted him before a couple months ago wanting to get this colony going but then I got in my fender bender and my autoimmune acting up took away my spare $. Despite the late package, the heat pack being near dead cold by the time it got here, they were no worse for wear, a little sluggish perhaps. There was only one casualty of an extra small nymph that got stuck on the tape of the box as it tried to escape when I opened it. This is my first experience with dubia and let me tell you it was an interesting mix between fear and awe. I have a little pair of those yellow plastic tweezers but found I don't trust those so will be getting the long steel ones with the rubber tip. I scraped the dubia from the box into a large glass bowl so that I could inspect it, yes, I'm anal about everything and wanted to make sure everything was right. It's how every order should be as we are only humans and in a business sometimes mix-ups can happen. Anyways, I looked at that egg carton in the bowl and didn't even want to stick my hand near it now. I got a piece of egg crate and squeemishly tricked the adults onto it one by one and transferred them into the bin. When it came to the nymphs I would pick up the egg crate piece they came with, place mine underneath and then flip their current one upside down so the nymphs were exposed to the light and then some would scurry down to my piece where I'd then get my piece, take a quick count and put it into the bin and wait for them to scurry off of it. It got down to the point where it almost became a challenge of my will and I started picking up the smaller ones one by one from the bowl with my hand and putting them in my bin. I was pleased, I won the last half of the battle, though it took me about an hour to do so.
After setting them up and watching them for a minute seeing as some of the nymphs weren't too scared to come out being hungry and thirsty I realized I don't like my bin. I thought my babies were dying as I kept seeing a lot of them on their backs but found that when they were trying to climb the small hump on the bottom they'd fall over. I didn't think much of the small bump but considering they're so small it must be like climbing Mount Everest every time they want to eat or drink. So tomorrow I'm going to Target or Walmart to get a new bin and transfer them over. I've seen the adult males and at least one adult female out and eating and drinking and several extra small and larger nymphs in the food and water but I'm still concerned about the flipping when they're trying to get to it. I'm waiting on the heat mat to be delivered so for now I have the bin wrapped in my extra comforter and my room heater sitting by it. I'll post more pictures after I get them transferred.
++In all it was a good experience, I recommend The Roach Guy, Jason. The dubia were a good price, arrived packaged nicely, alive, and I always got a response from him to any questions I had within a couple hours so good customer service as well.
+++
