Please tell me about roaches.......

[JubJubLizard]

Ok so I keep reading about roaches and all I can think is ewwwwwwwwwwww...........honestly I think of them investing your home, laying eggs and never ever getting rid of them. It haunts me! I currently do crickets in bulk and that is ewwww. ... on a good day but they don't scare me and if one is loose they don't take over. How do you house them, and keep them from getting loose. Are they hard to maintain? What do they eat, do they smell, do they chirp, do they bite, where do you buy them, are they expensive, do they need heat, can they live in the garage (or better yet on the back part of our 1/2 acre ha ha) I just saw a post with a roach colony and they look huge. Are these good as a staple for your beardie? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[palomino]

I just got roaches (and a beardie for that matter...total newb) and they don't nearly creep me out as much as the crix who don't hesitate to jump in my face when I open the crick tub. I got 1,000 Turks and they seem pretty shy. When I turn on the light they all go hide so I have to really look for them. They are much better to look at than the crix and I have heard that they are much more nutritious then crix. I am not worried about infestation as I live in Ohio and it's the dead of winter. I have heard Crickets are risky for infestation too. I might put the roaches outside in our barn this summer but we'll see.

 

[Little D]

I bought 200 Dubia Roaches around August last year in hopes of starting my own colony, that way I wouldn't have to buy cricks any more.

If you go to http://www.theroachguy.com , check out his site. He's got some great info there that tells you everything, from housing, cleaning, feeding, etc. Even shows you how to do your Rubbermaid tote for them. You can even order your roaches from him if you live in the US.

I would say now, I have a crap load of roaches because they've been breeding well and multiplying fast. I've now started to feed my dragon off of them. I can also tell you, that the first time I fed a roach to my dragon, he wouldn't eat another crick after. That's how much they love these things. I feed mine a mixture of ground up cat food (dry cat food) and oat meal. Then I also put some baby carrots in another dish and the roaches love them. Another thing I recommend is, get some of the water crystals from the roachguy. They are the water source for the roaches and also keep the humidity level up in their tank.

 

[patrickb]

If you can do crickets, you can do roaches and you will thank all of us later for turning you on to roaches. Do a search for Dubia here in the forums and all the info and opinions you will need are already there. The benefits go on and on, but the low down nitty gritty is that they are expensive up front to start (relative to buying an order of crickets as feeders and depending on the species) They don't stink and don't make noise like crickets. Plus once they are established and breeding for you, you won't be footing a huge monthly bill for live feeders anymore.

 

[Theroachguy]

http://theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm this page has everything you need to know from start to end. like Patrick said you want be sorry for making the switch.

 

[BestRoach]

With tweezers and a magnifying glass....

 

[JubJubLizard]

Thank you for all of your replies. I have been reading up :study: ......I just don't know if I can do it. The thought of any of them getting loose and breeding and taking over. Guess I have heard too many stories about roach infestation :shock: . I know I know..........