Someone with to much free time?

[crazyseany]

Someone should set up a Dubia male and female... Or a trio in their own bin and not add or take anything away from it for a year...

That way we can all see what compound interest does for us....

Maybe a couple of us can try it and see how the numbers work out?

If someone is interested and I can get my Dubias by oct. 1st we could start then?

So in a tote have 2 adult females and 1 male and just feed and clean for a year?

Anyone interested?


Sean

 

[clear]

Here is some data I have of my past experiments.

Set up one, 1 male 1 female
Female and male are both freshly molted, the female was in an isolated container to make sure she was not pregnant at the time of introduction.
Temp was 90F with daily misting to keep humidity up. I used my own blend of food, with water crystals as a water source.

47 days after introduction the female had 17 babies
65 days after first batch of babies the female had 27 babies and she almost doubled in weight and size after reaching adulthood.

The babies kept at the same type of set up (temp and daily misting) reached adulthood around the 4 month mark.

Set up two, 2 males and 10 females
Everything was kept the same as set up one, females are freshly molted and have not been around any males to make sure they are not pregnant at the time of introduction.
Temp was 90F with misting to keep humidity up, I used my own blend of food, with water crystals as a water source.

54 days after introduction I noticed the first babies, around 22. Next few days it seems like each female had babies.


Based off my findings that having less males to each female seemed to slow down the reproduction by a few days. These findings varified my thoughts that dubia do not reproduce as fast as first thought and grow slow. I have stopped telling people to keep 1 male to each 5 females, I recommend a smaller ratio around 1:2. This experiment was done the beginning of this year, first of spring. I will be starting a new experiment next month to see how the reproduction and growth rate is in fall.

 

[Gail]

I'll be happy to give it a go but can we cut the time frame down to 6 months? I don't know if I can keep a separate tub for a whole year.

 

[Radioflyr]

I will also be whilling to participate I have a sustaining colony.

-Steve

 

[EclpsPrinc]

That's interesting Clear. Thanks for the insight! Now I'm not so worried about being over run with males