Squeamish with Roaches

[7hunder68]

I recently bought a colony of Dubias. If find myself very squeamish and afraid to touch the big adults. If I am going to keep this colony going I will need to get comfortable with them. What should I do?

 

[kyleena29]

I don't like touching the adults either, nor am I all that comfortable touching the younger ones. I scoop them out with a plastic spoon or you could use tongs. I shake some out into a small bin and use a spoon to collect the sizes I need.

 

[CooperDragon]

It may take time to get used to them. The little ones just remind me of roly poly bugs. Try putting some toilet paper cardboard tubes in for them to climb on then you can just shake the tube out into a cup with calcium powder in it and feed them off from that rather than having to pick them up individually.

 

[SHBailey]

Once you realize that they won't hurt you, it may be possible to get used to handling them with practice. I know the adults can look pretty intimidating, but as far as I know, they're really not dangerous. I haven't tried breeding my own, at least not yet. I have no problem handling the little ones, but I've never really been squeamish about any kind of bugs just as long as I know they don't bite or sting.

Sorry if that's not much help. If all else fails you can always use tools to handle them as others have already suggested.

 

[Rankins]

Once you see how much money they can save they are more appealing. I haven't been much bothered by mine (I have 3 species). Maybe try getting a prettier species of roach. My orange heads and ivory heads are actually nice looking bugs. Dubia's are butt-ugly....

 

[SHBailey]

Once you see how much money they can save they are more appealing. I haven't been much bothered by mine (I have 3 species). Maybe try getting a prettier species of roach. My orange heads and ivory heads are actually nice looking bugs. Dubia's are butt-ugly....

No offense intended, but if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it must follow that ugly is also in the eye of the beholder. Dubias are kind of drab compared to some of the other species that are apparently available, (was it you who posted all those pictures of the various pretty roaches a while ago?) but I personally wouldn't go so far as to call them "ugly". :|

I also suppose that what creeps some people out is not what they look like but what they feel like if they happen to end up crawling up your arm when you're trying to handle them. Dubias are pretty good at that. In fact, when I'm done feeding my beardie and getting ready to put him back in his terrarium, I always try to remember to check and make sure that he doesn't have any of the ones he missed crawling around on his underbelly. Now if there's a species that's not quite so likely to be that sneaky, it might be worth looking into. :mrgreen:

In our case, there are only two species of roaches available in the local stores, dubias and something called "giant islander roaches" if I remember correctly (I don't recall genus and species), but those things are probably big enough to eat my bearded dragon. If I wanted some fancy ones I'd probably have to look into ordering them online, which I really don't like to do with live feeders -- too much of a hassle to get them here still alive, although I do have to admit that we haven't had as much trouble as I thought we would getting glass UVB tubes up here in one piece, but then we don't have to worry so much about the lightbulbs sitting around on a loading dock somewhere for too long and freezing to death. :roll:

 

[YoursTruly]

I have this issue too! I just started a colony and I have trouble grabbing the adults. I know in my mind that they aren't going to hurt me, but I'm still a bit squeamish. And DAMN are they fast and strong! I have no issue with the nypmhs, and my beardie loves to munch 'em like chips.

And picking up any dead ones from the bottom of the tank--ughhh lol.

 

[SHBailey]

My own lack of squeamishness does have its limitations. Agreed: the dead ones at the bottom of the tank are pretty disgusting. Not so much if they dry out and get crispy, but when they get squishy...

(and crickets are even worse)

 

[YoursTruly]

Agreed. I actually like seeing the shells on the bottom because then I know they're molting! But the squishy dead ones, not so much. And I had not kept it warm enough when I first got the colony, so a bunch of them kept dying. Bleh.

Question... how often does the dubia tank need to be cleaned? There is already an awful lot of frass in there, but it doesn't stink. In fact, the crickets smell worse than the roaches. And they're obnoxiously loud! My boyfriend calls them "chirpy bastards".

 

[SHBailey]

I have not yet tried breeding my own; I keep the feeders in a "Kricket Keeper" with dry cricket food and plain water gel, so we clean it and replace the food and "water" whenever the gel looks like it's starting to dry out and turn back into crystals. But from what I've read, they don't have to be cleaned up after too often unless you notice that whatever kind of food you're putting in there is getting mouldy. The roach "frass" is not nearly as much of a problem as cricket poo (as you've noticed), and I think I may have read that they actually make their own substrate with it, and even that the little ones eat it (yeah, I know, another reason to get disgusted), so it may not even be desirable to clean up after your colony too often.

Some of the other experts around here who actually have experience with their own roach colonies can probably tell you more and for sure. I still don't feel ready to start my own colony even though I understand that it would probably be cheaper in the long run, as well as being more sure of a steady supply for whenever they don't have them in the local stores.

We buy subadult crickets so our beardie usually eats them before they get to the chirping stage, but even when they do, my husband has lost some of his hearing in the high frequency range where they chirp, so he can barely hear them, and it doesn't bother me either (reminds me of summer nights in warmer climates), so no worries at least with the chirping. But roaches are easier to take care of than crickets in almost every way, as well as better feeders for the beardie.

 

[YoursTruly]

The cricket chirping doesn't bother me, but for some reason, my boyfriend wants to murder them LOL. I always say, "Let Thane (our beardie) take care of that!" We keep them in a dry closet and it doesn't bother me. They're not loud when they're in there.

Thank you for all the roach info! I have to say, upon purchasing our girl, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be having cockroaches delivered to my place! I wasn't going to start a roach colony, but after tons of reading about their benefits, it seemed like a good option. She is a COMPLETE pig, and we run out of crickets very quickly. I also wanted to have more than one protein option available for her.

Right now, the colony is barely even a colony, but we have a UTH, a CHE, all the food and crystals we could need, and tons of hope that they start breeding. We have a chilly, drafty bedroom, but there's no where else we can comfortably keep them. We have a pretty small apartment. We keep them under a table, on which Thane's tank resides, which has a skirt to surround the roach tank and hopefully keep some warmth in. We shall see.

 

[SHBailey]

Some people say that getting a bearded dragon isn't really like just getting one pet, because you also have to take care of all the little live bugs that go with the beardie.

Space and temperature are some of the main reasons why I haven't tried to start a roach colony in our little bitty house. I can't figure out where I would put another critter container, and I'd probably need more heat lamps to get them warm enough to breed, and the electric bill is already maxed out just with the reptiles themselves. That and I'm afraid that taking care of a breeding colony will take more time and energy than just taking care of the feeders that we get at the store, although my husband points out that we might come out ahead because we'd save the time and energy we spend running to the store. :?