Thinking of starting a roach colony?

[Nathan1995]

Hey guys, I just spent another £14.99 on locusts for Cyrus, which will be gone in the next 2 weeks! And have spent my day researching roaches, how to keep and what not, but suddenly just got the feeling that it's all too much work and effort and the amount of upkeep they'll cost, will it really outweigh the prices I'm paying for my locusts every 2 weeks?

Can anyone give me some info on how they could really help me? And also possibly some help into where to get the things such as egg flats, a good container with ventilation, the right chow for them, all the basics please? I have so much information in my head I can't remember any of it and just need someone to refresh my memory and help me decide whether they'd be a good idea. Thanks.

 

[Claudiusx]

Too much work? Haha they are the easiest thing in the world! :mrgreen:

You basically throw them in a bin and forget about them for months. All you have to do is make sure their food and water crystals are stocked up. They do the rest! :mrgreen:

They will cost no more to keep than buying bulk crickets.

But the kicker is, after a few months your colony will be sustaining itself in terms of numbers it produces.

You can buy a rubbermaid bin at walmart, or anywhere really. And most roach suppliers will sell you roaches, chow, egg crates, water crystals, everything you could need.

They definitely are a smart choice, they wouldn't be so popular if they weren't cheap.

-Brandon

 

[Nathan1995]

Haha thanks for the reply Brandon, I just need to find a WalMart equivalent over here in England... Also anyone got any idea how much the heat mat would cost to run? And a roachguy equivalent in the UK haha.. I've been looking at ebay, and found things like 30 roaches for £4.99 .. Is that anywhere near a good deal? Thanks guys!

 

[Trajega]

first, consider getting farmer stuff anytime you can over hobby supplier.

Egg crates will run more than a buck a piece, or 3 per dollar if you can get a farmer depo

roach feed, can be a little pricey, but I got away mixing chick feed with dog food. I just now started grinding high protein, and they bred fine before hand.

THe pricing is all relative, but if you stated how long you were willing to wait before feeding off it, and what all you have to feed we could probably help more.

Personaly I wish I would have bought 500 babies, and waiting 8 months for the colony to grow and fill in, but I started with 30 adults for $30 USD. This was our standard price, but you can always try to find better on craigslist (uk has this im assuming), or just spend 20 mins price comparing all the different suppliers you can find. I would heavily suggest not getting fewer than 15, because one will die on you now and then and could leave your colony to collapse.

 

[Nathan1995]

Farmer stuff eh? Just a local farm? (Sorry I'm pretty new to all this adult stuff, I'm only 16 and never knew until now you could take stuff from a farmer, if he's nice enough obviously).
I'd be willing to wait a couple months I guess for babies to grow into adults if in the long run it'd be cheaper.
I'll look into the home made chow for them in a bit.

But yeah, I'd be willing to give them a few months of growing time, does that help at all?

Oh and I just found the perfect little crate for them at a local shop, it's about 40gallon, and I'll try and collect some egg flats as soon as possible.

 

[aussiefreak101]

A farmer supply store, somewhere you can go to buy chicks, horse feed, etc...they would likely have egg crates for sale. You can also ask the manager of a local diner to save their egg crates. I asked our Denny's and I go in every couple days to pick up what they've saved. Chow you can buy Purina One Beyond cat food and grind that up with cheerios, throw in some oranges like once a week. Rubbermaid or Sterilite DARK bins work best, you can use a glass aquarium as long as you tape up cardboard or dark paper to the outside. Dubia need it dark. I'm in the US not UK but this is the first site that came up for UK dubia search http://www.roachcolony.com/breeding-pack---medium-14-p.asp. You'll want 1/3 of the amount of males or they'll be so busy fighting there won't be much production going on. You can donate your over count to a local pet store.

 

[Nathan1995]

Hey guys, I'm writing this on my phone as I'm out and have just found the perfect container to keep them in. Its a 50 litre container with a lock lid. Thanks for the website link AussieFreak, I've been having. A look over it for a couple days and checking out the food, breeding colonies and the house you can buy for them.

So linking to the site, they have a ready made home for them for like £60 and believe I can make a better one myself. The roach chow that website has, can anyone recommend it? Is it good stuff? They have different weights, of 100g, 200g, 600g and 1000g - would it go off eventually or will it last for ever for them? If so obviously its better to buy the bulk right?
They also have water crystals, does this go off? I have some left over cricket water crystals, will I be able to use that?
They have some different sized colonies, can anyone recommend what size would be best to start with9 I'm sorry but please look on the site for the information, I can't recall from memory ! Sorry guys thanks.

 

[cr1chard]

Ask around at local bakeries for the egg flats - I got like 100 of them for free. Roach chow is as simple as ground up dog food (I use grainless), or you can get fancy and make your own recipe with oats, chicken mash, etc. - just remember, the more protein, the better. The heat mats are cheap to run, or you can put your bin on top of your cable box as another "free" source. You can get the bins at just about any homegoods or hardware store. Cricket water crystals are perfect, or you can look for "soil moist" (check the ingredients for toxic ingredients) at your local garden center.

 

[Nathan1995]

Thanks cr1chard, I'll look around for the egg flats. And thanks forthe tip about roach chow, would I just throw it in? How do I actually grind it up haha? See I know NOTHING about any of this yet. Is there a care sheet I could just spent a few days reading about everything I need to know? I already read the roachguy's care sheet, but it doesn't go into specifics too much.

I bought the 48 liter container, but still am yet to get anything else! Thanks guys.

 

[aussiefreak101]

Someone made this megaguide and you can read through that start-up http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=162485. Also, check out youtube by putting in dubia setup and you'll get a ton of results with people showing you how to set up the bin and food and such. If you can get yourself a used blender or have one already that you don't mind just washing after there's cat food or dog food in it then do that. You want to place it in a shallow dish like a margarine lid just like the water crystals. I took a frozen dinner dish and scratched it all up so it had traction and then put a little divider down the middle and tada, a water and food dish.

 

[Nathan1995]

Thanks again for that AussieFreak, useful stuff and as soon as I can get onto a computer and check it out, sounds like it'll help a lot though. And some more great tips!
With the dog / cat food, do you mean dry or wet? Like bisucits or meat? I don't mind cleaning out my blender atall, and how long would It kinda last ? Should I just put in like a bowl full every day and change it the next? (Sorry if they have been answered in that mega guide, but I can't read it yet). Oh and also, how many roaches is a sort of good number to start with? There's a few different sized starter breeding packs to choose from on the website, sorry to ask so many questions, and thankyou guys for answering as many as you can. Thankyou!

 

[aussiefreak101]

Dry kibble is what you use. I use Purina One Beyond because it's a cheaper good food(i.e no "fillers" like corn and wheat). You do like two cups of that stuff in the blender with about 1/2cup of cheerios, rolled oats, and I added a bit of brown sugar to mine to satisfy their sweet tooth. I did that several times until I had about a gallon worth of the blended stuff. I haven't even made a dent in it with 250 mouths. They seem to wait out for the fruit a lot of times lol. I only add about 1/3c in the dish at a time so nothing will mold and I can tell if they're eating it. Only refill when it gets low. I got 250 plus 5 adult pairs back in early February and I just cleaned the bin end of last month...there has been really no production, only maturing of the smaller nymphs. I still can't feed out of my bin. The rule is, go for as many as you can afford!

An afterthought, being in the UK, Flexwatt should be easy for you to get a hold of. In my opinion that is the best choice for your heating over human pad or under the tank ...get a digital thermometer with a probe or an infrared one and that flexwatt with a dimmer and you'll be good to go.

 

[Nathan1995]

Oh awesome thanks Aussie, again really helpful haha! The food doesn't seem like it'll be much of a chore, I reckon I can whip that up no problem.
The only thing I didn't understand is the flexwatt thing? Can you explain that bit please haha? I have a spare digital probe thermometer (where do I actually put it? Surely not ontop of the heat matt). I was just planning on buying a heat matt for about £12 and plopping that in there and hoping thatd get it to about 92F.
I hope you mean february 2 months ago, and not 14 months haha!! 5 breeding pairs eh? Hmm.. Well the thing I was looking at I get 50 adult males and females, 250 nymphs, 100 medium and 100 large, for £64.99.. Does that sound like a bargain or way over priced?

 

[aussiefreak101]

It's a type of heat matt that's flexible and has an even heat output. This site http://www.bigappleherp.com/Flex-Watt-Heat-Tape has it for sale for here in US but has a video that explains it very well.

This breeder is based out of UK and this link shows him setting up a dubia bin with the flexwatt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBGsuKRZSKk, his website with roaches for sale is http://www.theroachhut.co.uk/.

 

[Nathan1995]

Thanks for all the help Aussiefreak, I got home today, and researched for a few hours, and have got my heat mat, thermostat and about 300 roaches all ordered to come within the next few days. My roaches also come with 1kg of roach chow and egg flats, and I already have the wire mesh and glue gun so I'm all prepared!
Thanks guys, but 1 last thing, any clue how long that 1kg will last?