Cleaning dubia colony if it has substrate

Moakmeister

Arachnodemon
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Messages
741
I’m keeping my first dubia colony right now, and I gave them a small amount of coco fiber to hide in. I also put the egg crates in there so they can climb, but none of them ever did, so I took it out. But I just realized that I now have no way to clean out the frass. There’s no babies yet, and only one adult male so far. I can definitely smell something in the enclosure. It doesn’t smell bad, but it does smell slightly of something.
 

Phia

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 26, 2018
Messages
34
I have seen people put substrate in the enclosures for babies, but personally I wouldn't. The poop eventually makes a substrate-ish layer on the bottom but the dead are more visible. In order to avoid fruit fly issues, ie maggots, I like to be able to readily see those who died and remove them.
 

Moakmeister

Arachnodemon
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Messages
741
I have seen people put substrate in the enclosures for babies, but personally I wouldn't. The poop eventually makes a substrate-ish layer on the bottom but the dead are more visible. In order to avoid fruit fly issues, ie maggots, I like to be able to readily see those who died and remove them.
That. Is disgusting rofl.
 

indyana207

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 12, 2018
Messages
16
Not really a good way to separate coco fiber and frass, but you could use a large mesh screen to shake out any hiding roaches. Better off just leaving a layer of frass and thinning it when it builds up too much.

If you really want substrate, going bioactive is probably a better bet. I do that and swap out a portion of substrate once a year or so, picking out the most obvious riders and writing off the rest into the freezer.
 

BepopCola

Arachnobaron
Joined
Oct 14, 2018
Messages
418
Not really a good way to separate coco fiber and frass, but you could use a large mesh screen to shake out any hiding roaches. Better off just leaving a layer of frass and thinning it when it builds up too much.

If you really want substrate, going bioactive is probably a better bet. I do that and swap out a portion of substrate once a year or so, picking out the most obvious riders and writing off the rest into the freezer.
What's your bioactive setup like?
The idea sounds cool, the no substrate thing has turned me off keeping roaches as feeders for a while.
 

indyana207

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 12, 2018
Messages
16
It's a typical plastic storage bin with one wall heated, but inside I have a shallow drainage layer with screen, jungle-type substrate mix, leaf litter, and a whole bunch of cork tubes and flats. The dubia are in there with springtails, dwarf isopods, lesser mealworms (buffalo beetles), mealworms, and Little Kenyan roaches. I water and mist it to keep it from drying out and just dump in chow and fresh veggies twice a week.

Because I don't have plants, I play it safe and swap out a portion of the substrate for new each year, but I've never had any problems with it smelling bad or molding heavily. Been doing it this way for about four years.

I made a few videos on YouTube, so you can check them out for visuals.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkzn8liG-UKIbgdt0L2ErYrDsOAfb5BRk
 
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