Feasibility of starting a dubia colony

[Malkavian]

I've been thinking of getting some roaches going for a few weeks now, mostly to offset the time and (admittedly, minor) expense of buying crickets, but also so I have more control over what my feeders are getting fed and how they're kept.

First thing--right now I have one adult leopard gecko, a subadult G. pulchra and 4 assorted smallish slings. At that small a collection I'm wondering if it would even be worth the hassle. The leo puts down about 20 crickets a week, the pulchra 4-5 or so, and the slings will take 1-2 small ones each.

Following that, is there any rule of thumb useful for determining that if you feed off X roaches per week you need a colony of y size to be self replentishing?

Second: As far as keeping them at the right temperature, I have a utility room out on the balcony of my apartment. Daytime temps here (currently) are in the high 90s in the sunshine, so in the shade I'd think it would be plenty warm enough to sustain a tropical roach colony, but not over warm. Would that work, as long as adequate water gel and veggies were provided? nyworms.com indicates 90-95 is optimum but I keep reading about people who have success at lower temperatures.

 

[Sr. Chencho]

Arachno-brother, I believe that your roaches will do just fine. I have three B. dubia and one B. fusca roach colonies that I've kept in my garage since last year. Yes it is hot, but they are well fed with all kinds of fruits, lettuce, dog food, water cystals, etc. They love corn on the cob, rice, meatball subway on wheat, tore it apart. Despite the heat and humidity, they are reproducing like crazy.
Hope this helps,
Fredster
Lean, not as mean
Still US Marine!

 

[reverendsterlin]

dubias breed somewhat slow anyway, cool temps slow that even more. feeding off adult females slow things even more. some pet stores will give you $40 per hundred mixed. too many roaches is an easy problem to over come.
Rev

 

[Malkavian]

Considering my relatively small feeding needs, is it possible to restrict the size of the colony somehow? via size of container or something?

Don't really care to end up with thousands of them if all's i need are a dozen a week

 

[Moltar]

The best you can do for controlling breeding rate is to control temperature. At like, 70 degrees or below they're going to slow way down. At 95 they go crazy like bunnies.

 

[equuskat]

My dubias seem to be breeding like bunnies and right now my thermometer is reading 91.4...I've heard that they have to be between 85 and 95 to breed well, so it makes since that you could slow the expansion by cooling them a little.

 

[Matt K]

Temps dont mean a thing. Mine breed moderately fast at 76'F. If you want them to breed slower keep them at room temp and feed/water them just enough to keep them going. More food = more roaches.

 

[equuskat]

Well, I'm no roachie expert. That makes sense though. Mine are fed quite well, too, so it seems that is what supports my prolific colony.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Temps dont mean a thing. Mine breed moderately fast at 76'F. If you want them to breed slower keep them at room temp and feed/water them just enough to keep them going. More food = more roaches.

How can you say temps don't mean a thing.......... but then suggest room temps to slow the breeding down? :? You can give them all the food they want at 70 degrees and they are going to breed much slower then if you do the same thing at 90.

Temps really do mean everything with this species. As mentioned if you crank up the heat they will pop out babies like crazy. 85-95 they just don't stop! But when you drop them down to the lower 70s things slow down substantially. Worse comes to worse you just sell off what you don't want.

 

[Hamburglar]

I keep my dubia at room temperature (69-70) and they are still breeding too fast for me. How that compares to others would be hard for me to tell. I recently put them in a larger tub, and they have almost outgrown it a little over a month later. Every time I look in there I see egg cases. I am going to try and sell all of my adults off to slow them down a bit. I currently feed around 45 tarantulas and a bearded dragon. If you want to start of with some adults I will be selling them cheap here pretty soon....

 

[reverendsterlin]

I keep my dubia at room temperature (69-70) and they are still breeding too fast for me. How that compares to others would be hard for me to tell. I recently put them in a larger tub, and they have almost outgrown it a little over a month later. Every time I look in there I see egg cases. I am going to try and sell all of my adults off to slow them down a bit. I currently feed around 45 tarantulas and a bearded dragon. If you want to start of with some adults I will be selling them cheap here pretty soon....

If your seeing egg cases then it doesn't seem like you have dubia which hatch internally. Maybe I'm misunderstanding.
Rev

 

[Hamburglar]

Sorry for the confusion, I meant the egg cases extending from the females.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Sorry for the confusion, I meant the egg cases extending from the females.

Makes more sense now!

 

[BestRoach]

Best way to control breeding rate, is to limit your adult females. Its simple math really, every adult female will push out 25 or so nymphs every 30-35 days. Give those nymphs 5-6 months to mature, and you can get an idea of how fast a colony will grow.

If you keep around 50 breeding females, with 20 or so males, your colony will stay manageable. Make sure you have sevaral generations of nymphs lined up to feed, and occasionally let some new females mature so you don't loose all your adults to old age at the same time.


The other option is you can do it like me, and let your colony go nuts. Wait until you have a couple hundred thousand mixed, and start selling them off

 

[Tokendog]

Best way to control breeding rate, is to limit your adult females. Its simple math really, every adult female will push out 25 or so nymphs every 30-35 days. Give those nymphs 5-6 months to mature, and you can get an idea of how fast a colony will grow.

If you keep around 50 breeding females, with 20 or so males, your colony will stay manageable. Make sure you have sevaral generations of nymphs lined up to feed, and occasionally let some new females mature so you don't loose all your adults to old age at the same time.


The other option is you can do it like me, and let your colony go nuts. Wait until you have a couple hundred thousand mixed, and start selling them off

Or if you have a neighbor that you do not like, you can leave a few hundred thousand of them and a bag of rotting fruit near his back door and enjoy knowing you had the true last word....

I haven't done this, but it does come to mind when I think what can I do with a few extra thousand roaches in the high humidity/high heat environment that I live in Louisiana...

 

[kingfarvito]

yea great idea.....more invasive SP :worship: :clap: :worship: :clap:




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