Need help raising Dubia and Lateralis

[Mithricat]

Hey all

I've recently acquired small numbers of B. dubia and B. lateralis as feeder roaches for my tarantula but I've been fascinated by them as well.

My Lateralis colony (small, about 30 individuals) is doing great. In a couple of days about ¼ of the roaches actually molted. They eat a lot and aren't that afraid of light. I've had a couple of deaths but only on smaller specimens.
What worries me the most about them is heat and humidity. They LOVE the heated part of their enclosure and rarely move to the cooler side, but I'm afraid that keeping the heating pad constantly on will dry out their enclosure too much. When I set them up I added moist coconut fiber substrate (leftover from my tarantula enclosure) and this has kept humidity high, but it's slowly drying...

My Dubia colony is my more pressing concern. I have about 20 medium nymphs and 10 adults separated into different containers. They are totally indifferent to heat and really don't seem to care about food either... I've placed pieces of orange, a bit of lettuce and some dry kibble inside but they barely touched them... I'm worried I'm doing something wrong that will kill them off. The nymph colony has a substrate (most have actually burrowed) and the adults are on a plain plastic container with no substrate and just egg cartons and food/water.

 

[pannaking22]

A quick spritz of water every couple days will keep the humidity up in your lateralis colony. They don't really need all that much humidity to do well and you can feed them fruits and veggies, which will give them the moisture they need.

Hmmm, do you know what temp the dubia enclosure is at? You don't have a large colony, so it may not look like they're eating, but they're all getting what they need to grow. Try a slice of apple and see what happens. That's usually a popular food item and usually acts as an incentive for many species to give birth for whatever reason (maybe the extra sugars?).

 

[Theneil]

DISCLAIMER: I have not started my roach colonies yet and I have not personally dealt with roachcrossing only heard (read technically) good reviews about them.

Here is a link to their husbandry guide. Hope it helps.

http://www.roachcrossing.com/care-guides/

 

[Hisserdude]

Just spray the dry area of the lat cage to keep humidity high, or just pour some water down there if you really wanna keep it moist.

The dubia are probably eating just fine, but I doubt you'll notice much feeding activity until their numbers increase.

 

[Mithricat]

The Lats are doing great, at least one or two are molting each day and they are ravenous. My only worry is that there don't seem to be any male nymphs but I'm hoping at least some of the smaller ones will grow up to be males.

I relocated the Dubias to a large plastic bin and moved some of the males away on their own enclosure.

Yesterday one of the dubia females had an egg sack protruding from her bottom but since it hasn't been dropped anywhere in the enclosure I believe she retracted it inside and there should be babies soon She was probably pregnant when I got her.

I haven't decided what to do with the leftover males yet. I don't have anything that eats them so I'm thinking of moving them to their own place and keeping them as display species. Will they still fight if there are no females around?

 

[ccTroi]

For lateralis: very few egg crates, water gels in one corner, and food in another corner. Done.
For dubias: egg crates, water gels in one corner, food in another corner, heat pad located where egg crates are. Done.

Lats do well in room temperature and do not need any supplemental heat. Dubias can thrive in room temperature, but supplemental heat is perfect for them. Throw away all the things you’ve heard about humidity. The water gels will provide them with the moisture they need to survive. Spraying and adding moist substrate is completely unnecessary and can lead to a mite outbreak and/or mold. In addition, substrate will only give you trouble when cleaning.