# Scorpion food!  Crickets vs Roaches and Purchase vs Breed



## mkieff (Jan 25, 2008)

Ok, I am new to this Scorp gig.  I found one in my house, put it in an tank.  And enjoyed watching it.   Since then, I have purchased several more, and a tarantula.   So I starting to get a nice collection (not to big now, but I am always looking for more).

So, I am going to pose these questions.

1- Crickets VS Roaches - I have heard from both sides, but mostly from spider keepers.  I would like to hear from people who have lots of scorpions.

2- Purchase VS Breeding - Then once we discuss which is better, I would like to discuss breeding your own food, or purchasing it from local stores.

If anyone has any pitfalls, or stories of things going bad for any of these, please share.  I would like to know what I am getting into and the pros and cons for each.

Let the discussion begin.


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## bluefrogtat2 (Jan 25, 2008)

*definitely prefer roaches*

i have switched to roaches for the last year and a half,haven't bought one feeder since,a handfull of dogfood and a couple of apples a week and i have nutritious feeders constantly,have noticed a bigger growth rate as well.(plus you can feed roaches any quality of food and vary their diet according to your needs)i definitely prefer roaches for tarantulas,scorps,pedes,and even my lizards.and why would you buy instead of breed,they are just too easy


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## Xaranx (Jan 25, 2008)

It's not even a contest, roaches are better by far.  And there is no reason to not breed them, it's so easy.  The only downside to roaches is they can take a while to get established to where you can feed them out on a regular basis without depleting their population too much.  B. dubia can't climb glass or plastic, don't make noise, don't fly, easily sexed.

Throw them in this





and give em a couple months to get settled in and breeding, and enjoy having a self sustaining food source for all your inverts.  Some verts/reptiles like em too.

Good thing about breeding roaches is you can continue to expand your collection without having to worry about feeders.  Dubia's will give you 1/4"-2" feeders.  The babies might be too big for the smallest of slings and scorp babies but you can tear them in half or whatever.  

You can see how they are easily sexed in this picture, the males have the wings, females have wing stubs.  Juvies have wing stubs too, but they lack the coloration of the adults.


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## 4thGEN (Jan 25, 2008)

i like how you can regulate their breeding, in case the population gets out of hand. i say go for roaches, i just switched.


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## Brendan (Jan 25, 2008)

Crickets are relatively easy to breed as well.

There's one problem though. The noise they make.

It's damn annoying, especially when you're trying to sleep.

Actually, I may consider starting a colony of dubias' as well. Cockroaches, however, have always grossed me out, even in my childhood. I remember poo'ing one time in the washroom, and a whole bunch of em' came up to me and starting climbing on my pants. I can't imagine picking up a cockroach...I mean, crickets are easy to pick up. But roaches? Man, I'm afraid of squishing them by accident and all their juice squirts out...jeez.


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## Xaranx (Jan 25, 2008)

Crickets also stink, eat each other, jump everywhere, and only live for 8 weeks where the roaches live for 1.5 years.  I have yet to have a single unexplained death of the b. dubias.


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## villarex (Jan 25, 2008)

i use crix just throw in some weetabix, apple and a bit of water and they last for ages. my first lot of babies are growing well to just getting bigger and fatter. as for the noise they make i don't notice it any more.


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## Mr. Mordax (Jan 25, 2008)

If you choose to breed crickets instead of just buying them from the store, you also have to provide humid substrate for the females to deposit their eggs in.  You also need to give them ample hiding space to reduce cannibalism.  Those, combined with the jumping, lead me to prefer roaches 100% over crickets.  Lori and I breed five species (three of which are feeders), and I almost forget we have a semi-stable population of crickets that we ignore.

If you need smaller feeders than _B. dubia_ can offer, I suggest getting _B. lateralis_ (instead or in addition).  They also don't climb / fly / make noise.


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## ~Abyss~ (Jan 26, 2008)

I find that roaches are easier, cleaner(YES I KNOW I CANT BELIEVE IT EITHER), and just overall better feeders. The only thing is for some reason I have picky eaters. I have a b. jacksoni that only eats crickets and fruitflies not roaches. I have a A. bicolor that only eats crix as well. The thing is that MOST my animals will readily take roaches so I use them here and there.
Eddy


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## Cyris69 (Jan 26, 2008)

I was given permission from Dexter & Debbie of www.doubleds.org to use their data.
Taken from http://doubleds.org/contactus.html

Here is a break down.

B. Dubia
61.18% Moisture
35.6% Protein
6.75% Fat
3.25% Fiber
2.01% Ash

Crickets 
71.96% Moisture
18.5% Protein
6.26% Fat
2.09% Fiber
1.29% Ash

You can see the full sheet of other bugs on my Q&A in my signature or their site.


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## Mr. Mordax (Jan 26, 2008)

abyss_X3 said:


> I have picky eaters


The _P. liosoma_ I used to have was a picky eater, but she took roaches if she was hungry enough.  My other scorpions all readily accept _B. lateralis_.


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## chaoshybrid6 (Jan 27, 2008)

How many roaches per say would it take to get a colony of b dubia started?


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## sacto (Jan 27, 2008)

It depends on how quickly you want to have your colony producing feeders, and how many feeders you will be pulling from the colony every week. A good figure is about 100. It will still take a few months for it to get up and rolling.


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## Mr. Mordax (Jan 27, 2008)

We tried to start up a colony with only 50, and it never took off -- we had to supliment from someone else's colony that was going overboard.  Now ours is established and doing fine.


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## mkieff (Jan 28, 2008)

Ok, so I am going to go with roaches.   Does anyone know where the best place on the internet is to buy them?  I have looke everywhere, but would like to purchase from a place that someone has used before and would buy from again. 

I would like to start a colony so I can get rid of my stinky noisy crickets.


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## sacto (Jan 28, 2008)

Two good places:

http://www.blaberus.com/index.html

http://www.blapticadubia.com/

Two of the cheapest places.


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## Xaranx (Jan 28, 2008)

James at blaberus.com is a good guy, has all kids of roaches, some T's and a few scorps for sale.  Good pricing too, his website isn't the best but email him and he'll help you out, tell him how many mouths you got to feed and he'll help you figure out how many you need.


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## mkieff (Jan 29, 2008)

Well, I did it, I purchased 100 B. lateralis from http://www.kenthebugguy.com/.  Total was only $21.00 with shipping.   So we will see how things go.  I wanted to get a tropical species so that if it did escape, it would not live long in Utah.

My crickets STINK, and I just want to get rid of them ASAP.  I purchased a 100 of them several weeks ago, and find them to be hard to work with.   I like the idea that Roaches won't eat their young, and you don't have to have a special place for them to lay their eggs.

Thanks for the input guys.


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## Mr. Mordax (Jan 29, 2008)

I don't know if you've seen any caresheets or not for these guys, but lats like it warm, kinda humid, and they need substrate.  (They don't bury the ooths, but I've heard they need the humidity provided by substrate to hatch.)

Leave 'em for a month or two to get established.  Lats are one of my favorite, 'cause they're the perfect size for most of my scorps.


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## bluefrogtat2 (Jan 29, 2008)

*also*

they are also the most likely of all to infest your home,so be ultra careful.(i personally don't keep them for this fact,and own 14 other species)
andy


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## mkieff (Jan 29, 2008)

bluefrogtat2 said:


> they are also the most likely of all to infest your home,so be ultra careful.(i personally don't keep them for this fact,and own 14 other species)
> andy


I figured that because they require humidity and high temps, that they would not do well if they go out in Utah.  What are the other species of Roaches you have, and which ones do you feed to your collection?   I need a non-climber.


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## Xaranx (Jan 29, 2008)

Yeah I don't keep latteralis either cause of that, and the fact I live in the south.  I keep B. dubia.  I have found a few escapes, but they are always emaciated and nowhere near breeding condition.  Dubia are also live bearers, so no worrying about eggsacs or substrate.  Wish the babies were smaller, thats where the lats win out.


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