Breeding crickets and dubia roaches in the same bin? Has anyone tried this?

[Wayfarin]

Hello, folks!

After going back and forth from Groveton to Littleton in New Hampshire to get feeder insects, we finally found a local supplier. Granite State Geckos in Lancaster.
However, I haven't given up on the idea of breeding my own feeder insects for even better convenience.
I've been studying breeding feeder insects for some time now, and from what I've understood, breeding crickets and dubia cockroaches isn't that different, other than crickets requiring moist soil for egg-laying.

From experience, most mature feeder insects thrive in well-ventilated and dry conditions, with humid, poorly-ventilated conditions breeding more maggots, mites, and mold (the three Ms) than desired feeders. We have a multiple large bins over 30" long and 12" wide.

However, I would like to breed both crickets and dubia roaches, and would prefer to keep both in large, ventilated bins. However, the size of these bins would take up a lot of floor space, regardless of where we locate them.

I was wondering if it would be possible to just breed them in the same bin. I had considered the possibility of predation on eggs and nymphs.
But between that and cannibalism, is there really a serious difference? Is it any worse to lose nymphs to another species than to cannibalism?
I know that cannibalism is generally caused by hunger and dehydration, and I'd imagine that predation on other insects would be the same thing.
Perhaps there are even benefits, such as crickets eating dead or dying roaches or something similar.

But perhaps there is something else I'm forgetting or ignoring when it comes to breeding them separate?
Would it be possible to breed crickets and dubia roaches in the same bin if it's big enough?
Has anyone even tried this out?

Any input, especially from experience, would be appreciated.
Thanks! God bless!

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Hello, folks!

After going back and forth from Groveton to Littleton in New Hampshire to get feeder insects, we finally found a local supplier. Granite State Geckos in Lancaster.
However, I haven't given up on the idea of breeding my own feeder insects for even better convenience.
I've been studying breeding feeder insects for some time now, and from what I've understood, breeding crickets and dubia cockroaches isn't that different, other than crickets requiring moist soil for egg-laying.

From experience, most mature feeder insects thrive in well-ventilated and dry conditions, with humid, poorly-ventilated conditions breeding more maggots, mites, and mold (the three Ms) than desired feeders. We have a multiple large bins over 30" long and 12" wide.

However, I would like to breed both crickets and dubia roaches, and would prefer to keep both in large, ventilated bins. However, the size of these bins would take up a lot of floor space, regardless of where we locate them.

I was wondering if it would be possible to just breed them in the same bin. I had considered the possibility of predation on eggs and nymphs.
But between that and cannibalism, is there really a serious difference? Is it any worse to lose nymphs to another species than to cannibalism?
I know that cannibalism is generally caused by hunger and dehydration, and I'd imagine that predation on other insects would be the same thing.
Perhaps there are even benefits, such as crickets eating dead or dying roaches or something similar.

But perhaps there is something else I'm forgetting or ignoring when it comes to breeding them separate?
Would it be possible to breed crickets and dubia roaches in the same bin if it's big enough?
Has anyone even tried this out?

Any input, especially from experience, would be appreciated.
Thanks! God bless!

No I haven’t tried this , If you do try this record your data and information and tell us how this civil war like environment works .. who knows maybe they won’t eat each other well fed ? I had a dubia roach sneak its way into my orange colony . But that’s two roaches not two different species like mixed crickets/dubia . Separating them would really be a pain if it goes wrong .. but hey have at it !

 

[Introvertebrate]

Somehow a cricket once ended up in my dubia bin. They seemed to cohabitate nicely for weeks. Finally, I removed the cricket, just in case it was eating any nymphs.

 

[SpookySpooder]

but hey have at it !

Don't just tell him to have at it.

This is a bad idea.

Resounding NO from me.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Don't just tell him to have at it.

This is a bad idea.

Resounding NO from me.

Yeah he never mentioned the amount he was trying this test out on a small amount maybe … but yeah it’s a no go as far as making any sense . Crickets are just too predatorial prob would eat molting roaches … a swarm and gone .. bigger roaches might eat the-crickets too.

 

[NMTs]

First of all, breeding colonies of any kind eat A LOT and require frequent maintenance. You'd have to have a large collection of insectivores to make breeding feeders worth while. I've got a colony of Dubia going and the only reason I can keep it at reasonable numbers is because I feed them to my box turtles - my T's can't keep pace with the amount of roaches produced (and I have a lot of T's). I could always reduce the number of females in the colony, but even doing that doesn't seem to reduce the amount of nymphs much, and then you risk the colony crashing if a couple females stop producing or die off. Just something to consider before going forward.

Never tried mixing types of feeders, but I've read somewhere of someone having success with mealworms and roaches in the same bin, so it may be possible if you choose the right ones to breed.

However, I would like to breed both crickets and dubia roaches, and would prefer to keep both in large, ventilated bins. However, the size of these bins would take up a lot of floor space, regardless of where we locate them.

In regards to the space issue, just get stackable totes and you only have to make space for one.

 

[SpookySpooder]

It has come to my attention that my answer is not satisfactory in terms of information. Another member PM'd me and asked why I think this is a bad idea, so I will post my response here so that anybody who hasn't figured out why this is a bad idea yet can verify the information for themselves.

While you are correct in your observation that many of the husbandry requirements for both crickets and dubias overlap, there are several key steps in the colony breeding process you are overlooking that will render it very ineffective for you to combine the two colonies.

Namely that crickets are opportunistic omnivores, and will consume any available source of protein, quite literally. They will eat their children, their mother, and their brood mate who decided to molt next to them.

Because of this inherent behavior, breeders who breed crickets keep the adults separate from the young. They give the breeding age adults containers full of substrate to deposit their eggs, and then they move said container to another grow out container to raise the young.

This process is done because of the extreme cannibalistic nature of crickets. They do not just wait for something to die, they will go ahead and attack another smaller cricket to eat it.

Compare that to keeping of dubias...

As you can glean, almost all large dubia colonies are substrate-free. For the most part, dubias do not require any form of substrate to hit peak breeding efficiency and so everybody uses vertically stacked egg crates.

The adults and nymphs have literally no way of protecting themselves besides running and hiding, so combining them with a bin of crickets is just asking for your dubias to dwindle down to 0 as they molt and are eaten alive.

Say you prevent this by giving your dubias substrate to hide in. Now you have adult crickets and dubias burrowed everywhere, the container is now impossible to clean of frass (which is toxic to both species in large amounts) because of the substrate. Nymphs from both colonies are being eaten by adult crickets, and both colony breeding is slowed.

I ask, is this "functional?"

Apologies if I come off as crass. This is just a really bad idea. You can go ahead and experiment if you'd like, but you'd be wasting time, money and feeders.

As mentioned above. There is compatibility between other feeder colonies. But for the most part everybody keeps them separate because having to separate the feeders to feed is a hassle.

 

[Wayfarin]

First of all, breeding colonies of any kind eat A LOT and require frequent maintenance. You'd have to have a large collection of insectivores to make breeding feeders worth while. I've got a colony of Dubia going and the only reason I can keep it at reasonable numbers is because I feed them to my box turtles - my T's can't keep pace with the amount of roaches produced (and I have a lot of T's). I could always reduce the number of females in the colony, but even doing that doesn't seem to reduce the amount of nymphs much, and then you risk the colony crashing if a couple females stop producing or die off. Just something to consider before going forward.

Never tried mixing types of feeders, but I've read somewhere of someone having success with mealworms and roaches in the same bin, so it may be possible if you choose the right ones to breed.


In regards to the space issue, just get stackable totes and you only have to make space for one.

Yeah, we have a bearded dragon and a red-eared slider. Not insectivores, but aggressively omnivorous.

It has come to my attention that my answer is not satisfactory in terms of information. Another member PM'd me and asked why I think this is a bad idea, so I will post my response here so that anybody who hasn't figured out why this is a bad idea yet can verify the information for themselves.

While you are correct in your observation that many of the husbandry requirements for both crickets and dubias overlap, there are several key steps in the colony breeding process you are overlooking that will render it very ineffective for you to combine the two colonies.

Namely that crickets are opportunistic omnivores, and will consume any available source of protein, quite literally. They will eat their children, their mother, and their brood mate who decided to molt next to them.

Because of this inherent behavior, breeders who breed crickets keep the adults separate from the young. They give the breeding age adults containers full of substrate to deposit their eggs, and then they move said container to another grow out container to raise the young.

This process is done because of the extreme cannibalistic nature of crickets. They do not just wait for something to die, they will go ahead and attack another smaller cricket to eat it.

Compare that to keeping of dubias...

As you can glean, almost all large dubia colonies are substrate-free. For the most part, dubias do not require any form of substrate to hit peak breeding efficiency and so everybody uses vertically stacked egg crates.

The adults and nymphs have literally no way of protecting themselves besides running and hiding, so combining them with a bin of crickets is just asking for your dubias to dwindle down to 0 as they molt and are eaten alive.

Say you prevent this by giving your dubias substrate to hide in. Now you have adult crickets and dubias burrowed everywhere, the container is now impossible to clean of frass (which is toxic to both species in large amounts) because of the substrate. Nymphs from both colonies are being eaten by adult crickets, and both colony breeding is slowed.

I ask, is this "functional?"

Apologies if I come off as crass. This is just a really bad idea. You can go ahead and experiment if you'd like, but you'd be wasting time, money and feeders.

As mentioned above. There is compatibility between other feeder colonies. But for the most part everybody keeps them separate because having to separate the feeders to feed is a hassle.

Can I start by clarifying that I don't have an established colony of dubia roaches yet? If the crickets really are so aggressive, I would not lose many roaches, as I only intend to introduce a dozen or so roaches to the bin. I was originally only going to breed crickets.

I'm not a cricket genius or anything, but I believe that cricket carnivory is largely attributable to overcrowding and poor living conditions.

Also, couldn't I just cull the crickets if they are still causing too much depredation? That is, employ the bearded dragon.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

It has come to my attention that my answer is not satisfactory in terms of information. Another member PM'd me and asked why I think this is a bad idea, so I will post my response here so that anybody who hasn't figured out why this is a bad idea yet can verify the information for themselves.

While you are correct in your observation that many of the husbandry requirements for both crickets and dubias overlap, there are several key steps in the colony breeding process you are overlooking that will render it very ineffective for you to combine the two colonies.

Namely that crickets are opportunistic omnivores, and will consume any available source of protein, quite literally. They will eat their children, their mother, and their brood mate who decided to molt next to them.

Because of this inherent behavior, breeders who breed crickets keep the adults separate from the young. They give the breeding age adults containers full of substrate to deposit their eggs, and then they move said container to another grow out container to raise the young.

This process is done because of the extreme cannibalistic nature of crickets. They do not just wait for something to die, they will go ahead and attack another smaller cricket to eat it.

Compare that to keeping of dubias...

As you can glean, almost all large dubia colonies are substrate-free. For the most part, dubias do not require any form of substrate to hit peak breeding efficiency and so everybody uses vertically stacked egg crates.

The adults and nymphs have literally no way of protecting themselves besides running and hiding, so combining them with a bin of crickets is just asking for your dubias to dwindle down to 0 as they molt and are eaten alive.

Say you prevent this by giving your dubias substrate to hide in. Now you have adult crickets and dubias burrowed everywhere, the container is now impossible to clean of frass (which is toxic to both species in large amounts) because of the substrate. Nymphs from both colonies are being eaten by adult crickets, and both colony breeding is slowed.

I ask, is this "functional?"

Apologies if I come off as crass. This is just a really bad idea. You can go ahead and experiment if you'd like, but you'd be wasting time, money and feeders.

As mentioned above. There is compatibility between other feeder colonies. But for the most part everybody keeps them separate because having to separate the feeders to feed is a hassle.

Yep the colony would be a civil war at best ..

Can I start by clarifying that I don't have an established colony of dubia roaches yet? If the crickets really are so aggressive, I would not lose many roaches, as I only intend to introduce a dozen or so roaches to the bin. I was originally only going to breed crickets.

I'm not a cricket genius or anything, but I believe that cricket carnivory is largely attributable to overcrowding and poor living conditions.

Also, couldn't I just cull the crickets if they are still causing too much depredation? That is, employ the bearded dragon.

I just don’t see the point of housing them together and there are already two types of things you can house with dubia if you research them more. Crickets don’t live long so they might die and get eaten by the roaches too . There better off separate those annoying jumping things would easily escape my roach bins :..

you would certainly need substrate if you tried both to do your experiment

how many crickets and dubia are we talking hundreds?? If you’re intending on not breeding them and just feeding them off then hmm … I don’t know more opinions are needed . But civil war is best term I’ve came up for to so far . Or a feeder gladiator stadium …

 

[SpookySpooder]

Can I start by clarifying that I don't have an established colony of dubia roaches yet? If the crickets really are so aggressive, I would not lose many roaches, as I only intend to introduce a dozen or so roaches to the bin. I was originally only going to breed crickets.

I'm not a cricket genius or anything, but I believe that cricket carnivory is largely attributable to overcrowding and poor living conditions.

Also, couldn't I just cull the crickets if they are still causing too much depredation? That is, employ the bearded dragon.

I am in no way attempting to discourage you from doing your own research or conducting your own experiments, just conveying what I have observed and experienced myself as well as my thoughts on how it would go. I personally have never mixed crickets with any other feeders, but I have done red runners and dubias and dubias with lesser mealworms/dermestid beetles and those worked quite well.

You can keep dermestid beetles and their larvae with almost any type of feeder btw.

I have kept colonies of a lot of different feeders across multiple hobbies, and let me just say I am incredibly biased against crickets. (Could you tell? )
They have been my least favorable type of animal EVER to raise and maintain.

IME they stink even with maintenance and I am insanely militant about maintenance, coming from planted aquaria.

I know many people will insist that they don't smell their cricket bin because their cricket bin maintenance is SOOOO immaculate. I have to assume these people have gone nose deaf to their stench. Crickets smell like the worst kind of foot and body odor combined even when their bin is spotless. I could literally smell my cricket bin the moment I opened my animal room. I have smelled every cricket bin in every T room I've ever been in from across the room. To me, it's not something that can be ignored or downplayed. It's straight up nasty.

If you can deal with this, more power to you. You are who I will get crickets from.

For this reason alone I have stopped keeping crickets. If I want them, I buy them, and let someone else deal with the headache of raising them. IME crickets require double maintenance as Dubias do, and still stink and provide less nutrition.

Crickets are also escape artists. No other feeder (besides locust and German roaches I suppose) have the same kind of escape ability. I housed my crickets in vertically stacked egg crates, which is the norm, and every time I opened the bin to do anything, bunches of them would attempt to jump out. There would always be several successful escapes. You can remedy this by a plethora of methods, but to me it was not worth the hassle. It is quite easy to make an enclosure that is escape proof for both crickets and dubias, but I just rather not deal with that as dubias are much easier to keep alone in their shorter, smaller bins.

I am not exaggerating their cannibalistic tendencies either. Literally EVERYBODY who raises crickets to sell as feeders separates the young from the adults. This is because they don't want the adults to eat into their profit margin, because they are guaranteed to do so if allowed. If you want to keep and rear multiple generations in one bin and can write off the losses of cannabilism because you maintain a massive colony, that's up to you.

Just don't pretend that by feeding them enough and giving them enough space they won't eat each other. They prefer to eat each other over other readily available sources of protein. You are guaranteed to lose quite a few to cannibalism, mostly the young and those molting. Even when I kept a small colony of crickets in a 20L tank covered with an excessive amount of eggcrates, and food and water on both ends, they still found and ate each other.

>> If a cricket cannot finish its molt before another hungry cricket(s) finds it, it becomes food.

It is not that they are AGGRESSIVE but rather OPPORTUNISTIC. To them--everything that doesn't run away or bite back is a snack. A cricket will even bite you, if you let it.

It's more likely the adult crickets will consume a dubia than vice versa, but all bets are off the table when either is vunerable molting.

I hate keeping crickets. Ok, ranting about crickets over. I am by no means a cricket genius, I just hate keeping them with a vehement disdain.

If these aren't issues to you, then go ahead and do it this way. My original point was not that it would not work, just that it would be HIGHLY ineffective and that you could achieve a much easier and more effective colony for both feeders if done separately.

And yes, if the crickets ever became a problem you can feed them off to ole beardy or mr snappy.

I haven't seen a highly successful Cricket + Roach culture. So I invite you to be the first to prove it's potential merits. I just see so many issues with it I just wouldn't undertake it myself.

Good luck to you if you decide to do it. Make a journal and document the results if you do. I'm very curious to see if you can prove me wrong, in fact, I welcome it. I still won't ever go back to keeping crickets though.

I just don’t see the point of housing them together

My point exactly. You can, but why? There's no benefit in the sense of maintaining a breeding colony together. If you're just housing them together and feeding them all off, then sure by all means, HAVE AT IT!

If you intend to keep both colonies producing at their maximum potential, this type of set up will limit the maximum potential of both colonies, with one (most likely the dubias) slowly but eventually collapsing.

Feel free to solicit other opinions and don't take my word for it! (Because again, I am very heavily biased against crickets)

EDIT: got to my curse words before the mods did

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Can I start by clarifying that I don't have an established colony of dubia roaches yet? If the crickets really are so aggressive, I would not lose many roaches, as I only intend to introduce a dozen or so roaches to the bin. I was originally only going to breed crickets.

I'm not a cricket genius or anything, but I believe that cricket carnivory is largely attributable to overcrowding and poor living conditions.

Also, couldn't I just cull the crickets if they are still causing too much depredation? That is, employ the bearded dragon.

Yeah have at it like I said earlier , but if you’re breeding both species in the same bin you might want pick a more prolific roach species , or slow growing Dubias will end up cricket chow . Then again your experiment do whatever you choose … I look forward to you proving us wrong !!! Feeder gladiatorium !
I hate dealing with crickets also so good luck .

 

[SpookySpooder]

A few things to note:

Despite crickets requiring substrate to breed, almost every breeder still uses bare floors and egg crate. This is because of the ease of maintenance and the fact they cannibalize their young willingly.

Crickets are especially sensitive to their own frass, while roaches have a higher tolerance for it.

Crickets need moist substrate to lay their eggs. Moist substrate with frass = mold.

Btw, crickets are highly susceptible to moisture and mold. That's a big reason why breeders do not keep moist substrate in the adult pens but rather provide a container to deposit eggs in that they then remove.

When it gets to cleaning the substrate with all the adults, nymphs, and eggs in one place... I simply cannot even imagine a process that is effective in doing this.

I haven't seen any other cricket breeders discover a method either.

So that leaves separating them... and do you really wanna sift through all that substrate every other week to remove all the adults and nymphs and eggs, and then replace all of the substrate with fresh substrate?

And then do that regularly?

The logistics of it make me want to stop even discussing it any further

I am not saying don't breed crickets. Just that doing it all in one bin is a nightmare to deal with. Adding in a second feeder type just makes it a convoluted nightmare.

 

[Wayfarin]

Here are some of the benefits of housing them together that I'd imagine...

1: Variety. Feeding dubia roaches + crickets offers greater mental and nutritional enrichment for the predators.
2: Since crickets are more carnivorous, I'd imagine that they would consume dead cockroaches faster than the other roaches.

However, you raised several good points that suggest the cons might outweigh the pros.
Perhaps I'll look into a better combination, though, such as crickets and dubia roaches with morio worms/mealworms.

I'd also imagine that competition for for the survival success of the two species might motivate the crickets even further to feed on the dubia roaches.
Maybe I'll just use the molting dubia roaches as an intentional protein boost for the crickets, if they are so carnivorous.

Crickets have a bad rap, but there are some things that I like about them.

1: The chirping sounds are an audible sign that all is well with their desire to breed. Dubias don't communicate as well if they are ready to breed.
2: I actually enjoy their chirping sounds. Maybe it will get on my nerves one day.
3: Crickets are more active, and are actually easier for our bearded dragon to notice. Dubias scatter in search of cover, and if they find it, they don't come out.
I also believe that dubias require warmer temperatures to breed.

There are still several reasons I prefer dubia roaches, though.

Interestingly, I just tested their greater hardiness. By accident.
I put four crickets and two dubia roaches in a small plastic cup with little ventilation.
I gave them a piece of romaine lettuce, which is 95% water.
In a few days, the crickets had drowned in their own diarrhea. The cup smelled like a dead crab. The roaches were sitting in the wet waste as if nothing was wrong.

 

[SpookySpooder]

Here are some of the benefits of housing them together that I'd imagine...

1: Variety. Feeding dubia roaches + crickets offers greater mental and nutritional enrichment for the predators.
1: Agreed. I rotate between mealworms, crickets, dubias, red runners for this very reason. Just because our pets in captivity CAN eat the same thing all the time doesn't mean they should. I wouldn't want a Big Mac every day, however variety doesn't have to come from the same bin.

2: Since crickets are more carnivorous, I'd imagine that they would consume dead cockroaches faster than the other roaches.

However, you raised several good points that suggest the cons might outweigh the pros.
Perhaps I'll look into a better combination, though, such as crickets and dubia roaches with morio worms/mealworms.

2: A better combination is not crickets and dubias. This is an ineffective combination as outlined already. Crickets and lesser mealworms will work. Dermestid beetles and their larvae will also work with crickets.

Breeding multiple generations of crickets in one bin is also a problem in and of itself. Adult crickets and their frass do not go well with the moist substrate needed for their eggs. Substrate in the adult bin will quickly mold and kill everything. Cleaning substrate will be nigh impossible without sorting out hundreds of nymphs of both colonies.

I'd also imagine that competition for for the survival success of the two species might motivate the crickets even further to feed on the dubia roaches.
Maybe I'll just use the molting dubia roaches as an intentional protein boost for the crickets, if they are so carnivorous.

Given the choice between fresh roach and a salad, a cricket will eat the roach.

Coming from another hobby that uses the same feeders, aren't you aware that an abundance of animal protein makes both crickets and roaches produce uric acid and ammonia byproducts in their body?

Gutloading your feeders with other feeders isn't exactly the best nutrition for your pets.

I would argue that gutloading your cricket and dubia colonies SEPARATELY with greens that provide protein such as kale, spinach, green beans, or peas, is arguably the healthier and more nutritious option.

Why you would forgo this latter benefit for the former, I couldn't guess.

You could do everything that was discussed. I didn't say it wouldn't work, just a lot of maintenance work and resource investment for reduced production.
"Small net gains with moderate loss" is your planned breeding strategy.
Most breeders maintain a colony with peak efficiency in mind.
Merely a different philosophy based in different goals.

Crickets have a bad rap, (well deserved IMO AND IME) but there are some things that I like about them.

1: The chirping sounds are an audible sign that all is well with their desire to breed. Dubias don't communicate as well if they are ready to breed.
1: I hate the chirping. Certain feeder crickets don't chirp as loudly. But they still chirp audibly. You don't need to hear your colonies to know they're breeding. My dubias are silent and are reproducing endlessly.

2: I actually enjoy their chirping sounds. Maybe it will get on my nerves one day.
2: Maybe once you have a thousand crickets chirping every night from 6pm-3am you'll change your mind. Or maybe your wife will change it for you.

3: Crickets are more active, and are actually easier for our bearded dragon to notice. Dubias scatter in search of cover, and if they find it, they don't come out.
I also believe that dubias require warmer temperatures to breed.
3: Correct. Crickets are much better at provoking a prey response. Dubias are notorious for ninja hiding skills.
Dubias need it between 75-80 to effectively develop and breed.

There are still several reasons I prefer dubia roaches, though.

^ Dubias & Red runners are my go-to colonies.
I supplement with crickets and mealworms (because both colonies stink) from the pet stores.

Interestingly, I just tested their greater hardiness. By accident.
I put four crickets and two dubia roaches in a small plastic cup with little ventilation.
I gave them a piece of romaine lettuce, which is 95% water.
In a few days, the crickets had drowned in their own diarrhea. The cup smelled like a dead crab. The roaches were sitting in the wet waste as if nothing was wrong

^^ Ewww... You still wanna do a wet cricket bin after that little test?

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Here are some of the benefits of housing them together that I'd imagine...

1: Variety. Feeding dubia roaches + crickets offers greater mental and nutritional enrichment for the predators.
2: Since crickets are more carnivorous, I'd imagine that they would consume dead cockroaches faster than the other roaches.

However, you raised several good points that suggest the cons might outweigh the pros.
Perhaps I'll look into a better combination, though, such as crickets and dubia roaches with morio worms/mealworms.

I'd also imagine that competition for for the survival success of the two species might motivate the crickets even further to feed on the dubia roaches.
Maybe I'll just use the molting dubia roaches as an intentional protein boost for the crickets, if they are so carnivorous.

Crickets have a bad rap, but there are some things that I like about them.

1: The chirping sounds are an audible sign that all is well with their desire to breed. Dubias don't communicate as well if they are ready to breed.
2: I actually enjoy their chirping sounds. Maybe it will get on my nerves one day.
3: Crickets are more active, and are actually easier for our bearded dragon to notice. Dubias scatter in search of cover, and if they find it, they don't come out.
I also believe that dubias require warmer temperatures to breed.

There are still several reasons I prefer dubia roaches, though.

Interestingly, I just tested their greater hardiness. By accident.
I put four crickets and two dubia roaches in a small plastic cup with little ventilation.
I gave them a piece of romaine lettuce, which is 95% water.
In a few days, the crickets had drowned in their own diarrhea. The cup smelled like a dead crab. The roaches were sitting in the wet waste as if nothing was wrong.

Time to grab some popcorn , this is going to be good . Any experiment should probably be done in larger enclosure crickets are stupid and die easier in smaller ones . Maybe crickets are the superior feeder for your lizard, but a varied diet is always nice .

 

[Wayfarin]

Breeding crickets with "breeding dishes" prevents most of the problems you mentioned about the waste in the substrate.

The screen-covered breeding dish is placed in with the crickets while they are breeding and the females thrust their ovipositors into the dish to lay eggs.
The eggs are incubated, and the nymphs are introduced back into the colony when they can tolerate the dryer conditions inside the bin.
The adults are kept on dry paper towels or the bare bottom of the bin.

I don't think I'll ever have 1,000 crickets at any given time. Reptiles deplete feeder colonies much faster than tarantulas.

Dubia roaches plant themselves on surfaces like barnacles when provoked. Easy for me to catch. Not so easy for my pets to notice.
Then they go straight to hiding. They have better prey instincts than crickets. Crickets are clueless. But I dread that they both exceed my lizard's intelligence.

(The problem was the lettuce, not the crickets. The cockroaches also had diarrhea, and there wasn't anything under them to absorb it.)

 

[SpookySpooder]

I never said cricket colonies weren't functional. Just that I hate raising them personally. I rotate between feeders weekly and crickets are my go-to for slings or dehydrated looking T's since crickets are mostly moisture. Compared to the fat/protein of other feeders they don't come close to the same nutritional value so I only use them sparingly and have decided they aren't worth raising for my purposes.

The bin-in method is also known to me. I simply didn't address it because cannibalism would proc my programming to rear the nymphs in another bin.

My line in the sand is combining the two colonies. To me, having kept both colonies at the scale necessary to feed a whole garage full of animals at one point, I found crickets to be more trouble than worth the effort, especially when it came down to nutritional value per resource spent&time investment and their inherent noise and odor.

If I only had space for 1 bin, I would still forgo crickets and do Red Runner roaches, which provide the same benefits you've listed, but are much more nutritious and easier to keep. I keep dubias because they get much bigger, but I would not be against starting a dubia/red runner bin just to see if I can calibrate it for maximum production of both species.

Now I wanna see if I can do a dubia/redrunner/dermestid beetle bin.

Anyway, I await your findings if you're still planning on testing a dual colony.

If you can figure out some way to cohabitate both types where they can produce to their maximum potential AND have maintenance be as simple and quick as bare bottom egg crates colonies... You'll have pioneered a brand new method I can't even fathom. At that point, I'll applaud your ingenuity.

Good luck. Remember to post your findings.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Breeding crickets with "breeding dishes" prevents most of the problems you mentioned about the waste in the substrate.

The screen-covered breeding dish is placed in with the crickets while they are breeding and the females thrust their ovipositors into the dish to lay eggs.
The eggs are incubated, and the nymphs are introduced back into the colony when they can tolerate the dryer conditions inside the bin.
The adults are kept on dry paper towels or the bare bottom of the bin.

I don't think I'll ever have 1,000 crickets at any given time. Reptiles deplete feeder colonies much faster than tarantulas.

Dubia roaches plant themselves on surfaces like barnacles when provoked. Easy for me to catch. Not so easy for my pets to notice.
Then they go straight to hiding. They have better prey instincts than crickets. Crickets are clueless. But I dread that they both exceed my lizard's intelligence.

(The problem was the lettuce, not the crickets. The cockroaches also had diarrhea, and there wasn't anything under them to absorb it.)

I always watched nature shows like lizards were the best hunters, yet you’re saying just like many tarantulas they are outsmarted by a roach ?

 

[Wayfarin]

I always watched nature shows like lizards were the best hunters, yet you’re saying just like many tarantulas they are outsmarted by a roach ?

A lot of lizard documentaries are staged.

Crickets are way smarter than bearded dragons, and apparently dubia roaches are as well. They always do that one thing that you don't want them to do to escape.
I've even found that crickets cannot be stressed out before presenting them to a predator because when they are stressed, they go into AEO (antipredator-evasion overdrive).

Even as I write this, two dubia roach nymphs are living under our beardie's reptile carpeting (I really hate that substrate).
Maybe I won't need to breed them after all. They might mature under there and mate and give birth.

 

[SpookySpooder]

I always watched nature shows like lizards were the best hunters, yet you’re saying just like many tarantulas they are outsmarted by a roach ?

Those nature shows are so staged. They even did a show about how they stage the shots.

Playing dead is a valid strategy to avoid being eaten.

Works for a lot of animals.
Works for us against brown bears.

I've even found that crickets cannot be stressed out before presenting them to a predator because when they are stressed, they go into AEO (antipredator-evasion overdrive).

Yeah. I hate when a cricket just decides "I'm not gonna stop jumping"

I just cripple their legs with tongs and throw them in front of the beast.

Same thing with the dubia's ability to just vanish into thin air in front of my animals.

I just poke them to their deaths.

I think every feeder has its quirks though.
Like with mealworms, you gotta crush them or they burrow away forever.

So annoying.