Breeding roaches?

shining

Arachnodemon
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Here's a question that would help us both, @magicmed .

@Hisserdude ,do you have any easier methods of sifting through frass for babies when it comes time to do a cleaning? I know the babies eat frass but sometimes you need to clean it out as organic material gets buried and decays then attracts phorid flies.
 

Hisserdude

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Here's a question that would help us both, @magicmed .

@Hisserdude ,do you have any easier methods of sifting through frass for babies when it comes time to do a cleaning? I know the babies eat frass but sometimes you need to clean it out as organic material gets buried and decays then attracts phorid flies.
Actually, I haven't had to clean out any of my cages yet, so I don't really know the answer to that question. I would just get some gloves, pick out as many nymphs as you can from the frass and then sterilize and throw out the rest of it.

If you get a clean up crew of isopods or lesser mealworm beetles, (not the normal yellow mealworms used as feeders people, lesser mealworms), and they breed in decent numbers, then chances are you won't even need to clean out the cage that often, if at all, they'll eat frass, dead bodies, and leftover food.
 

shining

Arachnodemon
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Actually, I haven't had to clean out any of my cages yet, so I don't really know the answer to that question. I would just get some gloves, pick out as many nymphs as you can from the frass and then sterilize and throw out the rest of it.

If you get a clean up crew of isopods or lesser mealworm beetles, (not the normal yellow mealworms used as feeders people, lesser mealworms), and they breed in decent numbers, then chances are you won't even need to clean out the cage that often, if at all, they'll eat frass, dead bodies, and leftover food.
:astonished: You can do that?!?!?!?! Schweeet....
 

shining

Arachnodemon
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Yep, pretty sure the lesser mealworms, Alphitobius diaperinus, would work best for a dubia cage, since people usually keep their dubias dryer than any isopod can handle.
I'm gonna have to find some Alphitobius diaperinus, hopefully not hard to find. Cleaning crews for everyone!!!!
 

Hisserdude

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Just be warned, they'll eat ootheca so they do best in live bearing roach cages, and they need a substrate of some sort for reproduction, a buildup of frass will work. They also will sometimes breed a little too prolifically, you'll want to put a deli cup or some other small container and make it flush with the substrate to catch the beetles on occasion and cull them a bit.
 

EulersK

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Question for you. When I split up my colonies, I noticed that the smaller colony (my breeders) started smelling. I haven't had a smell since I first started breeding. Is this because the abundance of smaller roaches are eating the dead, and thus preventing any smell?
 

Hisserdude

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Question for you. When I split up my colonies, I noticed that the smaller colony (my breeders) started smelling. I haven't had a smell since I first started breeding. Is this because the abundance of smaller roaches are eating the dead, and thus preventing any smell?
Probably, does the new colony have as much ventilation as the other one? Is it being kept as dry? The less ventilation you have the more the bodies start to stink. If your roaches aren't eating the bodies you may need to pick some out yourself, or invest in a cleanup crew.
 

EulersK

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Probably, does the new colony have as much ventilation as the other one? Is it being kept as dry? The less ventilation you have the more the bodies start to stink. If your roaches aren't eating the bodies you may need to pick some out yourself, or invest in a cleanup crew.
My breeder colony is actually in the original enclosure, so it's the same ventilation. My feeders went into an new enclosure, and they don't smell at all. As for dryness, I don't do anything to help dry it out, I just leave it as is. Would increasing their population resolve the issue?
 

Hisserdude

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My breeder colony is actually in the original enclosure, so it's the same ventilation. My feeders went into an new enclosure, and they don't smell at all. As for dryness, I don't do anything to help dry it out, I just leave it as is. Would increasing their population resolve the issue?
Huh, weird. Increasing the population would probably help, picking out the bodies would be nice as well.
 

BGL

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magicmed, I hope you don't mind me jumping in on your thread.
I've got 100 dubias in a clear (opaque) plastic container (+-10" X 5")with a large cut out in the lid covered with fine mesh. Will they breed in an opaque container or do I need to cover it with tape to darken it?
 

Alana

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I'm going to jump on this thread too if that's ok. Can anyone recommend a roach species that's fairly easy to breed, gets to around dubia size (or larger) but behaves more like B. lateralis? Not being able to climb up smooth plastic would definitely be a plus if I want to stay on hubby's good side. I have dubias, but they burrow so quickly that I have to prekill them, and I'm happy to do that for slings, but I'd rather give the bigger Ts a chance to hunt. The lats are great for the slings, but the adults aren't big enough for larger Ts.
 

Hisserdude

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I'm going to jump on this thread too if that's ok. Can anyone recommend a roach species that's fairly easy to breed, gets to around dubia size (or larger) but behaves more like B. lateralis? Not being able to climb up smooth plastic would definitely be a plus if I want to stay on hubby's good side. I have dubias, but they burrow so quickly that I have to prekill them, and I'm happy to do that for slings, but I'd rather give the bigger Ts a chance to hunt. The lats are great for the slings, but the adults aren't big enough for larger Ts.
Not really, most roaches that size in the hobby are Blaberids, and most of them like to burrow. Adult male dubia roaches shouldn't be too inclined to burrow, so you could feed those to your larger Ts.

You could try breeding some Eurycotis or Periplaneta to use as feeders, those get pretty big and don't burrow, but can climb, are more "roachy" looking and adult Eurycotis secrete defense fluids, so you'd want to feed large nymphs only. They aren't as fast breeding as most feeder roaches but if you don't have a ton of Ts you won't need them to.
 

Alana

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Thank you. I've had a look around and I can get hold of Periplaneta australasiae nymphs so I might try growing on some of those.
 

Galapoheros

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I've had hissers and dubias for about 10 years and only cleaned out their cages once and regretted it, they didn't breed very well for quite a while after that. Well I sold the dubia colony, but kept a few just in case I wanted to get them going again and it took a long time for them to pick up again. I use curled bark I find and leaves from the yard, no egg crates unless there are a lot of babies, then I might use some for a while.
 
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