Considering orange headed roaches ??

[Ultum4Spiderz]

43.5 +/- 15.69 days, at 86f, assuming it's 6th instar

Temperature-Dependent Development and Thermal Sensitivity of Blaptica dubia (Blattodea: Blaberidae)

Abstract. Temperature-dependent development of nymphs of the Dubia cockroach, Blaptica dubia Serville, was described using constant-temperature data collec

academic.oup.com

43 days??
My room is 70 degrees I’m not sure how much the zoo med reptile heat Matt adds but it’s not very powerful. So probably 73-77 degrees , will they breed at these temperatures I don’t think any heat mat will achieve 83 that I can afford .

 

[jbooth]

They aren't going to breed at 70, or even reach adulthood in their lifespan... 77 will be slow to breed and grow. It's all there in that paper. A crap heatmat keeps my hissers about +10 from room which is fine.. sometimes it hits 90. Don't burn 'em either, nothing they touch should be much over 90.

If we're talking about dubia.. if it's orange heads, I really don't know.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

They aren't going to breed at 70, or even reach adulthood in their lifespan... 77 will be slow to breed and grow. It's all there in that paper. A crap heatmat keeps my hissers about +10 from room which is fine.. sometimes it hits 90. Don't burn 'em either, nothing they touch should be much over 90.

If we're talking about dubia.. if it's orange heads, I really don't know.

Some care sheets say oranges breed at room temperature just slower .
My dubia breed at room temperature for years but now won’t.
Any suggestions for better heat mats will that heat the container enough for breeding ? The best bigger mats are larger then the tank my dubia are in I’d have to move them to something bigger .
I have no thermometer so I’m unsure how hot my current mats get it could be 85 I wouldn’t know tbh . The roaches seem a lot faster and more active with my heat mat vs room temperature. But I want something better.

 

[jbooth]

Well, get a thermometer lol. I think I said before, I like mats I can at least turn down so they don't burn things, some get pretty hot. If you plan on breeding, just get a bigger mat and plan for the next tub. I have 2 tubs on 1 mat right now, dubia and runners, I'll get another and bigger tubs when I have to... Just get them set up right, and then it doesn't cost anything.. I've maybe spent $10 on my roaches in 6 months lol. There's no such thing as room temperature.. they are cold blooded, and as the paper shows, there is a direct effect of every degree of temperature on their metabolism. If they are moving around and eating noticeably, and molting, then they are alive and will breed and grow.. if they are too cold they will simply "survive" until their biological time runs out. Perhaps if they are already adults they might pop out some babies before they die, but that isn't breeding, and those babies will never reach adulthood at all if temps are too low.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Well, get a thermometer lol. I think I said before, I like mats I can at least turn down so they don't burn things, some get pretty hot. If you plan on breeding, just get a bigger mat and plan for the next tub. I have 2 tubs on 1 mat right now, dubia and runners, I'll get another and bigger tubs when I have to... Just get them set up right, and then it doesn't cost anything.. I've maybe spent $10 on my roaches in 6 months lol. There's no such thing as room temperature.. they are cold blooded, and as the paper shows, there is a direct effect of every degree of temperature on their metabolism. If they are moving around and eating noticeably, and molting, then they are alive and will breed and grow.. if they are too cold they will simply "survive" until their biological time runs out. Perhaps if they are already adults they might pop out some babies before they die, but that isn't breeding, and those babies will never reach adulthood at all if temps are too low.

Any suggestions for the thermometers on Amazon?
yeah my dubia are struggling, but the the orange heads seem to be growing fast already some are larger then my dubia and they don’t have wings yet .
do heat mats really raise the temperature that much? I may need a larger model.
most my dubia are adults including the ones I overpaid $10 for 10 of at under1” mark.

 

[Stylopidae]

how big of a container do I need until their adult is a big plastic container enough until I can clean the larger one out ?
Plan on getting 100 of them 3/4-1”.
I take it orange head requires substrate if your just starting out ?
I’ll have to use a small heater pad until I can get a bigger one. The cheaper and or larger ones only go up to 104 degrees. One goes to 120 so far out of all ive seen. View attachment 439435 View attachment 439436

Okay, so I have a lot of opinions about this setup, and I don't think it's good.

I prefer to give roaches a heat lamp setup, that way they can burrow and escape the heat. Just on one side.

You don't need substrate; roaches create their own substrate through frass and corpses of old roaches. This allows the passage of microbiota from one generation to the next. Cocobark won't hold anything back, it's just unneccessary and will eventually get diluted out when you eventually clean the enclosure.

Roaches can't climb plastic, but they can scratch it. They'll eventually be able to climb it. The heat mat will eventually degrade the plastic. Just use a glass 10 gal on aquarium with a heat lamp. Vaseline or teflon as a foil to climbing. It's cheaper in the long run.

How to: Clean a roach enclosure...Blaberus/Blaptica edition

Awhile ago, I posted a How To thread on cleaning a roach enclosure. It's a good read, and I'd recommend reading it all the way through before continuing with this post...I will be referring to it because this is simply a modified version of that article. It was a good general method for...

arachnoboards.com

 

[sschind]

I had to remove the substrate they kept dying in it .
any tips?? Right now I’m raising them the same as dubia roaches just more humidity.

I keep my orange heads in an identical container, with one exception, as my dubia and they are side by side on my shelf. Both are breeding well though probably not optimally. Temps probably vary from 75-85 throughout the year. Humidity ranges from pretty low in the winter to maybe mid 50-mid 60 % in summer. I rarely mist either enclosure. they get wheat bran, a mixture of dry foods and mainly apple and carrots for moisture The only difference in the setup is the OHs have half the screen lid covered but other than that I do nothing different. Like I said my setups are probably not optimal but they work for what I need and I treat my OHs the same as my dubia.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I keep my orange heads in an identical container, with one exception, as my dubia and they are side by side on my shelf. Both are breeding well though probably not optimally. Temps probably vary from 75-85 throughout the year. Humidity ranges from pretty low in the winter to maybe mid 50-mid 60 % in summer. I rarely mist either enclosure. they get wheat bran, a mixture of dry foods and mainly apple and carrots for moisture The only difference in the setup is the OHs have half the screen lid covered but other than that I do nothing different. Like I said my setups are probably not optimal but they work for what I need and I treat my OHs the same as my dubia.

Do the nymphs climb, I’ve been giving them apples , dog food , veggies.
Any pics of your set ups ? Mine been doing good except the ones that died shortly after shipping like 20-25 of them.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

They seem to be growing fast! They were 3/4-1”

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I keep my orange heads in an identical container, with one exception, as my dubia and they are side by side on my shelf. Both are breeding well though probably not optimally. Temps probably vary from 75-85 throughout the year. Humidity ranges from pretty low in the winter to maybe mid 50-mid 60 % in summer. I rarely mist either enclosure. they get wheat bran, a mixture of dry foods and mainly apple and carrots for moisture The only difference in the setup is the OHs have half the screen lid covered but other than that I do nothing different. Like I said my setups are probably not optimal but they work for what I need and I treat my OHs the same as my dubia.

Do the nymphs climb, someone on here said they did But I can’t find it on any care sheets or information on the species .

 

[sschind]

Do the nymphs climb, someone on here said they did But I can’t find it on any care sheets or information on the species .

sorry for the delay. no the nymphs do not climb any more than dubia do. No pics but its bare bottom opaque tub with egg carton with most of the top screened but half of that is covered loosely with plastic. Feed wheat bran and a mix of dry foods blended (Oats, Rice, wheat bran, chick starter, Alf alfa pellets) they get apples and oranges and occasionally whatever other fruits and veggies I can get my hands on. I just did a clean out of the bin and there were quite a few dead adults. I condensed my breeding bin and grow out bin since it seemed a waste of space and most of my large nymphs were too big to feed off anyway and there were not many babies. I attribute that to loss of adults and cooler, drier conditions through the winter. My dubia slowed down some as well. Like I said I'm probably not keeping them optimally but now that summer is coming and temps in my room will creep up I'm guessing they will take off again. Actually instead of egg carton I use these cartons, especially when the population is low. There is less space but the are much thicker and tougher and last a lot longer. Convenience store that carry the Freal brand shakes should be able to save them for you. I know Kwik Trip and Kwik Star stores have them for sure but lots of other do as well.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

sorry for the delay. no the nymphs do not climb any more than dubia do. No pics but its bare bottom opaque tub with egg carton with most of the top screened but half of that is covered loosely with plastic. Feed wheat bran and a mix of dry foods blended (Oats, Rice, wheat bran, chick starter, Alf alfa pellets) they get apples and oranges and occasionally whatever other fruits and veggies I can get my hands on. I just did a clean out of the bin and there were quite a few dead adults. I condensed my breeding bin and grow out bin since it seemed a waste of space and most of my large nymphs were too big to feed off anyway and there were not many babies. I attribute that to loss of adults and cooler, drier conditions through the winter. My dubia slowed down some as well. Like I said I'm probably not keeping them optimally but now that summer is coming and temps in my room will creep up I'm guessing they will take off again. Actually instead of egg carton I use these cartons, especially when the population is low. There is less space but the are much thicker and tougher and last a lot longer. Convenience store that carry the Freal brand shakes should be able to save them for you. I know Kwik Trip and Kwik Star stores have them for sure but lots of other do as well.

View attachment 444622

Thanks ! It’s going to take a while to get my Dubai , and orange colonies to were it feeds my spiders . Mostly because I ordered 100 orange and got like 50 actually after 20 died after arrival the seller didn’t honor their guarantee. So I’ll be stuck buying super worms and crickets until my roaches population is big enough. I could simply buy more roaches but I can’t find legit sellers it seems , and or some are really pricey.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Plain vaseline around the top rim, like an inch wide is what I did for hissers, I'd have to go 3 or 4 to keep adults down but they can't get through holes or crushed by sliding. The pic on wikipedia shows them in the sunshine, like a tropical arboreal setup maybe, so I don't know. They might like an arboreal/fossorial glass enclosure with the lid on top... I wouldn't get them over 90 without more research but they will like heat, and I suspect they will not breed at room temps under high 70s. For direct sun the enclosure better have excellent ventilation and very dark places too. For dubia 120f will kill them quite fast if they can't escape it. Might not risk it. Heat pad under or stuck to a side with thermostat with probe in the enclosure is the safest. Then they have a gradient as well, and nothing will get too much over if the probe is near the heat source and low. Now these are actually looking kindof fun if they don't prefer being locked away in a cave, and you can feed them too, good luck!

The heat pad is working well for the Dubai and oranges . I have 40-50 oranges I think and they’re growing fast but not enough are adults so no nymphs yet. Any tips does it look good ?

 

[jbooth]

The heat pad is working well for the Dubai and oranges . I have 40-50 oranges I think and they’re growing fast but not enough are adults so no nymphs yet. Any tips does it look good ?

They sure are pretty roaches, do they stink? Looks like some molted into adults so you should be good in a couple months I'd think, or sooner. Not sure how long they take to hatch.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

They sure are pretty roaches, do they stink? Looks like some molted into adults so you should be good in a couple months I'd think, or sooner. Not sure how long they take to hatch.

My mom says the room stinks also have a colony of 20 or so adult dubia and finally got some nymphs after almost losing them all . Personally I can’t smell anything bad in there but the droppings are going to smell when there’s enough of them , but I’m worried if I clean the bottom when I get nymphs there won’t be enough food for them . Yeah feels bad raising such good looking roaches as feeders , but I only have 11 spiders so surely the roaches will outpace their appetite once I start feeding them off . I can’t really tell females adults from males , maybe when they’re all adults, it will be easier?
Until I have significantly more I’ll probably be feeding mostly super worms. Which a few spiders are skittish around if I drop them on the floor of the cage near them . Yet a little curly hair half the size of the lp gladly jumps on them.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

They aren't going to breed at 70, or even reach adulthood in their lifespan... 77 will be slow to breed and grow. It's all there in that paper. A crap heatmat keeps my hissers about +10 from room which is fine.. sometimes it hits 90. Don't burn 'em either, nothing they touch should be much over 90.

If we're talking about dubia.. if it's orange heads, I really don't know.

We’res the best type of place to buy heat-mats I’ve seen some on Amazon although most do not have temperature switches. I’ll need a new one once I have to get a bigger bin .
how often do you clean a roach bin for oranges once every few months ? Think I’m getting close to cleaning time . The dubia been doing fine so far , hope I get more nymphs soon.

 

[jbooth]

If you think you're ready, you're probably ready. Smaller colonies I'd just spot clean, get dead out, etc. if there's no substrate it's easy enough to just dump though. If they're like dubia the nymphs will start off eating frass, so you want a little. I have substrate, and buffalo beetles in mine and too many now so I just clean when I upsize so far. I never see dead roaches, just a carcass from the beetles, or smell anything rotten, I doubt anything lasts more than ten minutes after it dies.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

If you think you're ready, you're probably ready. Smaller colonies I'd just spot clean, get dead out, etc. if there's no substrate it's easy enough to just dump though. If they're like dubia the nymphs will start off eating frass, so you want a little. I have substrate, and buffalo beetles in mine and too many now so I just clean when I upsize so far. I never see dead roaches, just a carcass from the beetles, or smell anything rotten, I doubt anything lasts more than ten minutes after it dies.

Are you saying these beetles are self sustaining in a roach enclosure? I’d imagine you gotta filter out larva when cleaning the enclosure. Same as nymphs ?

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Cleaned the bin out , pics are prior to cleaning they are getting bigger and more are getting wings! Heat mat seems kind of small , ??

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

If you think you're ready, you're probably ready. Smaller colonies I'd just spot clean, get dead out, etc. if there's no substrate it's easy enough to just dump though. If they're like dubia the nymphs will start off eating frass, so you want a little. I have substrate, and buffalo beetles in mine and too many now so I just clean when I upsize so far. I never see dead roaches, just a carcass from the beetles, or smell anything rotten, I doubt anything lasts more than ten minutes after it dies.

I cleaned out the bin pics above , it was super easy . I had to grab and move some roaches by hand because my tongs weren’t getting a good grip on them .

Do heat mats raise the enclosure of a feeder roach (no substrate) enough ? ?
there basically a pet species , orange heads until i get enough to feed some off . And that could be a year away or longer . Iam clueless What a good heat mat on Amazon is too many options .