Quentions for roach people

[biomarine2000]

Questions for roach people

I have a colony of blatta lateralis and b dubia. They are both housed in rubbermades that are pretty big. I have had both colonies for around 3 months now. Both cages are setup identicle. Roach flats on top of a a piece of metal to keep them off the ground. In the lat cage there is substrate, in the dubia cage there is not. In both cages there is a heat rope around the metal for warmth. The roach flats stand upright on top of the metal with the heat rope. The temps are high, the humidity is right, they are breeding.

There is few hundred mixed lats and probably 100 dubia mixed. I have a lot of adult female dubia.

I have around 100 t's that I am feeding from both colonies. I try and feed only the MM's from both colonies. Lately there seems to be almost no MM's in the enclosures. I just got in an order of 1000 lats to add to what I already have.

How many roaches do I need to keep up with demand?

I did my setup exactly like this:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=56044

Ps: Please only reply if you have experience with these roach colonies. Thanks

 

[jmiller]

I stated with 1000 B. lats the first week of Jan. I now have two bins full to the brim. If you leave your 1000 for a month or two without feeding them off you will have more lats that you know what to do with.

I also started my dubia colony about the same time with about 800 and now can not keep up with them either. I guess more is better the less.

I left both colonies alone for two months and now I will not have to worry about running out. I just now have to figure out how to get rid of the excess.

Good luck with yours.

 

[xhexdx]

I stated with 1000 B. lats the first week of Jan. I now have two bins full to the brim. If you leave your 1000 for a month or two without feeding them off you will have more lats that you know what to do with.

I also started my dubia colony about the same time with about 800 and now can not keep up with them either. I guess more is better the less.

I left both colonies alone for two months and now I will not have to worry about running out. I just now have to figure out how to get rid of the excess.

Good luck with yours.

That concept pretty much hit it right on the money.

You have to get the colonies really going first; once they start, it's hard to stop them.

I barely feed off MMs. I let the colony start off and I would periodically (once a month or so) remove the nymphs and put them in their own bin. This way, I had good feeder stock. As the nymphs grew, I'd sex them before feeding, and make sure I kept enough females and males alive so that they could mature and continue breeding.

I wouldn't say my colonies are 100% stable. If I wanted to feed everything once a week, I wouldn't have enough roaches right now. But for now, the supply still outweighs the demand, and now that it's warming up again, I get the feeling I'll jump WAY ahead with the dubia.

Hope this helps.

--Joe

 

[biomarine2000]

Thank you both for the good info. Another question is how do you sex the nymphs?

Edit: I found how to sex the dubia nymphs but cant find anything about the lateralis. Any help would be great.

 

[codykrr]

basically the last segment on females abdomen is more open than males...at least that how i know to do it. but i dont really bother...and with my dubias my male are sacred! seems some people have to many males, when i dont have enough...i have probly 1500 dubias now and most are females! weird if you ask me...so i only feed females off, but i think its a heat variation honestly

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Here is a pic of sexing, to help.

 

[biomarine2000]

Here is a pic of sexing, to help.

Thanks roachgirlren. This is the pic I found searching. I suppose its the same for all species then?

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Well... sortof. Some species have an abdominal shape that makes this method less effective (ie. Therea sp. and others). However, this method does work for most of the more common species (Dubia, discoid, lobster, turkistan, etc.).

 

[biomarine2000]

Thanks a bunch. Now all I have to do is catch them and flip em over. lol

 

[elportoed]

I just now have to figure out how to get rid of the excess.

A few months ago I didn't think I'd have the problem with the excess for a while. I think I am going to have to deal with that pretty soon.

 

[biomarine2000]

I have had the colines for a while now. They are definately breeding just not fast enough. I had to buy crickets today just to keep from feeding out of my roaches. I hate crickets. Guess thats what I have to do to let my colonies build up for a while.

 

[HankyPankyRoe]

I left both colonies alone for two months and now I will not have to worry about running out. I just now have to figure out how to get rid of the excess.

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