Roaches as feed for T's: Hiding in the substrate.

[boina]

What are you all doing with those hundreds of roaches that your T's can't possibly eat? My dubia colony seems to be planning taking over my house...

 

[houston]

What are you all doing with those hundreds of roaches that your T's can't possibly eat? My dubia colony seems to be planning taking over my house...

Eat 'em yourself Or if your pallette isn't as refined, I'd put up an ad on Craigslist or a similar application to sell some to herp/invert keepers. Price them at a dollar or two a dozen and watch your colony get managable again!

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Off with their heads it is. We'll see how long they kick. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to try crushing too if that will give them a little more wiggle time.

I'm not sure on survival times for decapitated dubias but I've found that one with a crushed head will live for at least a week afterwards.

 

[Trenor]

What are you all doing with those hundreds of roaches that your T's can't possibly eat? My dubia colony seems to be planning taking over my house...

I give the extras to a friend to feed his chickens as a treat. Every once in a while I'll know someone needing a starter colony and will hook them up. I traded a lot mature females for some Ts a while back.

 

[Trenor]

I started back into the pet hobby by accident when my neighbor who was an avid keeper came to my house one day with a small stack of deli containers and clear plastic shoe box. His wife had just had a baby and he couldn't keep them anymore. He shoved the stack into my hands and rattled off some latin names and promised to come back with more as well as a starter colony of B. dubia for feeding.

How many Ts do you have?

I only feed dubias and I always crush the heads of any I feed. If I am feeding a large than normal roach (usually after a T has molted and needs a bigger meal) I might remove the legs. This lets me know if the T got it and not that it crawled somewhere it doesn't belong.

Like others have said once your colony get going full tilt you'll have more roaches than you can deal with. If I didn't have a lot of Ts and a bearded dragon I'd likely just buy the amount I needed for a month or two at the time and save the hassle.

Here is a decent rundown of how I keep my Dubias and they have done really well. I recently moved my colony to a bigger feeding bin and did a big clean out.

 

[Nephila Edulis]

Get a large frog/toad like a bullfrog or cane toad. They'll eat roaches like mad so it's easy to keep the colony's population down

 

[DubiaW]

I'm not sure on survival times for decapitated dubias but I've found that one with a crushed head will live for at least a week afterwards.

I decapitated two last night and placed them near my T's hides. They were eaten by morning. I just set them upside down so their legs wiggled and they would stay stationary.

 

[EulersK]

Price them at a dollar or two a dozen and watch your colony get managable again!

No joke, the colony would be down to nothing in no time. My prices are triple that and I still can't keep up with demand.