Thinking of starting a roach colony and have some questions

[vondur]

I am thinking of starting a roach colony, most like b. dubia.

Is there anything that will eat crickets that won't eat roaches?

How many roaches and what size enclosure should I get to start with?

Is it possible to make any money by selling off a few hundred every couple months or so, or is there not enough demand for roaches?

Thanks!

 

[gvfarns]

There are lots of T's that are reluctant to eat dubia. I finally got rid of my colony of dubia because I got tired of the dubia taking up residence in there and never getting eaten. I've had better luck with Blaberus bolivensis as far as large roaches are concerned. Your large, aggressive T's will snap them (either species) up. Smaller and more docile T's will likely not. The problem I found is that dubia freeze when they are scared and don't stimulate the feeding instinct. And they are a bit large. Younger dubia are smaller obviously but they have the annoying habit of burrowing away.

B lateralis is much better as far as the T's liking to eat them, and they never freeze or burrow. That's my current main feeder and I recommend them. They breed very quickly under good circumstances and grow up fast. The only downside is they are really fast moving and icky lookin'.

Though I have to say that, annoying as they are, T's like crickets better than any other insect I have tried.

It's tough to make money on roaches because there isn't a ton of demand. You can try contacting pet stores, though. Most likely you will end up selling them here on arachnoboards, but not for much moolah, I suspect.

Good luck, though. If you can make it work I'll be really happy for you.

 

[gvfarns]

BTW I'm not sure what you were thinking of feeding. If it's a bigger animal, like a herp, then dubia would probably be perfect. Herps are a smarter and have better eyesight. And dubia are equal to a lot of crickets or laterals as far as amount of food is concerned.

 

[vondur]

Right now I only have a red eared slider turtle as far as things that could eat roaches. I will soon have a centipede and some tarauntulas and possibly some scorpions.

I'm kind of hoping to be able to make a little money off of the roaches, is that possible?

 

[Pacmaster]

I think it would be difficult to make any kinda real $ other than to have the colony pay for its food every few months.
Once people get them and ask a few questions and do a lttle research, they learn how easy they are to breed.
There goes your market . . .

In my colony, I started with 300 mixed sizes.
After feeding my frogs heavily from it I got 200 more and let them all sit, no feeding from it(ok, well a little)
Now all my mixed nymphs have matured and the first of their babies are about 1/2 - 3/4 grown.
Once you get about 100+ adults, theyll just take off, even 50+!
I got alot of frogs to feed, so Ill be happy with that, but if you just got a few mouths to feed youll always have too much.
Roaches are known to INFEST things . . .

Whether you can make $$$ off them is gonna depend on your prices and how hard your willing to work to get the [few] sales over the "other guy".
But then again, you gotta be able to always meet your demand(if any) . . .
Its tricky I think, and I wouldnt want to depend on it to pay the bills!

PS- I think everybody has or has had this same idea when considering roaches.
The NO CHIRPING will more than make up for any $$$ made or not made . . .