Setting up a dubia colony (pics) - please adviseadvise

[KrissyLeigh]

Ok, so I'm taking the plunge and starting a colony - I have ordered 3 males, 9 females. I know eventually I will probably have to upgrade to a larger bin, but I'm going to start small. I wanted some feedback before I stuck the heating pad on, since it can't be removed.

Materials:

1) cut out the lid and put mesh from a spare tank lid I cannabilized for the project

2) Melted a hole for the thermostat probe and put Velcro on the thermostat for mounting:

3) fed probe through hole and surrounded with mesh to prevent roach escapes. The saucers will be for the food and water crystals. Egg crates are being delivered with roaches:

4) Mount heat pad to side, bundle all excess cords. I'm waiting on this step for now, as I would like feedback before I attach

Thoughts??? Thanks y'all!

 

[PatsyB]

@Hdrydr31 might be able to help here.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Looking good so far. I have found that the plastic mayo lids or lids from peanut butter jars work really well as they have texture for them to crawl up and in. I think the terracotta may dry out your water crystals quickly as it will draw the moisture from them. I use the red heat lamps for my heat but my colonies are in the basement in a small room...

 

[KrissyLeigh]

Looking good so far. I have found that the plastic mayo lids or lids from peanut butter jars work really well as they have texture for them to crawl up and in. I think the terracotta may dry out your water crystals quickly as it will draw the moisture from them. I use the red heat lamps for my heat but my colonies are in the basement in a small room...

Well, after all that work the heat pad won't stick to the side. I guess the type of plastic tub I'm using, because other people haven't seemed to have this problem. Ugh.

You don't have a problem maintaining temp with just a light? Do you have to keep it on all the time? I really didn't want to do that, but I also don't want to switch to an aquarium because they are so heavy and bulky- the heat pad should stick to the aquarium, I put the sticker back on it when I saw it falling off

 

[LAME]

I've had a dubia colony for awhile now (from my mantis hobby...) and personally I never use heat pads, water bowl/food bowls.
My setup method, keep it stupid simple.
One large black tote filled with standing egg crates. The roaches will get their water from the food scraps you give them. (Such as potatos,carrots,greens...)
Mine do fine at room temps, but if I really wish to bump the heat I just put the colony tote over half of my bedrooms heat vent.

 

[KrissyLeigh]

I've had a dubia colony for awhile now (from my mantis hobby...) and personally I never use heat pads, water bowl/food bowls.
My setup method, keep it stupid simple.
One large black tote filled with standing egg crates. The roaches will get their water from the food scraps you give them. (Such as potatos,carrots,greens...)
Mine do fine at room temps, but if I really wish to bump the heat I just put the colony tote over half of my bedrooms heat vent.

Do they breed at room temp? I've read different things, but the common temps I've found for breeding are 85-95 ° F

 

[Hdrydr31]

They will breef at room temps just will be a slower process. My temps in that area with red bulbs and a space heater (only needed in winter as i live in WI) are 73-80
The warmer they are 115 being the very very very top the faster they will breed. The lower the slower they are and you may have a few die off..
I maintain their production by the temps. I also only have 1 tub of breeders the other 3 are all males and grow outs, 1 all females last is nymphs. So i also control who are breeding...

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk

 

[KrissyLeigh]

They will breef at room temps just will be a slower process. My temps in that area with red bulbs and a space heater (only needed in winter as i live in WI) are 73-80
The warmer they are 115 being the very very very top the faster they will breed. The lower the slower they are and you may have a few die off..
I maintain their production by the temps. I also only have 1 tub of breeders the other 3 are all males and grow outs, 1 all females last is nymphs. So i also control who are breeding...

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk

Thanks so much for your input, y'all- I feel I have no idea what I'm doing! One other question-

Do the temps need to be stable? After reading y'alls comments, I'm thinking of putting them in the garage with no heat source. Until summer the temps will be fine, BUT they will not be stable. Our weather is crazy here, it can change +15° from day to day, or between night and day. Will that be a problem, as long as temps stay above 75?

 

[Hdrydr31]

The big problem would be the increased suseptabiity to other bugs, fumes and i dont know how well they will tolerate the ups and downs of temps.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk

 

[cottonguy]

I’ve been reading a lot on the boards but never really posted much of anything. Just kinda linger around here. But when this topic came up I figured I’d give you my experience with dubia. Based on what I’ve read on some topics here - there are some people on this site who do everything by the book. Heat pad, heat lamp, or some other heat source – keep the temps right around a specific point. Keep them happy keep them breeding. I’m not like that.

My son got a bearded dragon last July – I got tired of paying the $7 at Petco for like 15 or 20 dubia. That’s ridiculous. Found a local pet shop that was selling them for .20 each but got tired of that too. So I decided to start my own colony for my son’s dragon.
Just a little background on me and why I’m not gonna go all out with them. I’m a Molecular Biologist by profession. 13 of my years 18 years of employment and my research topic in grad school focused on Formosan Termites. I’ve taken numerous entomology classes and have probably raised 2000 or so individual colonies and reared millions of termites. One thing we learned is that temperature is the key with termites. Keep them in a drawer at room temp – they’ll survive and reproduce. Colonies will grow. Cool them down and they’ll survive and reproduce. Keep them nice and warm and at about 83 degrees and they will not only survive but will thrive and reproduce and outgrow a room temperature colony by about 2 sometimes 3:1. So when I started my colonies I went with the approach that I want them to survive and reproduce – but not thrive and get out of control year round with numbers that I would never use seeing as we were only going to be feeding a single bearded dragon.

I live around New Orleans so I’m in the south but it still gets cold during the winter at times. I’ve had my own colony of dubia going since last August or so. I have an unattached 1 car car garage with no A/C or Heat. I do not store a car in there – it’s just used for storage. That’s where I keep my colonies. I had started with them all in a 21 gallon Rubbermaid storage container with cardboard egg crates standing up. Initial numbers I started with were 20 female, 10 male and about 500 mixed small/medium. I’ve never added heat or A/C at any point. They have a little cup on its side in there with the same Miracle Grow crystals you show in your photo for water. I cut a large hole out the top of the container and sealed it back up with a mesh screen for air circulation. For food – I add in some baby oatmeal cereal at times, banana peels, left over turnip greens or mustard greens from my sons bearded dragon, old stale bread, oranges, apples – pretty much anything. Anything not eaten in a few days gets taken out and discarded. From August to about October/October they thrived – loved the heat and reproduced like crazy. Around December I took out 100 females and 30 males and placed them in 10 gallon tank with egg crates standing up and a mesh top. That is our new “reproductive tank”. There are still a lot of adult roaches in the Rubbermaid container but the ones in the 10 gallon do not get disturbed to remove feeders at any point.

My observations so far – in the warmer months they thrived and reproduced and grew at an amazing rate. Having only started out with 20 female, 10 male and about 500 mixed small/medium I was able to easily select 100 females and 30 males in December to set up a new breeding tank . The Rubbermaid container was full of many more adult roaches (both males and females) and babies galore. As far as the Rubbermaid container goes – I can’t say exactly how many more babies have been added since December. But for the reproductive tank – there are now babies in there. I’m sure some females were already pregnant before I moved them but I have seen as of last week at least 6 or 7 females with cases protruding out of them so they are still reproducing. Even in the cold garage – they still reproduce and survive. Temperatures fluctuate around here like crazy. Today the high will be 57. Two days from now the high will be 78. That is pretty much the norm. Does not seem to matter to them. Temps have gotten down to the 30s at one point in the winter. Around 58 or 59 in the garage. They slow down – don’t move a lot but like I said - they survive.

Now in your case with such a small starter colony – you will need them to thrive. So yes I’d use the heat and you’ll need them happy and well fed. I’m sure it can be done but with such a small starter size I would think everything will have to be perfect if you want it to grow to a good sized colony. My advice would be to definitely start with more if you could. I’m sure others have bred them with just a few starter roaches but really the more the merrier in my opinion for starting a colony. It will start getting warm around here again and soon it will be hot. Really hot. My colonies will love that - reproduce like crazy and their numbers will explode. Then it will get cool then cold again. The numbers I get over the summer will support the amount we’ll need over the winter. So again that’s why I do it the way I do it. I just need them to survive the winter – thrive over the summer and repeat. What works for me may not work for others though. Just giving you my experience with how they grow without the heat during winter and lots of fluctuating temps. Hope it helped.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KrissyLeigh]

I live around New Orleans so I’m in the south but it still gets cold during the winter at times. I’ve had my own colony of dubia going since last August or so. I have an unattached 1 car car garage with no A/C or Heat. I do not store a car in there – it’s just used for storage. That’s where I keep my colonies....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you, that is SUPER helpful. I live in South Texas on the coast, so my weather is probably pretty similar to yours. Money is tight right now, so I think I will keep my small colony under ideal conditions inside until they start thriving. Since I can't afford any more at the moment (I do still have feeders, so the animals aren't starving). Then move everyone to the garage - I also only use my garage as storage, so no worry about fumes.

I still haven't figured out the best way to provide consistent heat though. Wondering if a CHE will melt the plastic top????