Yikes! Roach colony gone crazy!

[Augie]

Recently I have done pretty well at ensuring my male/female ratio is up to snuff, as I let it get out of whack a few months ago and it really slowed the progress of my colony. Well last night I was on my computer and heard all sorts of crazy sounds coming from the bin.

I'm serious, it was loud! I had just fed them the previous day but its not unusual for them to go through 3 days worth of food in a day, so I figured they were just restless and thirsty/hungry. I looked in and they still had water crystals but no food. I dumped in 3 slices of bread, a medium potato, and two handfuls of stale honey nut Cheerios. Of course they went nuts for it, and I went back to my PC.

Then it got really loud! This time it startled me because it sounded like a hornet was in the bin! I opened it back up and saw the normal swarm around the food, but on the side with the egg crates I saw 2-3 dozen males just flipping out all over the crates and paper towel rolls! They were going up and down the crates, flapping their wings, and basically shoving all the roaches around.

I immediately scooped out ten and dropped them in my feeder bin. Reggie's gonna eat good for a while, it seems, as there are prob'ly a lot more males in there now. I cleaned my bin a week ago and the ratio was almost perfect (I was actually a little low on the male population and have been buying more crickets recently to let them restock). Has anyone else experienced this? The only thing I can think that happened was that a lot of nymphs all born around the same time molted into adult males about the same time, i.e. last night. Any other ideas?

 

[Canicke]

Sounds like youre a bit over crowded. If youre not feeding all youve got to your beardie, cull the colony. You may be able to sell some but thats kind of a hassle (well - for me). I use a measuring cup and scoop en out of their containet into a ziploc typ freezer bag. Then freeze em. That will kill them. Then toss em in the trash. Some beardies will eat them when unfrozen so you may want to try that - keep some in case your colony dies

 

[Augie]

Yah I am culling them now. I was just curious if anyone else experienced so many males molting at the same time. Between my pacman frog and dragon I should have no problem getting things back in check!

 

[atochats]

Do a lot of ppl dispose of over abundance of dubia like that? Serious question. I'm going through so many with Saffron I'm thinking I'd be crazy NOT to start a colony but I dont know what to do if I get over run and can't find someome to sell to.

 

[Augie]

I refuse to. I bought another bin rather than culling roaches. I don't shun others for doing it, but to me personally it feels like a waste. But like I mentioned above, I can feed them off pretty quick, even though lately Reggie hasn't had much of an appetite.

 

[atochats]

Well I have around 200 roaches of different sizes in a rather large tub..food and hydration gel..eggcrate. Waiting for the largest to mature and have some babies. Decision made.. roach colony here I come lol

 

[timbalan]

Lol. Ya um pretty excited about getting mine. I ordered them 2 weeks ago but with this sub zero weather we've been having the lady cant mail them yet. Hasnt been above 0°f in a while

 

[atochats]

I am lucky there's a woman local I got them from. I hear ya about the weather...I live in Illinois just where the mighty Mississippi takes her big bend and we haven't been warm in awhile lol

 

[timbalan]

Ya i live right at the wi/il border