# Sticky  Livefoods Careguides:- Black crix, "Silent" crix, Dubia and Blaberus roaches



## Tehanu

*Livefoods Careguides:- Black crix, "Silent" crix, Dubia and Blaberus roaches*

*Jamaican Field Crickets *- _Gryllus assimilis__._
Also known commonly as “Silent” Crickets. 

*Pros and Cons:-*
+This species of cricket are more resistant to higher humidity than Black crickets. 
+They can therefore be maintained at much higher densities than Black crickets.
+Their bodies when dead in the colony tend to dry, causing less of a rise in humidity and ammonia.
-They do need to be kept at slightly warmer than room temperature.
-They are less productive then Black crickets if your demand is for hatchlings or smaller sizes.
-They do not gut load as well as Black crickets which take on a larger amount of gut content on average.

*Temperature and Humidity:- *
Jamaican field crickets do best kept at a constant of between 25-30C. 
Higher temps speed up the life cycle and can be used to time hatchings more efficiently. Eggs of this species kept at 30C hatch within 11days, fairly consistently and the nymphs are most successful maintained at 30C for the first 3 weeks before a drop to 25C slows the development to longer lived rate. 
At these temperatures this species will reach adulthood in 6-7 weeks. 

Humidity with crickets is a serious concern, while these insects need humidity in order to shed properly, even with raised temperatures, the average humidity in any building in the UK is sufficient. No additional humidity needs to be provided.
In fact, any rise in base level humidity can cause mass die offs in cricket colonies, it is very important not to allow moisture to gather in the containers or to allow moist foods in contact with the floor (where they will rapidly raise local humidity and also cause moulds/fungus). 
Containers for crickets must be well ventilated and dry. This will affect which foods you may choose to use.

*Foods:-*
While there are many options out there and many people seem to have success with other foods, this outlines the foods I have used successfully for 2 years with a medium scale breeding project.

Hatchling nymphs - 3 weeks old;
Fresh foods used are Orange “ends” (shallow slivers, the nymphs will drown easily otherwise), Potato and Carrot slices. The food should be offered to smaller crickets under layers of card, not on the floor or exposed on the top of the colony.
These foods while fresh will provide enough water for the crickets, if the fresh foods used are changed daily or every other day (which is necessary for higher density colonies anyway) there is no need to provide any additional water e.g: crystals, gel etc.

Dried foods are only limited by your ability to find something dry that contains 25% protein only. Dog biscuits are usually 25% and higher quality Primate “leaf eater” pellets too. 
For this age range of nymphs the pellets can be blended down or crushed into a powder and scattered in small amounts in the container, you should add enough to feed them for only a day or two at a time, any more and you end up with a film of mould instead 

3wks nymphs - Adults;
Fresh foods can be slices of Orange, Potato and Carrot. Once the crickets are larger and more inclined to feed in the open, the food should be placed on the top of the colony, covered food encourages flies by the million…
Although some people offer greens also, the container will need the card replaced more often as this tends to cause the crickets to do rather wet poo everywhere!
Other foods are tempting to use, but experimentation quickly reveals that many go “soggy” in the container ruining the card while the above 3 all dry leaving no mess. Certainly avoid any soft fruits whatsoever (Papaya, tomato etc are just a disaster…)

Dried foods can simply be whole pellets of the same type as for the smaller nymphs, again 25% protein is important. Again, although many use bran, rolled oats or similar as the dry base food, it is fairly void and is very problematic to keep clean and dry, also encouraging mould, fungus and flour mites.

*General maintenance:-*
Depending upon how many crickets you’re keeping, the size of your containers and how fast you are using them, you may want to “changeover” your containers on a weekly basis. If you begin to suffer die offs, the remainder need to be separated from the dirty container ASAP.
At this point you are removing any dead bodies, any missed food that has fallen to the bottom of the container and keeping an eye out for nasties like “buffalo worm” Dermestid beetle larvae.

Ideally you need a second identical container to transfer the crickets to, before you begin the task the second container must be furnished with card (even a brief exposure to high humidity in an empty plastic tub is a death sentence for crickets as you’ll see in the pics later!).
Simply shake all of the crickets off the card or tubes you are using, once you have a tub full of crickets, dead crickets, old food, half eaten pellets and frass (cricket poo and bits and bobs), you can tip the container gently to allow all of the active crickets to run off into the new tub. You can hand filter the stragglers as the live crickets will grip your hands or a latex glove while buffalo worms and dead crix fall through 

*Buffalo Worm:-*
Dermestid beetle larvae are commonly called buffalo worms, fuzzies or “caterpillars”.
They are potentially harmful to your colony and are not a “clean up crew” both the larvae and adult beetles can decimate entire containers of smaller cricket nymphs, they will prey on crickets during shedding or any weakened crickets. They also enjoy eating their way through your nesting boxes…

*Breeding:-*
Female Jamaican crickets are easily distinguished from medium size (or 5th instar). Females have a long ovipositor almost the length of their body sticking out of their rear, even sub adult females have a partially developed ovipositor visible.
Females of this species lay around ~400 eggs.

It’s literally as simple as get a container, throw a load of adult crickets in, they will mate and the females will swell obviously with eggs and begin searching for suitable laying sites. If you find females trying to lay in or under the food fresh foods, you know immediately there is something wrong with the nesting areas provided.

A suitable nesting tub should be around 3” deep, filled with 2.5” of *Organic pesticide free* compost, this needs to be slightly compacted (if it is “fluffy” the females won’t like it!) and well moistened, you should be able to feel the coolness of the humidity in the tub with the back of your hand. It should remain moistened (by pouring a small amount of water on every few days or so) throughout laying and for the first 2 weeks of the hatching process.

You will have much greater hatchling success if you move the nesting box out to a separate container during your weekly changeover and add a fresh box in with the adults. Also, 1/2cm wire mesh cut to cover the surface of your nest boxes will prevent spent females and males climbing in and eating the eggs.
Nest boxes can be allowed to dry out and then discarded from the hatching containers after 3 weeks.


Most people will be keeping their crickets on this kind of scale, but the principles still apply;










On a much larger scale, this is on day one of hatching;









7 days into hatching;









Weeks 5-6 mediums to sub adults;









Adults tub showing nesting boxes;










All Images and Text _Copyright © Charlotte 2009_


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## Tehanu

*Black Crickets *- _Gryllus bimaculatus__._

*Pros and Cons:-*
+This species are a “meatier“ bite than other available species and gut load much better. 
+They are he most productive species available for those in need of large numbers of pinheads and small nymphs.
-Colonies of black crickets can rapidly spiral into die offs if humidity rises in your containers for even an hour. 
-Therefore they have to be carefully managed for density and have to be kept more sparsely than other species.
-Dead crickets of this species tend to turn to mush and cause big problems with humidity and ammonia.
-These crickets do best kept at quite high temps compared to room temperature.

*Temperature and Humidity:- *
Hatchling nymphs up to small/medium (3rd/4th instar) size must be kept cooler than adults at only 25C, high hatching densities coupled with a natural grouping up behaviour means any higher and you can find whole batches wiped out by self generated humidity (sweating!). At this temperature eggs of this species take between 11-14 days to hatch.
This species can prove difficult to raise past 3rd-4th instar in some cases, this seems to be humidity, temperature and density based. 
Small/medium nymphs of this species onwards are most successful at 30C. At these temperatures this species also takes 6-7 weeks to reach adulthood.

Humidity with crickets is a serious concern, while these insects need humidity in order to shed properly, even with raised temperatures, the average humidity in any building in the UK is sufficient. No additional humidity needs to be provided.
In fact, any rise in base level humidity can cause mass die offs in cricket colonies, it is very important not to allow moisture to gather in the containers or to allow moist foods in contact with the floor (where they will rapidly raise local humidity and also cause moulds/fungus). 
Containers for crickets must be well ventilated and dry. This will affect which foods you may choose to use.

*Foods:-*
While there are many options out there and many people seem to have success with other foods, this outlines the foods I have used successfully for 2 years with a medium scale breeding project.

Hatchling nymphs - 3 weeks old;
Fresh foods used are only Potato and Carrot slices, Nymphs of this species are so susceptible to death by humidity that even Orange “ends” just collect a pile of dead bodies. The food should be offered to smaller crickets under layers of card, not on the floor or exposed on the top of the colony.
These foods while fresh will provide enough water for the crickets, if the fresh foods used are changed daily or every other day (which is necessary for higher density colonies anyway) there is no need to provide any additional water e.g: crystals, gel etc.

Dried foods are only limited by your ability to find something dry that contains 30% protein only. Cat biscuits are your best source of good quality 30% protein.
For this age range of nymphs the pellets can be blended down or crushed into a powder and scattered in small amounts in the container, you should add enough to feed them for only a day or two at a time, any more and you end up with a film of mould instead 

3wks nymphs - Adults;
Fresh foods can be slices of Orange (ends for smaller nymphs), Potato and Carrot. Once the crickets are larger and more inclined to feed in the open, the food should be placed on the top of the colony, covered food encourages flies by the million…
Although some people offer greens also, the container will need the card replaced more often as this tends to cause the crickets to do rather wet poo everywhere!
Other foods are tempting to use, but experimentation quickly reveals that many go “soggy” in the container ruining the card while the above 3 all dry leaving no mess. Certainly avoid any soft fruits whatsoever (Papaya, tomato etc are just a disaster…)

Dried foods can simply be whole pellets of the same type as for the smaller nymphs, again 30% protein is important. Although many use bran, rolled oats or similar as the dry base food, it is fairly void and is very problematic to keep clean and dry, also encouraging mould, fungus and flour mites.

*General maintenance:-*
Depending upon how many crickets you’re keeping, the size of your containers and how fast you are using them, you may want to “changeover” your containers on a weekly basis. If you begin to suffer die offs, the remainder need to be separated from the dirty container ASAP.
At this point you are removing any dead bodies, any missed food that has fallen to the bottom of the container and keeping an eye out for nasties like “buffalo worm” Dermestid beetle larvae.

Ideally you need a second identical container to transfer the crickets to, before you begin the task the second container must be furnished with card (even a brief exposure to high humidity in an empty plastic tub is a death sentence for crickets as you’ll see in the pics later!).
Simply shake all of the crickets off the card or tubes you are using, once you have a tub full of crickets, dead crickets, old food, half eaten pellets and frass (cricket poo and bits and bobs), you can tip the container gently to allow all of the active crickets to run off into the new tub. You can hand filter the stragglers as the live crickets will grip your hands or a latex glove while buffalo worms and dead crix fall through 

*Buffalo Worm:-*
Dermestid beetle larvae are commonly called buffalo worms, fuzzies or “caterpillars”.
They are potentially harmful to your colony and are not a “clean up crew” both the larvae and adult beetles can decimate entire containers of smaller cricket nymphs, they will prey on crickets during shedding or any weakened crickets. They also enjoy eating their way through your nesting boxes…

*Breeding:-*
Female black crickets are easily distinguished from sub adult size. Females have a long ovipositor almost the length of their body sticking out of their rear, even sub adult females have a partially developed ovipositor visible.
Females of this species lay around ~1500 eggs!!!

It’s literally as simple as get a container, throw a load of adult crickets in, they will mate and the females will swell obviously with eggs and begin searching for suitable laying sites. If you find females trying to lay in or under the food fresh foods, you know immediately there is something wrong with the nesting areas provided.

A suitable nesting tub should be around 3” deep, filled with 2.5” of *Organic pesticide free* compost, this needs to be slightly compacted (if it is “fluffy” the females won’t like it!) and well moistened, you should be able to feel the coolness of the humidity in the tub with the back of your hand. It should remain moistened (by pouring a small amount of water on every few days or so) throughout laying and for the first 2 weeks of the hatching process.

You will have much greater hatchling success if you move the nesting box out to a separate container during your weekly changeover and add a fresh box in with the adults. Also, 1/2cm wire mesh cut to cover the surface of your nest boxes will prevent spent females and males climbing in and eating the eggs.
Nest boxes can be allowed to dry out and then discarded from the hatching containers after 3 weeks.


The first picture is a hatching tub on the first day of hatching. There’s an obvious error! When re-moistening nest boxes always allow the water to fully soak in before replacing the card on top (needed to help hatchling climb out or reach lower humidity away from the substrate), otherwise it get’s totally ruined…










Small to medium black crickets;









Medium black crickets;









Adult black crickets all hiding because I scared them!









The dangers of high humidity can’t be stressed enough, my colleague made the mistake of emptying an entire tub of adult blacks into a feeding tub for use later, 30 minutes later 10 were left alive…









The remainder had to be discarded too as these insects simply cannot recover from humidity stress.


All Images and Text _Copyright © Charlotte 2009_


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## Tehanu

*Dubia Roaches *- _Blaptica dubia__._
The actual feeding and maintenance applies to feeder sps. of _Blaberus_ (_craniifer, discoidalis _etc).

*Pros and Cons:-*
+Dubia roaches are one of, if not the, easiest roaches to culture and feed with.
+They are livebearers and therefore breeding is a self contained no fuss process.
+They require very little care or maintenance.
+These roaches are relatively slow, terrible at climbing, don’t jump or fly (except a poor sputter or two).
-Dubias are generally a good sized meal for many reptiles, Blaberus species might be preferred for reptiles in need of larger foods however.
-They are very slow to culture in comparison to other available species, but once started are no problem.
-These roaches do best kept at quite high temps compared to room temperature.

*Temperature and Humidity:- *
These breed and thrive best at ~30C or even as high as 32C. And again, don’t need any additional humidity unless you experience losses from shedding issues. While humidity isn’t a threat to these roaches as it is for crickets, it will encourage mould, fungus and bad smells.

*Foods:-*
Fresh foods are slices of apple, orange, carrot, potato and leafy greens. Dried pelleted foods should be 30% protein for greatest productivity for your colony.
The container is best bare bottomed with only dried pellets on it, fresh foods should be offered on top of egg crate to prevent raising the humidity. As with the other care guides, the food I’ve chosen is based on cleanliness, most other foods will go soggy and encourage flies.

*General maintenance:-*
Around every 6 months you may want to filter the colony into a clean container and clear out the frass, bodies etc at the bottom.
A weekly check for dead bodies and missed food is a good idea.
A brilliant guide to separating sizes can be found here;
http://www.theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm

*Breeding:-*
No effort necessary! Just keep your colony well fed with plenty of protein, good high temps and feed out the males to try and reach a 1:7 ratio of males to females. Females produce ootheca which they carry in a pouch in the abdomen until they are ready to hatch, you’ll often find females looking guilty before running off and revealing a new bunch of up to 30 babies. 
Discarded ootheca will not hatch and can just be binned or left as additional food for others.


A small scale colony;









A colony of thousands only needs this much space and this much food every other day;


















And Blaberus roaches kept much the same way but with a bark chip substrate;











All Images and Text _Copyright © Charlotte 2009_


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## HadesDragons

Really nice guide! Stickied : victory:


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## Oliver Dodds

Bloody fantastic guide, thanks Lotte!


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## tomma

I was looking for the scientific names of the two species of cricket, and see what I found! Very, very useful.
Thanks, Charlotte!
Tommaso


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## spend_day

wanna do one for locusts lotte :2thumb:

ace care info btw


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## LoveForLizards

Sneaky edit spend_day? !


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## Tehanu

tomma said:


> I was looking for the scientific names of the two species of cricket, and see what I found! Very, very useful.
> Thanks, Charlotte!
> Tommaso


:lol2:Stalking me hey! Glad you all found it useful 

Does it match up to your notes Tom!?!

I'm still working on guides for;
Eudicella & Pachnoda Fruit Beetles,
Springtails,
Trichorina tropical woodlice,
Worms! Dendrobaena and garden,
Bean weevils,
and various drosophila sp.

Thanks again 
Lotte***


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## Alex M

Great caresheets Lotte :2thumb:

I actually find the dubia roaches fascinating to keep in ther own right, and essential, given the number of species i keep!

Al


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## immortal

Can I follow the guide for the Dubia roached when breeding other speices of roaches?


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## Pythonman14

immortal said:


> Can I follow the guide for the Dubia roached when breeding other speices of roaches?


some yes others no 
but the basics of roach keeping tend to stay pretty much the same


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## dazook

you got one for mealies...

im always worring im not gutloading them enough...


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## Tehanu

dazook said:


> you got one for mealies...
> 
> im always worring im not gutloading them enough...


Hiya Dazook, I don't really like using mealworms so haven't got much to say for them! 

Freakygeeky started an extensive topic on mealworms here;
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/feeder/143883-mealworm-life-cycle.html

:2thumb:
Lotte***


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## dazook

cheers saedcantas will check it out...:2thumb:


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## zemanski

my roach colony is doing fine - little :censor: won't eat them:lol2:

can you breed phoenix worms?


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## Pythonman14

zemanski said:


> my roach colony is doing fine - little :censor: won't eat them:lol2:
> 
> can you breed phoenix worms?


you can but i highly suggest you don't because thier are the larvae of the a fly and the adults need to eat things like fece's and nasty stuff like that there is a topic on here somewhere i think about this


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## ladybird

Pythonman14 said:


> you can but i highly suggest you don't because thier are the larvae of the a fly and the adults need to eat things like fece's and nasty stuff like that there is a topic on here somewhere i think about this


wrong, the adults don't eat at all!


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## ladybird

For crickets, is there any ratio of male:females you need to keep in order to make sure all the females get fertilised, i.e. does the male have a limited number of females he can mate?


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## Pythonman14

ladybird said:


> wrong, the adults don't eat at all!


intresting thanks for correcting me im always willing to learn more so can you share any more info on how to breed them?


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## ladybird

Pythonman14 said:


> intresting thanks for correcting me im always willing to learn more so can you share any more info on how to breed them?


All I know is that the larvae eat food waste, such as kitchen scraps, pupate then turn into black soldier flies. The adults purpose is to mate and lay eggs, they don't even have mouths to eat. I'm not sure how you get the adults to mate and lay eggs in captivity though.

Question for crickets again. Are you sure potatoes and carrots provide enough moisture? How many days can I leave the slices in there before they become too dry?


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## Tehanu

ladybird said:


> All I know is that the larvae eat food waste, such as kitchen scraps, pupate then turn into black soldier flies. The adults purpose is to mate and lay eggs, they don't even have mouths to eat. I'm not sure how you get the adults to mate and lay eggs in captivity though.
> 
> Question for crickets again. Are you sure potatoes and carrots provide enough moisture? How many days can I leave the slices in there before they become too dry?


 
Hiya Lady,

I can't give a definitive answer on a sex ratio, but then if you order a bulk bag which you would be if you intended to breed surely? You're going to get rather a lot of both! I'm sure the boys can put it about a bit tho, they outlive the females so are around to sort plenty of them out 

Potatoes, carrots and oranges are changed daily in the large scale breeding room anyway, so fresh daily they certainly provide enough moisture. At home I change mine every 3 days and have no problems there either 
I do put perhaps a large amount of fresh foods in though, it all depends on how much you put in I guess as to how much it hydrates them initially.


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## ladybird

Cheers... do you have any info on how many eggs they lay per day (for both cricket species)?


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## The Roach Hut

ladybird said:


> All I know is that the larvae eat food waste, such as kitchen scraps, pupate then turn into black soldier flies. The adults purpose is to mate and lay eggs, they don't even have mouths to eat. I'm not sure how you get the adults to mate and lay eggs in captivity though.
> 
> Question for crickets again. Are you sure potatoes and carrots provide enough moisture? How many days can I leave the slices in there before they become too dry?


 take it out after 2 days max always better to get rid after 1 day though u dont want mould growin


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## LoveForLizards

If anybody is interested in phoenix worms/black soldier flys then let me know and I will put up a breeding caresheet : victory: they are pretty easy to breed.


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## ladybird

LoveForLizards said:


> If anybody is interested in phoenix worms/black soldier flys then let me know and I will put up a breeding caresheet : victory: they are pretty easy to breed.


yes we're all interested in a care sheet for them. Please!


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## LoveForLizards

ladybird said:


> yes we're all interested in a care sheet for them. Please!


Posted!


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## ladybird

How do you keep humidity up for the small crickets, I mean after the egg box is taken out?


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## LoveForLizards

ladybird said:


> How do you keep humidity up for the small crickets, I mean after the egg box is taken out?


Bag/cup of water crystals. Just add a teaspoon of crystals or take a tea spoon from it as you need to.


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## Tehanu

As it says in the sheet 

Humidity is a killer, you don't need to keep it up, the small crix will find microclimates (at the very bottom of the tub between the plastic and first egg cartons is a fave) to shed without issues, you'll also find them congregating beneath slices of fresh food in pockets of humidity.



One of your earlier questions; 
How many eggs does a female lay in a day?

Utterly impossible for me to give an answer to that one, I can't see their ovipositors poked that 1cm down in the laying box to see how many eggs they pop out at a time 

Lotte***


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## doherty-666

am starting up breedin dubria roaches and i know n learnt quite alot bwt them. i was just a bit puzzled as wen do i take the adults out the inclosure??
and wt do i do wiv them??
thank u: victory:


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## LoveForLizards

Why would you take the adults out of the enclosure?! The adults stay in for breeding - except males, some of them are taken out to be fed off to stop over-crowding of males.


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## doherty-666

:notworthy:thankyou!
so i leave all the adults in wiv the young ones aswell, expect nt all the males stay in??
thanks again!


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## dazook

hi guys just setting up a dubia colony and was wondering...

a. Fully grown will they get to big for leo geckos...?
b. do you put them in a normal dish in the leos viv...?
c. Getting 50 nypmhs. how long will it take for these to sexually mature...?

cheers

daz


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## ladybird

What sizes of tubs are those in the silent cricket post? Those big black ones. And where do you get them?


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## Tehanu

ladybird said:


> What sizes of tubs are those in the silent cricket post? Those big black ones. And where do you get them?


They're cold water storage tanks available in B&Q, they're around 3.5' long by I think 2' wide and 2.5' tall.

They're pretty pricey although you can happily house a tens of thousands of hatchlings or around 6-8000 adults in one


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## ladybird

What about fruit flies? I'd like some tips on how to harvest them without infesting my house. Same for how to retrieve the ones that climb to the top of the animal's cage and are out of reach


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## Alex

Just a quick question, I have a large setup of dubia, but what is the minimum they can be split into to start a colony?


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## Blaptica

This is a really good quality guide ! One question though. There appears to be lamps above the tanks. Have you measured the basking temperature ? I would guess the crickets might be able to get warmer than 30c with the lamps in place ?


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## JRoss

Amazing guide, thorough and informative.


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## ViperLover

Some good information there, Lotte!

I believe that whether it's going to be used as livefood or just a pet....Its still an animal and should be kept humanely.

Some top class setups!


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## benjo

you finally answered why my roaches never produced babies.. they were all females.. all 12 of them! ahaha..now how do i breed tiger stripped hissers? i feed them weekly veg, cat/dog food pellets, keep them warm and dark.. had them over a year.. i have 14 hissers, but only 1 male 1 female adult but still no babies :<.. maybe im just not destined to breed feeder foods.. none of my 72 singly housed morios turnd into beetles.. i have 1 "alien" from a mini meal worm! lol


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## Dan99

I am getting 100 adult dubia soon


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## imginy

Hey thanks for the tutorial only just found it nice one. 

I just set some silent crickets going im fed up paying for them. :no1:


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## Whosthedaddy

Cheers for that, enjoyed reading the cate sheets.

Just started giving my Bosc black crickets and although noisy he seems to enjoy the meatiness of them. I'm sure he'd love some roaches.


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## koolkid

Nice can you make one on how to care for dermestids?Just woundering if i'm doing it right.I heard you say you've kept them before so just wanted to know how you breed them!


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## ViperLover

Lotte, make this as a sticky.


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## ViperLover

Ah it already is....Tard alert. :blush:


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## GAD58Y

at what size can you sex dubia roaches?


graeme


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## koolkid

When is the isopod caresheet gonna be done?


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## ian_lawton

could i breed these in 30x30x45 exo terras in the garage with a heat mat? if so what 3 would u recommend? i feed mainly brown crix so might just do them and ( in 2 exos and dubia roaches in another is there big enough??


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## r3dg3cko rob

Great Care Sheets, Thanks


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## rudy691

do I need a stat for the mat ?


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## JoeR

It might be a good idea............but it wasn't mentioned.......


Brilliant care sheet! your a legend, many many thanks from me!!


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## Lemmy

**

Great info, might try ti with Black crickets now!


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## mrhoyo

Saedcantas said:


> :lol2:Stalking me hey! Glad you all found it useful
> 
> Does it match up to your notes Tom!?!
> 
> I'm still working on guides for;
> Eudicella & Pachnoda Fruit Beetles,
> Springtails,
> Trichorina tropical woodlice,
> Worms! Dendrobaena and garden,
> Bean weevils,
> and various drosophila sp.
> 
> Thanks again
> Lotte***


Did anything ever happen with these guides?


Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk


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## Tehanu

ian_lawton said:


> could i breed these in 30x30x45 exo terras in the garage with a heat mat? if so what 3 would u recommend? i feed mainly brown crix so might just do them and ( in 2 exos and dubia roaches in another is there big enough??


I know it's a bit late! but for anyone else info, No I definitely wouldn't try to breed crickets or cockroaches in a 30x30x45 exo terra it's not big enough, practical and wouldn't be easy to clean or work in.


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## Tehanu

rudy691 said:


> do I need a stat for the mat ?


I don't use a stat on mine, just ensure the tub is large enough/tall enough to allow the roaches to distribute themselves away from the mat as they choose. I use a mat the full length of the tub but the roaches can climb the card to about 10" away from the floor giving a vertical gradient


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## Tehanu

mrhoyo said:


> Did anything ever happen with these guides?
> 
> 
> Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk



I have plenty of photos etc for these, just didn't see the demand for them and it would have taken a good while to write, I'll start again soon! 
Just got to readvertise my roaches first... groan


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## mrhoyo

I look forward to them.
Why are you selling your roaches?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk


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## Tehanu

mrhoyo said:


> I look forward to them.
> Why are you selling your roaches?
> 
> Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk


Not selling all of them!  Just thinning the colonies out again.


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## mrhoyo

Ah ok. I wish I was at that point again, I've just sold all my Turks to state again with dubia.

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## mrhoyo

Any chance you could pm me basic info for the species you've yet to fully write up?

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## SCOTT4545

how long for the egg's, of black crickets being laid, sould i expect them to hatch? 
I have had a old plastic cricket tub filled with soil in the cricket holder for 2 weeks now. Ive noticed LOADS!, literally the soil is filled of eggs, in the last 3-4 days.
im new to breeding my own live food and this is my first try thank's to your guied, Im going to be trying roaches next aswell :lol2::no1: 
thanks very much for your info:notworthy:


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## spider shane

i want to breed house browns keep trying but they dont live past 1st stage.
do you have a guide on how to breed them? or can i just follow one of yours for the other types?
or is they a better sp to use? i need to breed enought to feed 600+ tarantulas so need them to be really prolific.
many thanks


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## spottygeckos2011

Can i feed dubias porridge oats instead of dried food 
And are they vegetarian (will they eat the geckos toes?)


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## spottygeckos2011

Saedcantas said:


> *Dubia Roaches *- _Blaptica dubia__._
> The actual feeding and maintenance applies to feeder sps. of _Blaberus_ (_craniifer, discoidalis _etc).
> 
> *Pros and Cons:-*
> +Dubia roaches are one of, if not the, easiest roaches to culture and feed with.
> +They are livebearers and therefore breeding is a self contained no fuss process.
> +They require very little care or maintenance.
> +These roaches are relatively slow, terrible at climbing, don’t jump or fly (except a poor sputter or two).
> -Dubias are generally a good sized meal for many reptiles, Blaberus species might be preferred for reptiles in need of larger foods however.
> -They are very slow to culture in comparison to other available species, but once started are no problem.
> -These roaches do best kept at quite high temps compared to room temperature.
> 
> *Temperature and Humidity:- *
> These breed and thrive best at ~30C or even as high as 32C. And again, don’t need any additional humidity unless you experience losses from shedding issues. While humidity isn’t a threat to these roaches as it is for crickets, it will encourage mould, fungus and bad smells.
> 
> *Foods:-*
> Fresh foods are slices of apple, orange, carrot, potato and leafy greens. Dried pelleted foods should be 30% protein for greatest productivity for your colony.
> The container is best bare bottomed with only dried pellets on it, fresh foods should be offered on top of egg crate to prevent raising the humidity. As with the other care guides, the food I’ve chosen is based on cleanliness, most other foods will go soggy and encourage flies.
> 
> *General maintenance:-*
> Around every 6 months you may want to filter the colony into a clean container and clear out the frass, bodies etc at the bottom.
> A weekly check for dead bodies and missed food is a good idea.
> A brilliant guide to separating sizes can be found here;
> http://www.theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm
> 
> *Breeding:-*
> No effort necessary! Just keep your colony well fed with plenty of protein, good high temps and feed out the males to try and reach a 1:7 ratio of males to females. Females produce ootheca which they carry in a pouch in the abdomen until they are ready to hatch, you’ll often find females looking guilty before running off and revealing a new bunch of up to 30 babies.
> Discarded ootheca will not hatch and can just be binned or left as additional food for others.
> 
> 
> A small scale colony;
> image
> 
> A colony of thousands only needs this much space and this much food every other day;
> image
> 
> image
> 
> And Blaberus roaches kept much the same way but with a bark chip substrate;
> image
> 
> 
> All Images and Text _Copyright © Charlotte 2009_


Do the dubias need much height?


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## GeeUK

I bought a large clear RUB, pretty tall just for piece of mind of none escaping even though they cant climb.

Do they need a bit of darkness though, will a clear RUB be okay?

Also, i was going to use a heat mat for the heat is this okay also or do u need to use a heat lamp?


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## Tehanu

I have bred them with no trouble in clear tubs, so long as you don't disturb them too much by overcleaning they should be fine. 

Heat mats are what I prefer to use although lamps will do the job just fine.:2thumb:


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## GeeUK

Thanks.

Do you place the heat mat under the RUB or in it? And what of the chances of it going faulty and melting the RUB and Roaches taking over your house? LOL

The only thing that is putting me off it knowing I have hundreds of Roaches in the home.

Also, would they be fine in a basement if they have the correct heat?


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## Tehanu

Underneath the tub, I guess you'd have to consider that if you had a faulty heatmat on any of your animals and it melted the tub/enclosure then you might be more worried about having a house than having roaches all over it! 

So long as they are hot enough, anywhere you want to put them is fine  I've got about 15,000 and occasionally find the odd male hiding under something (they are incredibly poor fliers until they are super overcrowded, then they'll have a go!)


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## GeeUK

I was planning on having the RUB in the basement, it's concrete down there and I would have it in one of the rooms down there, so if the RUB did melt, it wouldnt have anything to set fire to LOL.

I might give this breeding malarky ago then, seem pretty simple.


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## ButlerAVFC

Will a couple of these be any good for breeding crickets in?

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9414776&fh_view_size=150&fh_start_index=0&fh_eds=%3f&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3C{9372012}%2fcategories%3C{9372021}%2fcategories%3C{9372062}&isSearch=false


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## Tehanu

The rigid versions would be better, not sure how grippy those ones are, but the size is good


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## ButlerAVFC

Would an MDF box be any good?

I have a load of it in the garage.


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## topaztiger1983

Great guides I am thinking of breeding dubias for my Leo


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## colesy4

Thanks, really informative thread!


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## kimbo2012

*dubia*

do u have any dubia roaches for sale m8


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## thegreatpretender

A bit late to the party, but I really found this thread informative! Thanks!:2thumb:


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