Blaptica dubia AKA "Orange Spotted Roaches"
B. dubia roaches, AKA "Orange Spotted Roaches," are one of the most popular species of roach to own and breed. They are from South America and most often referred to as "dubia" roaches. They are a heat loving species and will not invade your home. They are relatively inexpensive and are great feeders. They do not climb smooth surfaces and they are unable to fly even though the adult males have full wings. With a little heat, hiding places, and plenty of food and water, they are breeding machines. They can give birth up to once a month with 20-40+ babies each birthing. The babies are born about 1/4" long and the adults get up to about 2" long with nymphs of various ages being all sizes in between. In ideal conditions they can complete their nymph stages and become adults in less than 3 months. The adults are very easy to sex as the males have full grown wings and the females only have wing stubs. The females are a nice shiny black color with orange/red spots or markings. The nymphs are a brown color and resemble large pill/sow bugs or beetles. Some people like to call them "papaya beetles" to calm the nerves of weary house-mates. A white roach is simply a roach than has just molted and it will return to normal color in a few hours.
Housing
These roaches are incredibly easy to house. Because they are from South America, they prefer a hot and humid environment. Some like to house them in a more natural looking enclosure but they also do very well in sparse and simple enclosures. Only the methods most suited to breeding them as feeders or keeping them until they are fed off is going to be mentioned here.
Because they cannot climb smooth surfaces or fly, a simple plastic tub with smooth interior walls works well as an enclosure. They do not require a lid, however it makes some people feel more comfortable to have a lid on. Toilet paper rolls, kitchen towel rolls, and egg crates/flats are the most commonly used materials to provide more surface area and hiding spaces. Egg crates or flats are preferable to the rolls because they can be stacked vertically to allow the frass (poop) to fall to the bottom for easy cleaning. These egg crates/flats or other climbing materials should be placed on one half (1/2) to three fourths (3/4) of the enclosure. The remaining area is where the food and water will be placed. One end of the enclosure, preferably the end opposite the food and water, should be heated to 80+ degrees to ensure the fastest growth and breeding. They will grow and breed at lower temperatures but it is a much slower process.
Frass and molted skin should be cleaned as needed. If they frass is kept dry, colonies can go many months without being cleaned. Cleaning frequency is a personal preference. The longer between cleanings, the harder it tends to be as the new born nymphs like to burrow in the frass.
Food and Water
Food and water should be provided in shallow, easily accessible dishes on the non-heated side of the enclosure. Water crystals are preferable for moisture as they are less messy and do not mold over like other methods. Cotton balls soaked in water are an easy alternative. Fruits and veggies should be placed into the enclosure at least once a week in addition to the other water source. Alternatively, fruits and veggies may be provided as the sole source of moisture.
Foods like cat, dog, and fish food will keep the roaches alive and breeding, however, they should never be fed to the roaches if they are intended to be used for feeding. These foods are not very nutritious and provide too much protein among other things. Even when the roaches are forced to purge and then are gutloaded, the protein will remain for quite a while in their system. Some have suggested months. A better source of protein would be bee pollen, spirulina, nuts, and other natural high-protein foods.
When these roaches are being fed to pets, it is essential that they be gutloaded on healthy foods. Gutloading is the process of feeding feeders a healthy diet for at least 12 hours prior to feeding (the pet) to ensure that they have the foods in the intestinal tract at the time of feeding. This provides a much healthier insect and an overall healthier animal. Many nutrients and vitamins are provided this way. A wet gutload, and to a lesser extent, a dry gutload are important.
The wet gutload is made up of fruits and veggies. Good fruits and veggies to use would be kale, collard greens, mustard greens, dark leafy greens/lettuce, dandelion greens, squash, yams, sweet potatoes, sweet or bell peppers, carrots, apples, oranges, other citrus, blue berries, strawberries, raspberries, papaya, and other nutritious foods. These do not have to be provided all at once and can be cycled. Using two or three each week would be fine.
The dry gutload is made up of "dry" ingredients. Many good dry gutloads can be purchased and they can also be made. Good items to include would be a variety of beans, alfalfa, barley, spirulina, bee pollen, brewers yeast, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds, turmeric, rice, dandelion greens, sesame seeds, raw sunflower seeds, wheat, oats,kelps and seaweeds, almonds, other nuts, etc.
Breeding
If the adults are kept warm with one side of the enclosure always in the 80s and they always have access to food and water, they will breed. To slow or stop breeding, lower the temperatures and/or remove the adults.
Using B. dubia as Feeders
Dubia roaches are great feeders. They get larger than crickets and have a better meat to shell ratio as well. When deciding how many dubia to feed compared to crickets, a bit of common sense goes a long way. Generally, a one inch dubia is at least two times the size of a one inch cricket. It depends on if the roach has just molted and how well it has been fed. The better fed they are, the fatter the roaches will be. A lot of the time, a large nymph will be more meaty than an adult male and should be treated as such when feeding. Females are very large when they are nearing the end of a pregnancy so keep that in mind as well.
How Many? What Size?
How many should you start off with? It depends on what you plan to do with them. If you intend to buy some to just try (as not all animals will accept them) a small number will be fine. Depending on how many animals you have to feed, anywhere from 20-100 would be a good amount to try out. See the above section for size recommendations.
If you intend to start a colony of them, the number depends on how quickly you want to be able to feed from the colony regularly and how many animals you intend to feed. The smaller the roaches are, and the fewer purchased, the longer the waiting period is before the colony can be fed from regularly. If you don’t mind waiting several months before the colony is large enough to feed from regularly, then you can start off with 100 or less individuals of a small size. If you start off with 100 or less of mixed or large sizes, the colony will be ready to feed from sooner than if started with smaller nymphs. If you have a larger number of animals to feed, or you just want to have the colony breeding ASAP, then get a larger number of roaches of mixed sizes (including adults.)
If you only have a few animals to feed and want to get a colony started relatively fast, I recommend getting 200 mixed size roaches with at least half being medium sized or larger.
