dieing dubia

[Ren]

I went out to look at the dubia dn see how they were doing today and found a large number of them dead, they have plenty of food, and gel water and it is about 90 degrees in the outbuilding where i keep them. At first it was just the males, now i am noticing just more and more deaths? Any ideas? Not enough ventalation or too dry Im not sure???If anyone has any insight please let me know, thanks.

 

[pohchunyee]

How's your setup? I don't have that problem at all....maybe your food turn moldy and causes the death of your Dubias?

 

[Ren]

what so you use as food? The food was only 2 days old. I opened up both ends of the storage bin i have for them, so now both ends and the top is open with screen, and this time i used a high grade cat food(small handful) and cricket food from cricketsonline.com as well as a potato and gutload cricket drink.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

The temp should not be a problem as long as they are well ventilated and have plenty of moisture.
Chun Yee is right...mold is deadly!
What else is in that out building? Chemicals that maybe leaking fumes or something else possibly toxic?
Were they adults when you got them? Are nymphs dying as well?

-Brad

 

[Ren]

Nymphs are doing well, they have already (bred) there are a lot more little ones running around in there now, only the adults have died so far, for the most part there are small bodies in there but it looks like they have molted or shed or whatever you call it with them, the only other thing in the building is my collection of Schwinn bicycles and a washer and dryer... oh and a corn hole game. lol

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Hmmmm.
I'm wondering if you got some old adults?
You might want to raise the humidity a bit beyond the water gel or crystals by adding a damp, crumpled up paper towel into the enclosure.
You'll have to change it weekly to prevent bacterial growth and that will involve picking all the nymphs out of it.
Is there substrate in the enclosure?
It's difficult to find all the nymphs in it when you use it but I prefer to have it.
They like to burrow and it helps raise the humidity as well.
I use top soil in my roach enclosures.

-Brad

p.s. molting or shedding: both acceptable terms (molting is more commonly used with arthropods) Mine eat their shed skins.

-B.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Ren,
Somehow I missed the post about what you're feeding.
Is the water gel calcium fortified?
Are you currently feeding out of this colony?
Are you offering fruit?

Calcium is VERY bad for roaches....should only be offered the night before feeding off to help supplement your chams.

If you are currently feeding off roaches you should eliminate the catfood....I would worry about an overdose of preformed vitamin A in my cham. If you are just trying to establish the colony, a small amount of catfood is fine.

Potatoes are not a great fresh food to offer. Try cantaloupe or watermelon rinds (they'll eat the whole thing!) apple, carrot and sweet potato.

-Brad

 

[Ren]

I am not feeding out of the colony yet, just trying to get it underway, i haven't offered any fruit jsut the cat food and the cricket food, no substrate is used, i will introduce the paper towels or newspaper tomorrow, what about getting the egg crates a bit damp will this work?the cricket drink is in fact calcium enriched, never read anything about that before. Guess ill look for some new stuff tomorrow... not sure how old the dubai were when i got them, Matt sent them to me so he may be able to elaborate, how long do they live? thanks for all the help btw..

 

[pohchunyee]

I don't feed my feeder with any cat food or dog food.... i just feed them fresh green, carrots, tuber......fruits.... nuts...anything natural...!

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I would keep the egg crates as dry as possible.
Mold can form on them and you'll have to replace them too often.
Calcium can cause severe paralysis of limbs and eventual death in insects.
If you can't find plain gel or crystals (you may have to buy it online) the moist paper towel and apples will provide enough moisture.

-Brad

 

[Ren]

Got it, will try it out as soon as i return home from work today,i cleaned out the enclosure and all as well, where can i get roach and or cricket flats at a good price? Of coarse i tried the feed mills around here and nothing....

 

[Cherron]

Do you mean the egg crate flats? If so, the best place to go to get them is a restaurant that serves breakfast. I work at

a Cracker Barrel and on any given morning we go through about 50 flats of eggs.. twice as many on the weekends.  We just throw these away, so once a month or so I save them for a day and bring them home.  I am sure if you went in and asked for some they would give them to you :)

 

[Tygerr]

I heard that it wasn't good to use egg crates that had already been used to transport eggs (possibly due to contaminants/bacteria?)

Dave/Will: any comments on that?

Also, what about using the discarded cardboard inner rolls of toilet rolls or kitchen towel rolls?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Toilet paper/paper towel rolls are what I use.
They just pack inside of them!
I had heard of the possible dangers of Salmonella from using used egg crates as well.
Can't really say whether or not this is a real danger...but I know they can't contract it from the tp rolls.....better safe than sorry
I know several of the sites that sell feeders also sell clean unused crates if you're worried about it and bent on using them.
If you have all kinds of time on your hands you can use any cardboard and fashion any number of creative constructions ....the idea is to provide more surface area and places where they feel hidden and safe.

-Brad

 

[Tygerr]

the idea is to provide more surface area and places where they feel hidden and safe.

Yeah, I'd heard that they feel more secure if they are close proximity to surfaces on both sides of their body (like they would be in crevices and cracks in rocks and trees in the wild).
That's why I've always liked the design this guy used for his Dubias: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=463
I've cut out large squares of cardboard from packing boxes (instead of using cork flats) to create the same sort of "roach motel".

I also use TP rolls (I only use TP rolls for my crickets): my girlfriend is able to get the cleaners at her corporate office block to collect all the left over rolls, so I generally have more rolls than I know what to do with... And it makes it easier to pick up and shake out crickets into the feeder cups.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I've seen that roach motel design and liked it as well.
My only problem with something like that is cleaning it.
It seems expensive and a little labor intensive to me.
T/P rolls can just be thrown away and replaced.

-Brad

 

[PardalisGirl]

dieng dubia

I have about 500 E. Distanti and 200 E. Prosticus roaches (they can't climb out of a shallow bowl which is why I like them). I've had these colonies for about four years. I feed them out to my large lizards. A great cheap booklet on roach care is "Allpet Roaches" by O. McMonigle and R. Willis. Its just a little booklet but is very thorough. R. Willis is Richard (the Roachman) Willis. I bought my initial roaches from him. This is how I care for my roaches:

Housed in Rubber Maid tub or glass aquarium with screen lid for ventilation. They need good ventilation.

Three inch deep Aspen bedding. It's not toxic and stays fresh. I only replace the bedding twice a year.

Paper towel roll cardboard laid horizontally on bedding with egg crate on top.

Small shallow plate with Fluker's cricket gutload.

Small shallow plate with cricket gel food/moisture cubes.

Apple sections (cut into thirds no stem or seeds) placed on bedding with skin side down.

Once a month I do a "rainy season" cycle by misting the sides only of the container for about five days in a row. The roaches only lay eggs or spit out babies if they have a simulated rainy season. The roaches will drink water from the sides. Don't spray the egg crate or food.

The roaches will eat the apples until just a thin skin is left. Replace the apple every other day if they don't eat it all. You can also place other veggie foods like sweet potatoes on a shallow plate.

My colony produces babies every month. The winged adults do die off over time. I have noticed that more die off if they don't get the misting cycle for a couple of months or if the temperature get more than about 92 degrees.

Hope this helps.....

 

[Ren]

Thanks for all your help I am going to take a little bit from all of these and make a superior roach motel of my own, superior to what i have going now... and I'm sure they will in deed start producing a bit more for me, i just got a new shipment of crickets in yesterday and the damn things are already stinking.. another reason i like the roaches, but wife still wont let them in teh house and i cant blame her, i like them but I'm not "in like" with them yet.

 

[Vegas Chad]

damn, I hear ya... Crickets just have a lil smell to em... even if you keep them really clean! However I cant bring myself to buy roaches and grow em... LoL... Crickets roaming around the place I can take... A roach run'n down the hall... oy...

 

[pohchunyee]

I just founf out that dubias hate potatoes...LOL.. i feed greens and carrot and potatoes.... those dubias finish everything except potatoes...LOL