Dubia colony dying

[RedMountainHome]

I've had a dubia colony going for a few years and it had many thousands, likely multiple tens of thousands, of roaches. It was doing so well that it was easily feeding all my critters and still growing at a good rate. About a month ago I fed it some greens I hadn't fed before, and the next day about a third of the colony was dead. Within a couple more days easily 2/3 had died off. I can only assume there was some pesticide in those greens which I didn't fully wash off.

Now, more than a month later, I'm still experiencing a huge daily die off. I thoroughly cleaned their home after the first big die off and I try to pick out the deadies as often as I can but more often than not I'm pulling out mostly-eaten corpses or bits of shell. I assume they're continually passing along the pesticide or whatever when they eat their dead. When the colony was healthy I very rarely even saw a dead roach.

Odd as it may sound for feeder bugs, I do care about their wellbeing and I hate that they're dying like this. Also, I've had to switch my chameleon's staple diet over to my newly producing super worm colony, which isn't nearly so healthy for him. I started an orange head roach colony about 6 months ago, but that's nowhere near big enough to start feeding from yet.

Any advice to help me get my colony healthy again would be appreciated!

 

[theintouchable88]

I've had my dubias for a couple years now but I've never had that issue. Since I only had a bearded dragon I would try to reduce reproduction by lowering temps and now with a cham I'm back to normal to hopefully get him into them. My only guess would be that the colony got too big so they cannibalized and created reproduction/longetivity issues? Or lack of enough food starved them to dead. If you cleaned the bin properly u shouldn't have mold which could be a possible cause. That and too low of a temp can contribute. I noticed my bin had a lot of dead ones and it was because my heat mat went out.
If you have room u can separate a couple adult males and females and try to start another one and see if the problem persists. I've read in forums that this has happened before and they had to start a new one because the problem couldn't be pin pointed.

 

[AZChamFan]

While I would also suspect the new greens (what kind were they?) were the culprit in your case, the only time in the past 10 plus years I've had a similar experience is when I once put all the dubias into a container where they were quite crowded and on top of each other during a cage cleaning. I didn't think it was a big deal since it was only for a short time while I cleaned their cage, but after that I immediately had major die off like you experienced. While they were in this crowded container (and quite upset evidently) they put off a foul smell - seems to be a form of defense possibly, and I am just guessing that this is toxic to them if concentrated enough. After this, it took a very long time (several months at least) for things to return back to normal. Is there any chance you did something similar at about the same time you introduced the new greens and the greens were just a coincidence?

Just thought it was worth mentioning!

 

[RedMountainHome]

Thank you both for the quick replies!

My colony does rely on a heat mat during the cooler months to keep the heat up, and I haven't checked on it in awhile. I'll see if maybe that died.

The greens were from a mixed salad bag that a guest left over. I don't recall what they were, other than one head was green and the other reddish. I don't usually feed them big heads of leafy greens like that, and I do recall that the colony was pretty riled up after I tossed that in there. Maybe it got them too excited and they gassed themselves?

 

[theintouchable88]

Thank you both for the quick replies!

My colony does rely on a heat mat during the cooler months to keep the heat up, and I haven't checked on it in awhile. I'll see if maybe that died.

The greens were from a mixed salad bag that a guest left over. I don't recall what they were, other than one head was green and the other reddish. I don't usually feed them big heads of leafy greens like that, and I do recall that the colony was pretty riled up after I tossed that in there. Maybe it got them too excited and they gassed themselves?

They all farted and made a dubia gas bomb? Lol AZchamfan got me thinking now because I did notice a weird smell on my bin the other day, not foul but somewhat strong. I'm due for a cleaning within the next week's so I'll see exactly how many I have again. I might be overcrowding them again

 

[WAMBO]

I'd change the container and the egg crates, along with any feeding or water tray. I read that a mold can kill them.

 

[RedMountainHome]

I thoroughly cleaned out the old container, and transferred the colony back to it with fresh cardboard and trays. That's always such a hassle to do, and I don't think it's possible without losing at least a few dozen roaches!

As I was ripping up the old cardboard I did find a small spot of mold. The old cardboard was some really strong wine crate holders with tons of good hiding and I definitely used it longer than I should have.

On the bright side, I was pleasantly surprised with how many roaches are still alive. Easily thousands of subadult or larger, though many fewer juveniles or younger than I used to see.

Thanks again for all the advice, and I'll try to remember to post how it worked out.

 

[Andee]

Do you have a cleaner crew in there at all? It might help with any left over things that will mold, it also could help because cleaner crews can sometimes handle worse things than roaches can and they will eat the dead of course. Good luck <3

 

[RedMountainHome]

No, I've kept my dubia and orange head colonies as single species only.

How might super worms do as a cleanup crew? I've got tons of those to spare. Plus, they'd never out-compete the roaches since they wouldn't ever turn into beetles with all that activity!

 

[Andee]

Idk... I don't use cleaner crews who are likely to eat living roaches. I don't even use dermestid.

 

[theintouchable88]

No, I've kept my dubia and orange head colonies as single species only.

How might super worms do as a cleanup crew? I've got tons of those to spare. Plus, they'd never out-compete the roaches since they wouldn't ever turn into beetles with all that activity!

I use cleaner crews and they do a terrific job, til they all became beetles, I rarely found any dead ones, I just ordered some more and threw them in there. If you're placing an order of feeders it's worth the extra $2- $3 for a 100 or something like that IMO, but again, not everyone uses them. I've also read that the beetles could be fed but I haven't tried since whenever I see one and trthe getting them they flap away and I end up killing it lol

 

[Andee]

Why do you buy extra? What type of cleaning crew do you have? Most cleaner crews breed well in dubia containers.

 

[distortionz]

If you have had the colony going a few years and it was started from a small gene pool sometimes you will start to see them die off.. That's why a lot of the times you will see feeder companies buying roaches from people to add back into their colonies.. Probably wouldn't hurt to add some new blood to your colony

 

[theintouchable88]

Why do you buy extra? What type of cleaning crew do you have? Most cleaner crews breed well in dubia containers.

I lowered the Temp on my dubias and cut down food because my beardie doesn't eat them as much and I had too many. So I assume they died. I still had some but not as many so when I started getting ready for my Cham I upped the Temps and food so I figured I should order more. Maybe I just missed where they were at but I don't think it hurts to have more. I also threw some in my superworm bin.

 

[opheliaeatsbugs]

I have a small (tiny by your standards) breeding colony and I've become quite attached to them - excited when we get babies I don't have any advice, just wanted to say I also "care" about my feeder bugs I hope you get it resolved!

 

[Andee]

Depending on the species of beetles you have some need a certain type of substrate added to the bottom to be able to breeding well. Peanut beetles usually need peanuts to get them breeding. But those aren't bad for the dubias so I just add them in.

 

[walzy444]

They all farted and made a dubia gas bomb? Lol AZchamfan got me thinking now because I did notice a weird smell on my bin the other day, not foul but somewhat strong. I'm due for a cleaning within the next week's so I'll see exactly how many I have again. I might be overcrowding them again

Maybe I'm tired and its Friday but I'm completely cracking up at this.. lol

Ive had my colony for about 2 months and not one dead.. have not started breeding yet tho either.. that ive noticed.. i might have to up the heat in mine.. I just feed mine carrots, apples, strawberries, dubia diet and cricket chow. I have only given then kale a few times for leafy.. I heard the wrong greens and or protein can make them produce a toxin in their body that are bad for the chameleons.. did they get protein? or maybe an aerosol cleaner or something got sprayed in the air near by and went in the screen holes?

 

[Andee]

If you feed too much protein too often (especially animal proteins) with dubias and a few other feeder insects that we officially know of, they create uric acid crystals. In the wild dubias eat a LOT of veggies and fruits, but they do occasionally eat animal proteins, but very very rarely. Which allows for the uric acid crystals not to build up too much. Too much proteins will kill your colony prematurely.

 

[RedMountainHome]

It's been a couple months now and things have settled down since that die-off. I think I just had too many roaches in that container, and getting the bigger one helped. There's still some regular adult die off, but the colony is past the point where roaches should be dying of old age so I'm betting its normal. I'm now trying to sell off a bunch of roaches really cheap locally, which'll help with crowding and my pocket book

I considered splitting the colony and having 2, but really I've no need for that many roaches. Also, it's hard enough to hide the feeder colonies I already have when I have company over =D

 

[Andee]

XD <3 I like it when the roaches and the rest of my insects are thriving so well. I am glad yours are doing better ^^ Definitely selling them off helps. I have made a lot off my colony, but my colony is huge and it's impossible to lose numbers in it, because as soon as I sell some off more are born and then more molt into adults. Which I don't mind, I have plenty of mouths to feed and can provide plenty of roaches for others.