Raising feeder insects

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
I thought my husband was going to "stroke out" when I announced my plans at raising roaches!!!!!!!

He was thinking the pest german kind everyone thinks about, and while he still isn't over the moon about it, he will feed them if I'm not home to, and he goes w/ me to feed them to the girls (he has to make sure I'm being fair about it and not giving my favorites more

) He will even help me if I need help cleaning the colonies. (I only needed help the first time after that I've done it on my own) He is even actively looking for me another aquarium or two for additional colonies.

Thanks for the site recommendation I know of a few people who were wanting to purchase males to feed out.

 

[animalover]

If there anyone in the Harrisburg area that would like to give this a try, I'd be happy to supply you with some. My colony is getting too big for the chickens to keep up with.

 

[Kassaundra]

Gave my dubias some viagra today (an orange), they had it gone (the whole thing) in a couple of hours.

 

[hannakat]

Oh how I wish............... waiting for reply from animalover and I hope it's good news!!

 

[animalover]

I'd be happy to ship them, Hannacat, but don't know how to keep them warm enough to survive the trip.

 

[hannakat]

The next few days is supposed to be mild... wouldn't they just go dormant?

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
Somewhere below 60 kills dubias, thats why they are so safe to raise b/c if there is an accidental escape (however unlikely like dropping their container) they will die in most placed in the US. I don't know how far below 60 I've never experimented w/ it.

 

[hannakat]

I contacted a company that sells roaches and asked specifically about the cooler temps and shipping...this is their response:

Hi Trish this is Ian from TRR. Hope everything is going well for you. All I usually do is used crumpled newspaper. These guys can take a beating temperature wise. Heat is more dangerous to them than the cooler winter temps.

Good Luck!

-Ian

So it sounds like you can over bake them shipping in the summer just like mealworms....and mealworms go dormant in the cooler temps and apparently the d.roaches can manage it as well. Maybe extended periods would eventually kill them?

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
That is great to know, I only knew what I had read not anything from personal experience.

 

[Kassaundra]

A couple of dubia observations/ questions with pics (of course

) but these pics are crappy taken in a hurry w/ a point and shoot and under red lighting but you can see what I am talking about hopefully enough to answer the question hopefully.

First this is just an observation, I didn't realize while mating they are stuck at the butt like dogs.

a second male trying to get in on the action, he wasn't successful.

What is this? I've seen it protruding out of their butts quite a bit, this is the first one I've seen intact and not attatched to the dubia.

This is how I usually see it.

and one for perspective.