Jayson745

Probabilities are weird like that. Every once in a while, the roulette wheel lands on red 20 times in a row.

Ok, I found something similar to what I had read, so I can let them be more specific than "a bunch of weird reasons"... http://www.gardentea...ect-frass-2-lb/

I've read that dead insects and their poop are great for gardens for a bunch of weird reasons. I must say, my garden is getting better every year. There are a lot of reasons for that though, sense I've been learning so much about growing things. I did try putting a thin layer of frass straight onto the soil a couple years ago and it molded. Now I throw everything in the compost pile first. Dead roaches, poop, old egg crates, and nasty old water crystals all go in the pile to decompose before going to the garden. Same deal with my superworms/mealworms and their leftover poop and tato skins. The worm leftovers seem to take a bit longer to break down. Especially if its not mixed in the pile well, and especially the superworms who dont break down the bran as much as mealworms. Last summer I was even making my mealworms recycle the old superworm bedding before putting it in the pile. Superworms will eat each other before reeating their poop. Mealworms will eat it over and over again until it turns to dust.

just in case anyone reads this, I am no longer using the vinegar/cinnamon food. I started having some females prolapse and I think it was probably the vinegar killing them. I just didn't want anyone to read this down the road and try it.

u should be using any leftover white meat for turkey tacos anyway seriously, I did that one year and it wasn't half bad. the taco flavoring overrides the turkey flavor and they taste like chicken tacos

I use bare bottom enclosers for beardies with a brick under the basking light. There isn't really anywhere for roaches to hide that way. Also, beardies have a hard time seeing things that aren't moving, so I just poke the roach a little to make him walk if needed. One thing I have noticed is that you need to be really careful when switching them to new foods. I just give them one or 2 a day for a few days until their stomach gets used to it. Otherwise usually they will binge feed the first go, and end up with a stomach ache and not eat for days, then they dont want roaches for a month or 2 after that. I had it happen a couple of times with different beardies before I realized that was the problem. U also have to be a lot more careful with feeder size because oversized roaches can have the same affect.

how are you going to keep them? will it be an ant farm with glass so you can see whats going on inside?

I'm looking to change my dubia roaches food. Right now we feed ground up dog food and water crystals. One thing I keep wondering about is what happens to food that expands when wet, after it is fed dry. Like rice, oats, instant potatoes, ect. I'd hate to mix these kinds of things in their food and end up with exploading roaches stomachs or something. One option is to get the mix saturated with water and then feed it wet. But I imagine it'll make a mess pretty fast and probably need to be changed every day. I have been experimenting with adding cinnamon and vinegar to help with mold in some wet foods, but i haven't done it long enough to risk the big colonies with it, and it doesn't seem to work very well anyway. Instead of molding in one day, it molds in 2 days, which isn't really good enough. I also have lots of wheat bran around. Not sure how good that is for them. If anyone knows of a scientifically proven recipe that gives them optimal food, I'll like to hear about it.

We have a separate blender specifically for grinding dog food. I'd probably go for the bigger wattage. Blending is nice if you want to mix other things in there instead of just having dog food. Also, more food is going to fit in the bowl if its grinded up. I usually put the food in, blend for a few seconds, then kinda shake it or tap it so it mixes. Otherwise you'll sometimes end up mixing the bottom portion and the top will just sit there unblended. Its a lot easier if you only fill it about half full.

hybrid vigor can end up making over sized life, but not to the point these stories are about. 20-30% added size wouldn't take that much of a miracle to achieve though. They do it with crops and farm animals all the time. Its just a plant/animal with an abundance of heterosis, which can happen by chance without assistance or inbreeding. So when you see an abnormally large plant or animal, thats often the cause. But yea, most of these stories you hear probably fall into one of the explanations already mentioned. Perception is a funny thing.

Just out of curiosity, why do you want that kind? It seems like it'd have all the same issues the normal kind has, but probably not as comfortable for the roaches sense the hides aren't as good and there'll be less of them as well.

I would make sure the humidity is high enough. This is just a possibility, but we ran into a problem when we set up a new roach closet. The heat tape wasn't set right and they were cooked. About half our stock of adult dubias was lost. We also had a lot of sickly ones that took a day to die, but the remaining roaches looked and acted perfectly fine like any other roach would. So I thought they were ok. But the ones that didn't die, were unable to breed again even many months later. Somehow the heat sterilized all the adults because sense then the nymphs that we had are breeding fine in the exact same closet/conditions. So if you might have had a severe heat spike to the point of having dead roaches because of it, thats a possibility. There really aren't that many variables, so if you keep on top of heat/humidity, and all is perfect, and still no breeding, maybe the same thing happened over there.

I did this with dubias recently. I separated the males and females when they were only half grown, and left them separated until they all matured. And the bin with only the 15 or so female dubias ended up having babies in it. Anyone heard of dubias reproducing A-sexually? I kept the babies separate, but they are still tiny.

they were my first roach, and I hated them. I got rid of them and didn't get another roach species for years. They are too fast, and too hard to keep contained. I have bearded dragons, so I would put vaseline around the top of the aquarium, but the lights for the beardies would dry it out all the time. As soon as its even a little dry, they can easily cross it, so you have to keep doing it all the time. I just really dont think its worth the trouble no matter how fast they breed. I doubt I'll ever bother with any climbing species again after that ordeal.

I've just starting testing with mixing a little cinnamon(natural mold inhibitor) in the food to stop mold there. For some reason, I only get moldy food in my mini bins that I use for selective breeding dubia, but its to much of a pain to switch out moldy food every day. Its going 3 days strong now without mold and the roaches seem ok, so it seems to be working well so far. As far as cardboard/eggflats goes, I've thought about trying some tests with diluted vinegar and or baking soda because they are both also supposedly mold inhibitors. I'm not sure if either will end up hurting the roaches, although I'm not sure why it would. I would probably start with a very weak mix in water and spray it on the egg flats then let it dry and put them back in. If anyone tries it before I get around to it, do so at your own risk, and with a bin you don't really care about, then let us know if it works.