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Or what if I filled the bowl with a very inert course pebble/gravel?

Is there a sure fire way of telling which type of sponge I'm getting? If its calcium based I'm sure that would be excellent for my herps, but I wouldn't want to risk the collapse of my colony if its silica. They've been in a month with the sponge and haven't eaten too much, but there have been a few random dead nymphs in that month (~8) and now I'm wondering about it. Any experience on how a synthetic sponge would hold up? I'm not even going to try cellulose as I have seen in my kitchen how quickly a constantly wet cellulose sponge gets moldy and dank. Again thanks for the help. I've not done potatos, but they get tons of other veggies. The water is more gor humidity and to be there should I not be able to be home to add veggies and fruit and they only have dry food.

So I have my dubia colony up and running and it seems to be doing just fine. Even got some baby nymphs already. I've been watering with fresh veggies and fruit at least everyother day and I can't seem to give them enough. I also have one of those reptile waterers where u fill up the reserve and it has the cricket guard to prevent drownings. In the water bowl part I have a natural sponge like are popular with hermit crabs and a small piece of slate resting on it so even the smallest roach has no problem accessing it. I've noticed that they have eaten some holes in the sponge. This doesn't concern me as I can buy replacements cheaply at my local herp store. The only question I have is it safe for the roaches and the herps I'm feeding them to that they're eating this? I don't see why it wouldn't be, but better safe than sorry! I know many advocate water crystals, but I loathe them, so id like to keep up with my current system if its safe. Thanks!

So I've been making blueprints for an awesome home-built beardy cage, when I realized my plans included acrylic walls part way up, and I don't know if my new feeders (dubias) can climb acrylic. I know they can't climb glass or smooth plastic, but I know acrylic has tiny tiny pockets even though it is smooth to the touch. Can anyone tell me if they can or cannot. I'd like to find out before I do the build and then come home to find a colony of dubias in the living room

Yeah, the colony I got was pretty male heavy, so I've been feeding some of the males already (and got a couple nice big prego females from the local herp shop) and I've found it super annoying to get them out of the eggcrates. The paper towel roll "cricket method" seemed to work a little better.

I think I will start without the substrate at least for the very beginning while I teach myself all about my new roaches behaviors/needs, but should I switch to substrate are there any tricks to collecting nymphs for feeding so I'm not constantly sifting through substrate?

Most of my herps are arid or semi arid so they stay happy with a humid hide and their water bowl. The air in my house can get dry enough to crack my skin though. I have plenty of houseplants and a fishtank, but the roaches won't be on the same floor. The humidity levels frequently drop into the teens (though I try and remedy that situation when thats the case).

So I just got my first roaches--a couple hundred dubia of mixed sizes. They are currently in the case that I picked them up in and should be fine in there for a few days while I get their future bin just the way I want it. I've been reading a lot about substrate and seems like it depends on a case by case basis whether or not to use it. I've been leaning towards using it. Although it can be more humid than florida in mn durinf our summers, it is very dry during our long winter. That was my main thinking in using a substrate. Also I was contemplating using the roach bin for springtail and isopod cultivation too, unless others have good reason to advise against that. I'm also into naturalistic terrariums for my herps, so it just seems normal to do it for the roaches too. The downfall that I can see would it would be annoying to search for proper size nymphs as feeders every few days. Any help and advice is much aprecciated for this newbie

They are fairly rare up here in the "wild", though it is common to see them near farmers properties or near orchards that buy ootheca and pin them up around their properties. They were a bit more common in my my home state of IL, where winters are a little more mild. They are saying they are starting to overwinter better here as our winters get more mild of late. The most common species I see up here is Tenodera aridifolia sinensis, though

I've been doing my research into getting roaches, and finally found someone on craigslist that is getting rid of their colony as they have developed a severe allergy. This will be far cheaper than getting them from my local reptile shop, so my previous plan of just getting 6 or so to start is out and getting a decent amount is in. That being said, I'd like to try and keep the colony a manageable, stable size. How many should I start with? I should mention they are dubias. I presently have a bearded dragon, that eats about 2.5 dozen large crickets a week; a pair of leopard geckos that eat about 2.5 dozen large crickets a week; a trapdoor spider that will probably eat 2 decent sized nymphs a week; and a trio of red-eyed tree frogs that will eat several nymphs a piece every couple days. I will be starting a colony of banana roaches soon for the tree frogs (which will hopefully be breeding next year ). I guess I'm just trying to figure out how to calculate the cricket to dubia conversion rate, divide it by the dubia birth rate, and multiply it by the I don't want to get to the point where I have a dubia colony that weighs more than my house! Sorry if that all doesn't add up, I've never been a fan of math . To summarize: How many dubias from her colony of 5000 should I get to start a colony? Thanks!

It was about six or seven months after her final molt. I was thinking it was because it was because it was January in MN when she passed. She was in my reptile room, so temps were good, but up here--even with proper heat and lighting--reptiles that "aren't supposed to brumate" tend to at least sort of brumate in late December through January. I tossed it up to that telling her her life cycle was over and the bumpy ride she had up here. I doted over her (I'd wanted a mantis since I can remember), and was getting advice from the daughter of the owner of our local herp shop, who is an invertebrate guru. She just started getting slower and slower that last month, til she stopped

She did, but none proved fertile. He got her just before her molt into adulthood, and we were still scrambling to ID her and find a mate when she passed away. We searched for several months. We were thinking of taking her to the natural history museum at the U of M, but it was too cold at the time.

Yeah, I wasn't planning on dart frogs, I was just trying to come up with some ideas. They have them in a clear tupperware type container at my local reptile shop, and a few usually seem to be showing themselves. I'm perfectly fine with them not being on display all the time. I'm just looking for something that would look natural, and I could maybe spot them at night (I am a night owl afterall).

Here are a couple pictures of her:

Ill post a picture of her when I get to a proper computer. She was in a box that was shipped by air from China to Hawaii to Las Angeles, then by train to Minneapolis according to my friend who found her. You can imagine I learned a lot about a lot of different mantid species trying to id her.