Dubias

Srmcclure

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OK, so I have a breeding colony of dubias for my bearded dragon. It is doing really well, but I noticed something weird tonight. I was standing in the area of the box and I heard thumping. Like actually a bit loud. I legit thought a large house gecko or something had managed to get in there and was having a feast! When I opened the container they were eating the food and carrots but I noticed a few males where hyper active and even fluttering their wings and leaping down to the bottom. If I didn't know any better I'd say they were learning to fly lol. I think they were forcibly moving the egg crate against the sides as they were moving through. I have NEVER heard them like this before. If I hear anything at all from there container it sounds like falling rain. Is that normal??
Box is a 20 gallon opaque tote btw. And I feed out the males.

@Tom
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ZEROPILOT

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I only have Discoid and Horseshoe roaches.
Dubai are now illegal in Florida in another case of too little too late.
Neither my small Discoid colony or my slightly larger Horseshoe colony make any noise at all.
 

Srmcclure

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I only have Discoid and Horseshoe roaches.
Dubai are now illegal in Florida in another case of too little too late.
Neither my small Discoid colony or my slightly larger Horseshoe colony make any noise at all.
You have good weather for dubias so I can totally understand why they don't want them lol.
Mine are usually quiet too! I was actually startled and slowly walked up to it thinking something was about to jump out at me 😅 I'm a big chicken lol
 

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You have good weather for dubias so I can totally understand why they don't want them lol.
Mine are usually quiet too! I was actually startled and slowly walked up to it thinking something was about to jump out at me 😅 I'm a big chicken lol
I hate, HATE ROACHES.
And Dubia are much more "roach like" than the species I keep.
I only keep them as food for my Chameleons. They don't smell and they're so simple to keep alive
 

Srmcclure

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20220721_215340.jpg
Just a minute or 2 after I put fresh water source and food lol I am having to add more every other day now dang near
 

Srmcclure

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I hate, HATE ROACHES.
And Dubia are much more "roach like" than the species I keep.
I only keep them as food for my Chameleons. They don't smell and they're so simple to keep alive
The only reason I could do dubias was that they don't fly lol and I have large tongs. I know they are harmless, but some boundaries need to stay in place lol.
I hate German cockroaches. The others I could always watch in a tank or container. Having these dubias though has lessened my hatred towards skittery bugs quite a bit. I used to scream like a little girl lol!
 

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The only reason I could do dubias was that they don't fly lol and I have large tongs. I know they are harmless, but some boundaries need to stay in place lol.
I hate German cockroaches. The others I could always watch in a tank or container. Having these dubias though has lessened my hatred towards skittery bugs quite a bit. I used to scream like a little girl lol!
South Florida has many common roaches including some giant American cockroaches. Every now and again one will make its way into the house. I can't rest until I've found it and killed it.
They are harmless and I'm a very large man. But these are my secret Achilles heel. I can't tolerate them.
 

Srmcclure

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South Florida has many common roaches including some giant American cockroaches. Every now and again one will make its way into the house. I can't rest until I've found it and killed it.
They are harmless and I'm a very large man. But these are my secret Achilles heel. I can't tolerate them.
I can't have bugs walking around my house either. I really really hate fungus gnats and have those yellow sticky butterflies in a lot of my plant pots and some hanging at the top of my tortoise enclosure. If I saw a roach walking in my house I would die! My container has packing tape and the top and a locking lid because I take no chances lol. My beardie is lucky he's cute, even if he is a jerk lol.
 

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Is that normal??
Yes. All normal. When a new female molts into maturity and starts giving off those pheromones, the males sometimes get into that frenzy.

The "falling rain" sound happens in all of my bins at night. I find it oddly relaxing and sometimes I just sit there in the dark listening to them going about their nightly business. My bins are around 40 gallons and they are heavy with the weight of roaches.

Most people find it bizarre, but I have genuine affection for my colonies. I smile when I see new babies and I love picking up huge handfuls and watching them scurry about. It makes me happy when I pick up a flat and it is heavy with roaches. I'm starting bee keeping and I think my affection toward my roach colonies is similar to a bee keepers affection toward their bee colonies. With a fair amount of effort and care, bees give us honey. I really like honey. Eat it all the time. With very little effort, my roaches give me free insectivore food for ever. Crickets and other feeders are getting very expensive. More and more of my friends keep coming by and getting stocked up on roaches to start their own colonies. I have a colony of hissers that I started from 3 roaches in 1992. I have TONS of them. I feed them to my bearded dragons almost daily to try to keep the numbers down.
 

Srmcclure

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Yes. All normal. When a new female molts into maturity and starts giving off those pheromones, the males sometimes get into that frenzy.

The "falling rain" sound happens in all of my bins at night. I find it oddly relaxing and sometimes I just sit there in the dark listening to them going about their nightly business. My bins are around 40 gallons and they are heavy with the weight of roaches.

Most people find it bizarre, but I have genuine affection for my colonies. I smile when I see new babies and I love picking up huge handfuls and watching them scurry about. It makes me happy when I pick up a flat and it is heavy with roaches. I'm starting bee keeping and I think my affection toward my roach colonies is similar to a bee keepers affection toward their bee colonies. With a fair amount of effort and care, bees give us honey. I really like honey. Eat it all the time. With very little effort, my roaches give me free insectivore food for ever. Crickets and other feeders are getting very expensive. More and more of my friends keep coming by and getting stocked up on roaches to start their own colonies. I have a colony of hissers that I started from 3 roaches in 1992. I have TONS of them. I feed them to my bearded dragons almost daily to try to keep the numbers down.
OK good! I have noticed a few freshly molted ones in there so that makes Perfect sense. My colony has taken off so well that I've actually considered moving up to the 40 gallon bin, But I've been holding off since I only have the one reptile im feeding them to. I am so glad that I got into it when I did because you are right the price for insects has gone up tremendously. I now breed dubias and meal worms So I never have to go to the pet store anymore. That benefit alone is worth it!

My coworker has my dragons clutchmate (is that the right term?) And I've been telling her to start a colony too, but she just keeps buying them instead. I even told her I'd give her some to start, but she doesn't want to. She gets hers all online.

Bees are my favorite! I love honey as well and buy all the yummy farmers market honey and cream honey. I also purchased bee attracting wild flowers for my backyard and I have the stuff to make the bee watering station.

I have found I like the dubias more than I thought. When I maintenance I just sit there and watch them. My son Actually yells at me to put the lid back on cause they're gonna get out lol. I am a big chicken and haven't been able to just grab them yet. Atleast nothing bigger than the nymphs. I am working myself up to it though. I can touch their backs and I can move things around and they can touch my hand, but I can't grab and hold yet. Half my brain knows they are harmless and other half says but roaches! Creepy shiver lol. I'm getting there!
 

Tom

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I am a big chicken and haven't been able to just grab them yet. Atleast nothing bigger than the nymphs. I am working myself up to it though. I can touch their backs and I can move things around and they can touch my hand, but I can't grab and hold yet. Half my brain knows they are harmless and other half says but roaches! Creepy shiver lol. I'm getting there!
This is where I was at 14 years old. We had big black creepy looking asian roaches in my back yard where I grew up. Blatta orientalis. One day while I was at work at the pet store, I had my hand in the cricket bin and was counting out a couple dozen large crickets into a fish bag for a customer. It occurred to me that it was silly to be afraid and all wigged out by those roaches when they were no different than the 100s of crickets that went through my hands daily. That night I began my own program of forced desensitization. After three days I could just go grab a roach off the back wall and handle it with no problem.

I don't know why people are so emotional and completely freaked out by these most harmless of insects, but it is universal and world wide. No culture likes them anywhere in the world. My daughter had a juijitsu tournament a couple weeks ago and between rounds she found a big female American roach. She immediately grabbed it and started showing it to all the other competitors and staff. There were 5th degree black belt grown men squealing and running like little girls. Some of these men are some seriously bad MFers, and I have never seen and could never imagine them behaving this way. You could come at these men with a loaded gun and they would meet your threat with immediate violence and put you on the ground with extreme prejudice. Come at them with a loaded cockroach and they squeal and run away in fear and panic. The reaction is visceral. Its an uncontrollable panic that people feel. I used to be that way too, so I totally understand it, but on a cerebral level, there is just no reason for this and I find it fascinating. I can understand this sort of fear toward snakes or spiders, or bees and wasps, which could all do you serious harm, but roaches could not be more harmless. They couldn't hurt you even if they wanted to.

IMG_7815.jpeg
IMG_7822 copy.jpeg

As an animal trainer and student of behavior, I was curious about whether this behavior/reaction to roaches was learned/taught, or if it was innate. My daughter was my guinea pig for this experiment with a sample size of one. As a toddler she grew up watching me handle 18 species of roaches comfortably and with familiarity. I would let her reach in the bins and grab her own. She'd let them crawl on her and seemed to thoroughly enjoy interacting with them. Featured in the pics above is Archimandrita tesselata. One time one of them went right up her sleeve and into her shirt and I was fully anticipating that visceral panicked reaction that some of you reading are having just at the mental image of this. Your blood pressure just shot up and you are probably shaking with adrenaline at just the thought if this. My child just giggled and thought it was amusing. She calmly reached in and fished it out all by herself with no sense of urgency or importance. Just retrieving her little friend. She would attend the reptile shows with me and stand in our booth showing people the hissers and teaching them all about "Blaptica dubia" and how to properly house and care for a roach colony.

Her mother did not approve and thought it was about the most disgusting thing ever, and had no problem saying so in front of the kid. My child eventually went from the above pics at 4-5 years old, to having the normal fearful reactions that society told her she should be having at 8-10 years old. This "I'm scared of bugs" phase was fueled by nearly everyone we knew, except the reptile people of course. Then at around 13 years old, she came back. She saw the reaction people had and found it amusing as I did. In what was almost an act of rebellion against society, she would regularly catch wild crickets or roaches to show to people, and I think she enjoyed the shock value of it. Something she recognized as harmless and interesting could make everyone else scream with fear and literally run away. She grabs them with confidence and a natural ability now, and I think her "fearful" stage was an act as she was trying to conform and fit in with societal norms. As she's gotten older and more confident, I think she doesn't mind being exceptional and standing out so much. Watching all these skilled and trained fighters that she has looked up to for so long react with such irrational panic amused her to no end.
 

Srmcclure

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This is where I was at 14 years old. We had big black creepy looking asian roaches in my back yard where I grew up. Blatta orientalis. One day while I was at work at the pet store, I had my hand in the cricket bin and was counting out a couple dozen large crickets into a fish bag for a customer. It occurred to me that it was silly to be afraid and all wigged out by those roaches when they were no different than the 100s of crickets that went through my hands daily. That night I began my own program of forced desensitization. After three days I could just go grab a roach off the back wall and handle it with no problem.

I don't know why people are so emotional and completely freaked out by these most harmless of insects, but it is universal and world wide. No culture likes them anywhere in the world. My daughter had a juijitsu tournament a couple weeks ago and between rounds she found a big female American roach. She immediately grabbed it and started showing it to all the other competitors and staff. There were 5th degree black belt grown men squealing and running like little girls. Some of these men are some seriously bad MFers, and I have never seen and could never imagine them behaving this way. You could come at these men with a loaded gun and they would meet your threat with immediate violence and put you on the ground with extreme prejudice. Come at them with a loaded cockroach and they squeal and run away in fear and panic. The reaction is visceral. Its an uncontrollable panic that people feel. I used to be that way too, so I totally understand it, but on a cerebral level, there is just no reason for this and I find it fascinating. I can understand this sort of fear toward snakes or spiders, or bees and wasps, which could all do you serious harm, but roaches could not be more harmless. They couldn't hurt you even if they wanted to.

View attachment 347967
View attachment 347968

As an animal trainer and student of behavior, I was curious about whether this behavior/reaction to roaches was learned/taught, or if it was innate. My daughter was my guinea pig for this experiment with a sample size of one. As a toddler she grew up watching me handle 18 species of roaches comfortably and with familiarity. I would let her reach in the bins and grab her own. She'd let them crawl on her and seemed to thoroughly enjoy interacting with them. Featured in the pics above is Archimandrita tesselata. One time one of them went right up her sleeve and into her shirt and I was fully anticipating that visceral panicked reaction that some of you reading are having just at the mental image of this. Your blood pressure just shot up and you are probably shaking with adrenaline at just the thought if this. My child just giggled and thought it was amusing. She calmly reached in and fished it out all by herself with no sense of urgency or importance. Just retrieving her little friend. She would attend the reptile shows with me and stand in our booth showing people the hissers and teaching them all about "Blaptica dubia" and how to properly house and care for a roach colony.

Her mother did not approve and thought it was about the most disgusting thing ever, and had no problem saying so in front of the kid. My child eventually went from the above pics at 4-5 years old, to having the normal fearful reactions that society told her she should be having at 8-10 years old. This "I'm scared of bugs" phase was fueled by nearly everyone we knew, except the reptile people of course. Then at around 13 years old, she came back. She saw the reaction people had and found it amusing as I did. In what was almost an act of rebellion against society, she would regularly catch wild crickets or roaches to show to people, and I think she enjoyed the shock value of it. Something she recognized as harmless and interesting could make everyone else scream with fear and literally run away. She grabs them with confidence and a natural ability now, and I think her "fearful" stage was an act as she was trying to conform and fit in with societal norms. As she's gotten older and more confident, I think she doesn't mind being exceptional and standing out so much. Watching all these skilled and trained fighters that she has looked up to for so long react with such irrational panic amused her to no end.
That is a giant roach!!! Pretty though!
My son is terrified of all bugs. My brother taught him that I think. My brother is TERRIFIED of moths of all things.... he is 6ft, 300lbs but a little house moth is enough to send him into a panic! 🤣 and don't even mention June bugs. But I don't like those either mainly because they dive bomb you lol. I can barely get my son to take the dogs outside because of the porch light and the bugs 🙄

I find most bugs interesting, even if I have a scared reaction. I love looking at spiders, but don't take it out of the enclosure! Unless it's a jumping spider. I love those and actually thought about getting one... idk where the disconnect is though in my brain for that. Scorpions and praying mantis are my absolute favorite and I have owned both. You would think those would be the ones to freak me out, but not at all strangely enough. I am definitely getting better at touching the roaches and I will eventually just grab one. I will. Lol

I used to love all bugs as a kid and would catch them and show my parents. My mom thought it was cool and would oh and ah, but my dad would take it and dump them or kill them. I could never just watch things like that if he was around. Many fights happened over that with my parents so maybe that's an underlining issue with me and bugs...
 
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This is where I was at 14 years old. We had big black creepy looking asian roaches in my back yard where I grew up. Blatta orientalis. One day while I was at work at the pet store, I had my hand in the cricket bin and was counting out a couple dozen large crickets into a fish bag for a customer. It occurred to me that it was silly to be afraid and all wigged out by those roaches when they were no different than the 100s of crickets that went through my hands daily. That night I began my own program of forced desensitization. After three days I could just go grab a roach off the back wall and handle it with no problem.

I don't know why people are so emotional and completely freaked out by these most harmless of insects, but it is universal and world wide. No culture likes them anywhere in the world. My daughter had a juijitsu tournament a couple weeks ago and between rounds she found a big female American roach. She immediately grabbed it and started showing it to all the other competitors and staff. There were 5th degree black belt grown men squealing and running like little girls. Some of these men are some seriously bad MFers, and I have never seen and could never imagine them behaving this way. You could come at these men with a loaded gun and they would meet your threat with immediate violence and put you on the ground with extreme prejudice. Come at them with a loaded cockroach and they squeal and run away in fear and panic. The reaction is visceral. Its an uncontrollable panic that people feel. I used to be that way too, so I totally understand it, but on a cerebral level, there is just no reason for this and I find it fascinating. I can understand this sort of fear toward snakes or spiders, or bees and wasps, which could all do you serious harm, but roaches could not be more harmless. They couldn't hurt you even if they wanted to.

View attachment 347967
View attachment 347968

As an animal trainer and student of behavior, I was curious about whether this behavior/reaction to roaches was learned/taught, or if it was innate. My daughter was my guinea pig for this experiment with a sample size of one. As a toddler she grew up watching me handle 18 species of roaches comfortably and with familiarity. I would let her reach in the bins and grab her own. She'd let them crawl on her and seemed to thoroughly enjoy interacting with them. Featured in the pics above is Archimandrita tesselata. One time one of them went right up her sleeve and into her shirt and I was fully anticipating that visceral panicked reaction that some of you reading are having just at the mental image of this. Your blood pressure just shot up and you are probably shaking with adrenaline at just the thought if this. My child just giggled and thought it was amusing. She calmly reached in and fished it out all by herself with no sense of urgency or importance. Just retrieving her little friend. She would attend the reptile shows with me and stand in our booth showing people the hissers and teaching them all about "Blaptica dubia" and how to properly house and care for a roach colony.

Her mother did not approve and thought it was about the most disgusting thing ever, and had no problem saying so in front of the kid. My child eventually went from the above pics at 4-5 years old, to having the normal fearful reactions that society told her she should be having at 8-10 years old. This "I'm scared of bugs" phase was fueled by nearly everyone we knew, except the reptile people of course. Then at around 13 years old, she came back. She saw the reaction people had and found it amusing as I did. In what was almost an act of rebellion against society, she would regularly catch wild crickets or roaches to show to people, and I think she enjoyed the shock value of it. Something she recognized as harmless and interesting could make everyone else scream with fear and literally run away. She grabs them with confidence and a natural ability now, and I think her "fearful" stage was an act as she was trying to conform and fit in with societal norms. As she's gotten older and more confident, I think she doesn't mind being exceptional and standing out so much. Watching all these skilled and trained fighters that she has looked up to for so long react with such irrational panic amused her to no end.
That is awesome!! My almost 4 year old is very interested in them. She likes the Dubia colony (had it for about a year), thinks they’re cute and tells me always. She did think the hissers she saw once were ugly and gross and that made me laugh. She was in a room of tarantulas and grossed out by the giant hissing cockroaches, but fascinated by our Dubias; go figure.

For the OP: I still don’t love touching the big ones. I think for me it’s the sensation of them crawling on the skin. I don’t have a problem grabbing babies up to 1.5.” You get over the “eew gross bugs” quickly I think when you have to feed them to something you love, or that is fun to feed. It quickly was all about the interaction with my iguanas (who I keep them for) and I would be holding a roach barehanded to get it just right in the tongs for an easy bite for them, without them nipping the tongs themselves. This desensitized me pretty quickly. Feeding small Dubia with tongs is an acquired skill!! I’m much better after a year of doing it and don’t have to touch them as much, but it no longer bothers me at all if I have to. I find it easier to grab them by hand from the colony versus tongs for the amount I have to pull out. And opposite of you, I’m feeding an inch and smaller, not adults. Still not a fan of adult legs- or their heft, still some ick factor there for me…. Just a little!!
 

SasquatchTortoise

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I think part of the fear factor is that it's hard to know what one is going to do next. Sure, it may not hurt you, but it's startling to see an arthropod go from completely still to running around like a maniac. With vertebrates, it's easier to read body language.

The only "bug" I'm sort of afraid of are cicadas, mostly because it will be completely quiet, then one will scream in your ear with the volume of a megaphone.
 

wellington

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But.... do they fly? That's my deal breaker! That and will they die in my winter if they get out? 😅
I live in Chicago. Had Dubai reach colony a few years ago. Just a heads up.
They can climb out of the plastic bins and if they find the right place to hide, they can survive winters.
I had one survive in a bag of dirt in my unheated garage. Have no idea how he got there. The colony was in the next room which is the torts heated shed. I also had a few that some how got out. I hate roaches and a big NO to be living any place but in their tote. I destroyed the whole colony when I found them in the garage.
 

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