I need help, according to friends and family..

If my mom knew I'm actually taking care of cockroaches, she would have me committed!

Since Smeagol (Crested Gecko) likes his Dubias, I figured I'll make them as healthy as can be!

Those Dubias have a nice enclosure with good ventilation, I clean it every week, and they eat very well! On top of their roach chow they get carrots, potatoes, beets, greens, apples, oranges, bananas and other fruits and veggies.

Plus they get dusted with Calcium and VitD3 before being fed off.

You are what you eat, LOL! Smeagol loves to eat them in addition to his Crested Gecko food.

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You’re such a great pet Mom. How can anyone fault you for that? :)

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Originally Posted by Reinz

You’re such a great pet Mom. How can anyone fault you for that? :)

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I think they draw the line at "good cockroach mom". LOL :rofl:

I'm going to have to hide the Dubia's when the Orkin guy comes out in May :D

Hahaha, I guess I can see that. :D

I look forward to seeing that bin in a year lol. I started with a tiny colony of dubias myself for Harley. After a couple years, i ended up with with a 4 foot rubbermaid tub full of roaches. I had to sell off thousands of them on my local FB reptile site. If you give them some heat, food and water, they breed like...well....roaches lol.

Speaking of Orkin, be sure you dont use any kind of mite killer or anything in the room. Even a whiff of PAM will kill off your roaches lol.

And when your colony gets huge, its incredible how fast they can polish off food. When my colony was unchecked and huge, they would polish off 4-5 apples in about 30 mins lol. You would literally see a wave of roaches pour out of the egg crates and wash over the food. It was something from a horror movie lol.

They also LOVE bread and Alfalfa pellets. I soak a deli cup full of Alfalfa pellets to soften them up and dump them in the bin and they just go to town. Since you got horses, you probably got the pellets. I just buy 40 lb bags of it and it lasts about 6-8 months.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

I look forward to seeing that bin in a year lol. I started with a tiny colony of dubias myself for Harley. After a couple years, i ended up with with a 4 foot rubbermaid tub full of roaches. I had to sell off thousands of them on my local FB reptile site. If you give them some heat, food and water, they breed like...well....roaches lol.

Speaking of Orkin, be sure you dont use any kind of mite killer or anything in the room. Even a whiff of PAM will kill off your roaches lol.

And when your colony gets huge, its incredible how fast they can polish off food. When my colony was unchecked and huge, they would polish off 4-5 apples in about 30 mins lol. You would literally see a wave of roaches pour out of the egg crates and wash over the food. It was something from a horror movie lol.

They also LOVE bread and Alfalfa pellets. I soak a deli cup full of Alfalfa pellets to soften them up and dump them in the bin and they just go to town. Since you got horses, you probably got the pellets. I just buy 40 lb bags of it and it lasts about 6-8 months.

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I only have the one Crestie, LOL. I didn't plan on breeding the Dubias, but some of them are already to big for Smeagol, so I ignore them for now. Its not hot enough for them to breed, but it will be soon.

That's a great idea about the Alfalfa, those are healthy greens :)

I want to keep it small, so I can easily keep them clean and well fed. Smeagol enjoys them immensely, so I want them to be as healthy for him, as I can get them to be ;)

They will be moved out of the house when the Orkin man comes by!

:)

It sounds like those roaches are getting much more love, care and nurturing than I am! lol Set me up a cozy little place with some food and water, ventilation and low humidity and i'm there, Zina! :P

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

It sounds like those roaches are getting much more love, care and nurturing than I am! lol Set me up a cozy little place with some food and water, ventilation and low humidity and i'm there, Zina! :P

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Hm, does the enclosure have to be bio active ? LOL

Let's just say it needs to be active... ;)

It reminds me of when I use to keep arachnids, I found myself being a cricket farmer. Spent more time with them then I did the spiders and scorpions. Lmao, nice job as always young lady. Thanks for sharing.


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Originally Posted by Sonny1318

It reminds me of when I use to keep arachnids, I found myself being a cricket farmer. Spent more time with them then I did the spiders and scorpions. Lmao, nice job as always young lady. Thanks for sharing.


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The one good thing about the Dubias...they don't make noise! They don't smell bad! And if one gets loose, it won't drive me crazy for days chirping somewhere in the house, LOL!!

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Originally Posted by zina10

The one good thing about the Dubias...they don't make noise! They don't smell bad! And if one gets loose, it won't drive me crazy for days chirping somewhere in the house, LOL!!

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Talking about it makes me wish I had my emperor scorpions back, I really miss them, I never see them anywhere anymore. But I kinda liked the chirping from the crickets, it relaxed me, lol.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by zina10

I only have the one Crestie, LOL. I didn't plan on breeding the Dubias, but some of them are already to big for Smeagol, so I ignore them for now. Its not hot enough for them to breed, but it will be soon.

That's a great idea about the Alfalfa, those are healthy greens :)

I want to keep it small, so I can easily keep them clean and well fed. Smeagol enjoys them immensely, so I want them to be as healthy for him, as I can get them to be ;)

They will be moved out of the house when the Orkin man comes by!

:)

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Just go for broke and let the colony get big. When i did that, i actually made a nice little chunk of change off them. I mean not enough to retire and buy me an island but they paid for themselves and allowed me to basically buy stuff like hornworms and butterworms for free more or less.

And assuming they are warm enough to grow, they will breed. Maybe not at light speed like if you keep them around 85F but they will breed lol. Also give them some orange slices and watch the males go bananas after they eat it haha. It's like they go into overdrive and chance the females all over. Pretty funny.

And yeah, the alfalfa is their staple as it is good for beardies and gives roughage too.

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Originally Posted by zina10

The one good thing about the Dubias...they don't make noise! They don't smell bad! And if one gets loose, it won't drive me crazy for days chirping somewhere in the house, LOL!!

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So true. They also dont bite like crickets so if you lose one in the cage, they wont eat your lizard.

I had a male escape once as they do fly/glide. I was watching TV and saw this huge 747 go flying by and land on the wall. I was like "Holy Jebus!! What was that??!" I thought it was some weird huge animal/bug that got in my house. Grabbed a shoe and was ready to beat some butt. I walked over there and there was a huge male roach sitting on the wall lol.

The thing i like about them is if you get an escapee, they dont do well in the winter without heat so they will die.

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Originally Posted by Sonny1318

Talking about it makes me wish I had my emperor scorpions back, I really miss them, I never see them anywhere anymore. But I kinda liked the chirping from the crickets, it relaxed me, lol.


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Yeah, I'm deathly afraid of spiders and scorpions creep me out , too :) I've tried to get over that fear and planned on getting a Tarantula once. So I forced myself to research them. The whole time I felt sick just looking at the videos and pictures. I just couldn't do it.. But perhaps one day ;)

A bunch of crickets chirping nonstop is not bad and kind of soothing, but back when I had a Bearded Dragon I had the odd cricket get loose in the house. When it is just a single one that decides to chirp here and there, it is VERY annoying. Esp. if you can't find it, LOL!!

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Just go for broke and let the colony get big. When i did that, i actually made a nice little chunk of change off them. I mean not enough to retire and buy me an island but they paid for themselves and allowed me to basically buy stuff like hornworms and butterworms for free more or less.

And assuming they are warm enough to grow, they will breed. Maybe not at light speed like if you keep them around 85F but they will breed lol. Also give them some orange slices and watch the males go bananas after they eat it haha. It's like they go into overdrive and chance the females all over. Pretty funny.

And yeah, the alfalfa is their staple as it is good for beardies and gives roughage too.

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So Oranges, huh !!! LOL

I think I should remove all the food out of the tub when the Orkin guy comes and show him the tub full of roaches and tell him we found those all over the house since he left last time, LMAO!!! He is such a nice guy, too, so over correct all the time, he'll probably have a heart attack!!! :rofl:

The only reason I won't do it is because I would have to admit that I take care of all those roaches. On purpose. :D

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

So true. They also dont bite like crickets so if you lose one in the cage, they wont eat your lizard.

I had a male escape once as they do fly/glide. I was watching TV and saw this huge 747 go flying by and land on the wall. I was like "Holy Jebus!! What was that??!" I thought it was some weird huge animal/bug that got in my house. Grabbed a shoe and was ready to beat some butt. I walked over there and there was a huge male roach sitting on the wall lol.

The thing i like about them is if you get an escapee, they dont do well in the winter without heat so they will die.

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I can see how that would go when I have my mom visiting..oy !!

Esp. when I would scream at my brother not to crush it with a shoe, its my $5 breeder cockroach. :rofl:

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Originally Posted by zina10

So Oranges, huh !!! LOL

I think I should remove all the food out of the tub when the Orkin guy comes and show him the tub full of roaches and tell him we found those all over the house since he left last time, LMAO!!! He is such a nice guy, too, so over correct all the time, he'll probably have a heart attack!!! :rofl:

The only reason I won't do it is because I would have to admit that I take care of all those roaches. On purpose. :D

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Lol yeah. Oranges are like crack and viagra rolled into one for roaches. I kind of quit feeding it to them and the breeding slowed down but when i wanted to power breed them, i would slice up 2-3 oranges and oh boy, you would hear the skittering and the males fluttering bouncing off the lid of the tub all night long haha. Then in the morning, i would look inside the tub and you would see males and females connected butt to butt sitting on egg crates. The best is when you see that, just touch them, the both try and run forward but are connected so they dont know what way to go lol.

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Originally Posted by zina10

Yeah, I'm deathly afraid of spiders and scorpions creep me out , too :) I've tried to get over that fear and planned on getting a Tarantula once. So I forced myself to research them. The whole time I felt sick just looking at the videos and pictures. I just couldn't do it.. But perhaps one day ;)

A bunch of crickets chirping nonstop is not bad and kind of soothing, but back when I had a Bearded Dragon I had the odd cricket get loose in the house. When it is just a single one that decides to chirp here and there, it is VERY annoying. Esp. if you can't find it, LOL!!

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Me too. I get the heebie jeebies when i look at spiders espcially big ones like tarantulas or bird eater. I saw one on FB and so i wanted to learn more. I googled them and read about them and then i made the mistake of looking at the pics and videos on goggle and oh man, i kept feeling like something was crawling up my legs haha. Scorpions arent too bad but i wouldnt want one in my house.

And you are braver than me saying 'perhaps one day'. For me, there is no way on gods green earth a big spider is going to be living in my house. I literally would not be able to sit around or sleep lol.

When I bread bearded dragons I started out with 150 mixed Dubias and one bin . Before I knew it I had wayyyyy too many to deal with . I had 4 huge ass bins full of them . Cleaning the bins became ridiculously hard to do . Got way to overwhelmed and just gave them away to a friend with a couple beardies ..... his problem now XD


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I know nothing about them I started a thread months ago about discoids but are males and females mixed in together in a typical shipment? Wouldn’t mind getting a colony going.


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Originally Posted by Aerries

I know nothing about them I started a thread months ago about discoids but are males and females mixed in together in a typical shipment? Wouldn’t mind getting a colony going.


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I would imagine so. You can either buy a breeder set up which should come with some adult males and females and some nymphs of different ages or just buy a few hundred nymphs and let them grow. Route one will be a lot faster. Route two will take probably 6 months or longer depending how large of nymphs you start with.

I used to sell adult females for $1-2 each and males i would just throw in a bunch for free as i used to just dispose of them as you dont need many males for a colony as they will fight and just eat food and my beardie didnt like eating large roaches.

maaaaaan, you put my Discoid colonies to shame. [emoji20] i just have them in 2 large Kritter Keepers with paper towel substrate, a bunch of paper tubes and lil PVC tubes (and food+water obvs). i try to clean and refresh once a week.

my colony is full of adults and a few large babies; i really need to cull some at start over. i pulled an aggressive male out a week ago to cull, but of course haven't done it; i'm such a wuss, my biologist at work is gona have to do it. [emoji28]

i really need to get serious about their diet tho if i want to do more with them. i found the tiniest lil baby yesterday while cleaning their enclosures; i want him to grow and eat healthy!

EDIT: where did you get those egg crates?

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

I look forward to seeing that bin in a year lol. I started with a tiny colony of dubias myself for Harley. After a couple years, i ended up with with a 4 foot rubbermaid tub full of roaches. I had to sell off thousands of them on my local FB reptile site. If you give them some heat, food and water, they breed like...well....roaches lol.

And when your colony gets huge, its incredible how fast they can polish off food. When my colony was unchecked and huge, they would polish off 4-5 apples in about 30 mins lol. You would literally see a wave of roaches pour out of the egg crates and wash over the food. It was something from a horror movie lol.
.

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LOL. Yes, this. My colony has been going for about 1.5 years now and I'm up to that 4' rubbermaid also. I'm at the point now where I have to downsize the colony... Maybe even sell off the whole thing. I've got maybe 2,000+ roaches in it now and all from about 50 mixed sized nymphs and 10 adults lol.

My family doesn't know about them either...yet... and I intend to keep it that way. I actually had to slow down the growth of my colony, so I took them off additional heat..They are in my reptile room at 75f and still manage to breed even at that temp, although slower. I feed mine organic chicken crumbles, water crystals and alternate with fresh bananas and oranges or other produce. I keep my feeders in a different bin and they get gut load and all veggies (no water crystals).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

I would imagine so. You can either buy a breeder set up which should come with some adult males and females and some nymphs of different ages or just buy a few hundred nymphs and let them grow. Route one will be a lot faster. Route two will take probably 6 months or longer depending how large of nymphs you start with.

I used to sell adult females for $1-2 each and males i would just throw in a bunch for free as i used to just dispose of them as you dont need many males for a colony as they will fight and just eat food and my beardie didnt like eating large roaches.

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Our dragons go bonkers over these guys, they will raze their enclosure just to get to it lol


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by zina10

Yeah, I'm deathly afraid of spiders and scorpions creep me out , too :) I've tried to get over that fear and planned on getting a Tarantula once. So I forced myself to research them. The whole time I felt sick just looking at the videos and pictures. I just couldn't do it.. But perhaps one day ;)

A bunch of crickets chirping nonstop is not bad and kind of soothing, but back when I had a Bearded Dragon I had the odd cricket get loose in the house. When it is just a single one that decides to chirp here and there, it is VERY annoying. Esp. if you can't find it, LOL!!

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I agree about the noisy lone wolf cricket driving you crazy, but I think you’d probably like the emperor scorpions. I truly did, they weren’t aggressive at all. With spiders I kept Rose hairs and Pink toes, and a couple of other of the less agggressive species.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Lol yeah. Oranges are like crack and viagra rolled into one for roaches. I kind of quit feeding it to them and the breeding slowed down but when i wanted to power breed them, i would slice up 2-3 oranges and oh boy, you would hear the skittering and the males fluttering bouncing off the lid of the tub all night long haha. Then in the morning, i would look inside the tub and you would see males and females connected butt to butt sitting on egg crates. The best is when you see that, just touch them, the both try and run forward but are connected so they dont know what way to go lol.

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Yeah, ok, that is just really quite gross, LOL !!! :rofl:

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Me too. I get the heebie jeebies when i look at spiders espcially big ones like tarantulas or bird eater. I saw one on FB and so i wanted to learn more. I googled them and read about them and then i made the mistake of looking at the pics and videos on goggle and oh man, i kept feeling like something was crawling up my legs haha. Scorpions arent too bad but i wouldnt want one in my house.

And you are braver than me saying 'perhaps one day'. For me, there is no way on gods green earth a big spider is going to be living in my house. I literally would not be able to sit around or sleep lol.

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Yeah, when I say "one day", it means most likely never.

Every so often I see a post about a spider and read it, and people seem so attached. It makes me think maybe I can do it. But I can't.
Its funny at the horse barn. Whenever people see a snake, they scream bloody murder and then holler for me to come and identify or remove it.

When I scream bloody murder everyone knows there must be a spider around. I have this weird thing, its like a toilet cleaner brush head only bigger, on a long stick. I mean long. You can extend that thing to 15 feet, LOL. That is what I use to clean cobwebs in the stall. Even then, the whole time I have the feeling of stuff crawling all over me. I want a hazmat suit for cleaning cobwebs. A bite proof one.

I was washing my horse once and felt something tickle the back of my shoulder. I kept waving my hand around, thinking its a fly. It kept tickling so I looked over my shoulder and a BIG FAT widow is sitting there. Those big round ones (females?). Oh yeah. I think THAT scream was probably heard throughout the hemisphere. I screamed and slapped at it after throwing the horse brush into blue yonder. My poor mare. Already quite sensitive, she got a heart attack, broke loose and ran away, thinking the world was coming to an end. The big fat spider fell on the ground and I stepped on it (sorry spider lovers, it was instinctual). The whole time I was shaking and feeling sick, thinking it must have bit me. But I guess it didn't. We have brown widows all over there, supposedly they are more venomous then the black ones, but less aggressive?

We also have huge spiders out there, fat and hairy, too, UGH.

Spiders! (shiver)

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Originally Posted by Joelgriz8124

When I bread bearded dragons I started out with 150 mixed Dubias and one bin . Before I knew it I had wayyyyy too many to deal with . I had 4 huge ass bins full of them . Cleaning the bins became ridiculously hard to do . Got way to overwhelmed and just gave them away to a friend with a couple beardies ..... his problem now XD


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That is what I'm afraid of. But I don't know what to do with the ones to big for Smeagol. I literally don't. LOL. I don't really want to let them go. They are roaches. And..they don't belong here. I don't know anyone that could use them.

I could put them on craigslist to give away I guess. I duno.

I wouldn't mind a few breeding, but I can see that go a little crazy in no time. And I don't really want them in the house. Right now they are in the Garage, but soon it will get to hot in there. I guess I could put them on the open but covered back porch.

Sigh, how did all that happen, LOL, I didn't need more "pets".

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Originally Posted by Aerries

I know nothing about them I started a thread months ago about discoids but are males and females mixed in together in a typical shipment? Wouldn’t mind getting a colony going.


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Yeah, I don't really know much about them, either. With the Dubias (I suppose its the same then with the discoids) you get a mixed lot when you get the small ones. Can't tell sex at that age? Once they get old enough you can tell and if there are to many males to females, you can get rid of some..

With Dubias, you can also buy adult females and males, but they are quite a bit more expensive then growing them up yourself. But you know what you have and they should breed right away.

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

maaaaaan, you put my Discoid colonies to shame. [emoji20] i just have them in 2 large Kritter Keepers with paper towel substrate, a bunch of paper tubes and lil PVC tubes (and food+water obvs). i try to clean and refresh once a week.

my colony is full of adults and a few large babies; i really need to cull some at start over. i pulled an aggressive male out a week ago to cull, but of course haven't done it; i'm such a wuss, my biologist at work is gona have to do it. [emoji28]

i really need to get serious about their diet tho if i want to do more with them. i found the tiniest lil baby yesterday while cleaning their enclosures; i want him to grow and eat healthy!

EDIT: where did you get those egg crates?

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When I looked into buying them, I started researching how to "house" them, knowing that Smeagol could only eat so many. They all talked about those egg crates. And keeping them clean and well fed. The place I bought the roaches from also sold egg crates, food, water crystals, etc. I started with a Kritter Keeper and tore the egg crates to fit in there, but it was so difficult to keep it clean and there was no space to add more variety to the food.

So I bought that cheap bin at Walmart, some screen, and hot glued window screen in the openings (some air flow). Ordered more egg crates with my second order of roaches. You can also get them at Amazon, though, and probably at feed stores (where you can get livestock food, etc).

Diet wise, I just throw in what I happen to have. I peeled an apple for myself, so I put the peels in there, and some chunks. Half a banana, while I ate the other half, etc. I learned they like greens and all kinds of stuff. So I started doing that. Prior to that I just used the typical "roach food". But if I'm going to feed insects to Smeagol, who adores eating them, I want them to be a valuable food source.

I really just wanted some roaches for him and then it ended up being this project, LMAO!

Considering I want an entire Zoo of animals and feeders, I think you are more normal than I am. Wish I could house and feed an elephant..... yes I know that even if I could afford to buy one, they are large animals that eat and poop a lot. Not to mention vet bills and everything else to care for them. So don't feel bad keeping roaches.

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Originally Posted by zina10

That is what I'm afraid of. But I don't know what to do with the ones to big for Smeagol. I literally don't. LOL. I don't really want to let them go. They are roaches. And..they don't belong here. I don't know anyone that could use them.

I could put them on craigslist to give away I guess. I duno.

I wouldn't mind a few breeding, but I can see that go a little crazy in no time. And I don't really want them in the house. Right now they are in the Garage, but soon it will get to hot in there. I guess I could put them on the open but covered back porch.

Sigh, how did all that happen, LOL, I didn't need more "pets".

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If you need to dispose of excess adults, the best thing to do is freeze them to kill them, then toss. This is what I do with all the frass and leavings from my roach bin when I clean it, just in case there are any I missed. I don't want to risk them getting out in nature and becoming invasive. My BTS will also eat f/t roaches, so I freeze off excess males and save them for him. He'll eat live ones too, but this is a good way to preserve excess.

I know some people use a food processor and process frozen raoches into their CGD for extra protein. I haven't tried is as I don't have a dedicated food processor and I'm not putting roaches in the one I use for food lol.