Battlestar Blaptica (Rise of the Dubia)

Blaptica Dubia . . just kind of rolls right off the tongue doesn't it? :rolleyes:

Got my box of 100 Blaptica dubia roaches today from TCO Roach Store in hopes of being able to have a self-sustaining source of feeders for our lizards and spiders. This should make for the good startings of a colony I hope.

No more stanky :crix:

What can you say - these little buggers are cute - they look more like little scuttling fossils than the roaches I've otherwise been familiar with.

http://www.madwag.com/exos/blaptica.jpg



I did not have any egg cartons laying around so took inspiration from schlyne's design and stacked up some roach apartments out by cutting up some cardboard boxes and burning myself with a glue gun. When put in horizontally (with 2x cardboard thickness space between "floors") they can climb up the ledges and trundle in wherever they want. These are supposed to be unable to climb smooth surfaces like glass or plastic so I popped the works into a bigger opaque rubbermaid. Didn't take them long to quit their native egg carton from shipping and take up residence.

http://www.madwag.com/exos/roachapt.jpg

I can hear em in there singing The Jefferson's theme:

"movin' on up . . . to a de-luxe apartment in the sky . . "

nice! as far as feeder roaches go b. dubia are my favorite. and they are SO clean! you can stick your head right down in the bin and not smell a thing, unlike crickets that stank up the whole room. and so yummy and nutritious! :hungry:

Let me know how they go. Thinking about getting into some other roaches because these lateralis I have, the egg's keep on denting in.

How big do they get? I love bugs :D

cool, kinda like retes stacks for dwarf monitors. hahaha.

my crickets dont stink too bad. atleast not to where it bothers me:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by jessie_k_pythons

How big do they get? I love bugs :D

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Dubia get up to 2" I believe.

Wow, they look yummy. :)
Those are one of the very few things I would never persuade my man to live with in the house. He is a property manager for some really smarmy properties in Buffalo, and he would have nightmares :)

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Originally Posted by mlededee

nice! as far as feeder roaches go b. dubia are my favorite. and they are SO clean! you can stick your head right down in the bin and not smell a thing, unlike crickets that stank up the whole room. and so yummy and nutritious! :hungry:

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When did you start eating bugs? :)

I hate buying crix...I have a Spiny Tail Ig, a Beardie, Water Dragons, and a Sav..they are all small and will eat crix..So far I cant seem to get them on greens..The sav eats mice, so no worries there, but I was considering the roaches..Any advice?

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Originally Posted by jglass38

When did you start eating bugs? :)

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dubia are nice and high in protein--in fact the meal to shell ratio is much higher than with crickets. toss a handful of them in the blender with your smoothie and you've got a nice protein booster. :P

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Originally Posted by amercnwmn

I hate buying crix...I have a Spiny Tail Ig, a Beardie, Water Dragons, and a Sav

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do you have any pics of your ig? i love spiny-tailed igs!

Yeah, hes really rough... He's a juvie, and one of my rescues. :tears:
The back ground story from the person who brought him to me, was that he was left by their neighbors after they moved out..Apparently they took the cage as well, and he was without food, water, lighting, heat for over a week. :mad:

When I first got him, he was limp, and totally dehydrated, and not eating. Thanks to the help of someone on another forum, I started him on saline injections once a day for hydration, and he recently started eating crickets and pooping regularly, and soaking. I suspect he has worms, so that is next on the agenda.. Maybe once those are cleared up, he will start putting on weight and eating better. :worry:

I'll shut up now and just slap a couple of pics up.. Sad thing is, the poor thing is the ONLY lizard I have that doesnt hate me!

EDIT: Shoot...guess I'll wait untill photobucket is done with the site maintenance before I post pics.

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Originally Posted by mlededee

toss a handful of them in the blender with your smoothie and you've got a nice protein booster. :P

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Mel....TMI. :puke:

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Originally Posted by cassandra

Mel....TMI. :puke:

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Agreed!! lol :bleh: :puke:

what a bunch of weaklings. :zerb:

Welcome to Fear Factor, the BP.net edition, hosted by Mel the crazy rhac wrangler and muncher-downer of bugs!

Hey I ate bugs before ya wimps! Nothin to it...;)