Collection of nymphs

Ihaggerty1313

Ihaggerty1313

Second Instar
What's up guys I'm new on here. My bud and I are going to be breeding some snake and lizard species very soon. I've also wanted to get into breeding feeders as well. We're focused on B. Dubia right now.

A: we'll need some for our own animals.

B: we've already got some clients who will gladly buy LARGE lots of Dubia Roaches off us. Which will fund our other scaley investments.

So I got 1,500 roaches from 3 different people online. I won't mention any names but one of them was far superior in quality, shipping and customer service.

I'm new to keeping Roaches but I have a wealth of study into them and feel very comfortable keeping them.

Here's my set up 3 - 22 gallon bins w/ 500 nymphs in each sorted to size. 2 of the bins are holding med to sub adults the other is the nursery for all the "pinners" that were shipped. All 3 sellers shipped me pinners w/ their orders. Sorta pissed me off because it takes a while to grow them and I specifically asked for no pinners and no adults, which was agreed to by 2 of the 3 sellers but that's beside the point.

They have a constant supply of Roach Feed, Water Crystals, and fruits and veggies. I made the roach feed myself, and they've been eating everything from Baby Carrots, collared greens to apples, pears and oranges. This may sound crazy to offer them fresh food all the time but I'm a little obsessive w/ producing the best roaches out there as I want our lizards to be primo. Anyway these suckers have been growing at an astonshing rate w/ minimal deaths (most came a week after shipping. I've had them for 1.5 months and only lost 15 roaches!)

They started popping about 3 days ago and I've gotten 14 males and 6 females. All I could find is a 35 gallon tub so I've been transfering the adults daily and keeping a log as I will feed off the excess males to a couple of our mascots. I plan on keeping a 3/1 ratio of females to males. All my settings are correct and these things are doing great! I just witnessed a couple of them mating about 1/2 an hour ago.

So this is my question. What is the best way to collect the nymphs? We aren't talking about a project yielding a few thousand roaches. We're planning on breeding in excess of a million which will take a little while to get going but I think we can accomplish w/ ease and patience and then who the heck knows how many from there.

Also how important is getting different bloodlines w/ roaches. This seems to be a grey area. I started w/ 1,500 of them to get the feel. Now we're looking at purchasing another 10,000 to jump start a couple super colonies.

Figured I'd give you guys the whole story since this is my first time communicating w/ all of you. I've been reading this forum for a few months and really dig all the great people and great info. However my main question is the collection of nymphs. How often and the most efficient way. I don't want to be picking thru tons of roaches and disturbing them any more than I have to.

Thanks for any info!

-Ian

 
Are you trying to collect small nymphs? If so, you could try dumping a cleared out colony bin over a grid with large holes. The nymphs would fall through into another bin below, and the adults and older nymphs poured back in.

 
Are you in the USA or another country?

You dont need to seperate the "pinners" (aka "small nymphs") from the mid sized nymphs and the adults. Too much effort and a waste of time when they can seperate themselves.

Each tub you have should really be two tubs. Tub #1 has most of the bottom cut out and replaced with 1/4 inch (6mm) hardware cloth. This tub then sits on/in tub #2, like the two were stacked when you bought them from the hardware store. This way the larger nymphs and adults stay in the top bin and breed, and the small nymphs are perpetually falling through the screen into the bottom where they can easily be collected. Transfer them to a third bin where you sell out of, and any that get to be large nymphs can go back into bin #1 to become breeders.

And the circle of life continues....

 
Thanks for the responses guys. Matt, I'm in the U.S. I've seen a few different ways to collect the nymphs. Both methods that you guys describe I have read about and think that they are great methods. I did just find a person on youtube who lives in Germany that empties his colony once a week into a bin w/ holes and the nymphs literally poured out. He then transfers them to another bin, so on and so forth. I guess he cuts large enough holes and just gets it done in one shot. The method that you guys speak of is more of a trickle method that I really like. Not quite sure which one I'll try if I don't try both. Don't know if I'd do this w/ Discoids or other more "shy" species of roach but for the Dubia that guy on youtube like I said had them literally pouring out of the bin.

Here's the vid

-Ian

 
Thanks for the Utube link, though I couldn't see what he was trying to achieve... :blink:

I guess he's got some holes in the dark green bin, but nothing was clear at all.

I'll check out some of the others though - thanks!

It would be really nice to see this sorting process in action, particularly if you plan to farm B. dubia in large numbers...

 
Matt K said:
Are you in the USA or another country?You dont need to seperate the "pinners" (aka "small nymphs") from the mid sized nymphs and the adults. Too much effort and a waste of time when they can seperate themselves.

Each tub you have should really be two tubs. Tub #1 has most of the bottom cut out and replaced with 1/4 inch (6mm) hardware cloth.
Click to expand...
We don't have this product by the same name. Can you describe it, please? Is it a type of screen?

 
Huntsman said:
Thanks for the Utube link, though I couldn't see what he was trying to achieve... :blink: I guess he's got some holes in the dark green bin, but nothing was clear at all.

I'll check out some of the others though - thanks!

It would be really nice to see this sorting process in action, particularly if you plan to farm B. dubia in large numbers...
Click to expand...
When up and running smoothly I'll get someone to help me take some video and post it for you guys.

-Ian

 
Huntsman said:
Thanks for the Utube link, though I couldn't see what he was trying to achieve... :blink: I guess he's got some holes in the dark green bin, but nothing was clear at all.

I'll check out some of the others though - thanks!

It would be really nice to see this sorting process in action, particularly if you plan to farm B. dubia in large numbers...
Click to expand...
When up and running smoothly I'll get someone to help me take some video and post it for you guys.

-Ian

 
"Hardware cloth" is a type of screen mesh made from galvanized metal and the square openings are rated in size across. Available in most countries and in most sizes.

 
So how often do you guys think that I should be harvesting the nymphs? Someone told me this about their discoid colony, and mind you this is the only time I've ever heard of this. He told me that he staggers cleaning and invading to get nymphs out as one of his colonies have stopped producing nymphs. Not sure what to make of this as I wouldn't think that something like that would trigger a reaction from a colony. Maybe there was another variable but he blames the invasions since Discoids are a little more high strung. I do know that Dubias really seem to careless if you are in their tub changing food, water, cleaning or pulling the adults out. They just sorta go about their business.

-Ian

 
Disturbing a colony does slow production. I have not seen or heard of it stopping production altogether. Perhaps all his adults have aged out and are close to death, and he had not introduced more nymphs to mature into the breeding stock ??

 
Matt K said:
Disturbing a colony does slow production. I have not seen or heard of it stopping production altogether. Perhaps all his adults have aged out and are close to death, and he had not introduced more nymphs to mature into the breeding stock ??
Click to expand...
Good point on that Matt. Didn't even think of that possibility. I'm guessing on that depending on the amount of females that I have, than I would probably have to collect nymphs more frequently. I've got 1,500 nymphs that have just started molting their final molt on a daily basis. I've picked out 56 adults in one week. Probably going to be speeding up within the month as well. The adults have been transfered into a 35 gallon tub. I want to upgrade to the 54 gallon tubs when I find the ones that I like. I'm hoping I can pull anywhere between 400-700 females in the first batch of 1,000. Then I have the nursery tub w/ the other 500 babies. So hopefully I get another couple hundred out of that.

BTW anyone know what the actual lifespan on B. Dubia are? I've heard that the males only last about 6 months before they are spent. I've also heard that the females live around 1 to 1.5 years. Been going by the literature on the internet. Any experienced Dubia keepers could probably set this issue straight though.

Thanks,

-Ian

 
Matt K said:
Are you in the USA or another country?

You dont need to seperate the "pinners" (aka "small nymphs") from the mid sized nymphs and the adults. Too much effort and a waste of time when they can seperate themselves.

Each tub you have should really be two tubs. Tub #1 has most of the bottom cut out and replaced with 1/4 inch (6mm) hardware cloth. This tub then sits on/in tub #2, like the two were stacked when you bought them from the hardware store. This way the larger nymphs and adults stay in the top bin and breed, and the small nymphs are perpetually falling through the screen into the bottom where they can easily be collected. Transfer them to a third bin where you sell out of, and any that get to be large nymphs can go back into bin #1 to become breeders.

And the circle of life continues....
Click to expand...
Hi Matt, please can you share a few pictures of this cages for to see the system in their whole ?? yes i can understand what you mean exactly, but the pictures do explain almost all at once !!

Or anyone have just this system for the collection of the nymphs and please can share us a few pictures of it ?? many thanks in advance !

 
[Each tub you have should really be two tubs. Tub #1 has most of the bottom cut out and replaced with 1/4 inch (6mm) hardware cloth.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

We don't have this product by the same name. Can you describe it, please? Is it a type of screen?

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In California it's called "Hardware cloth" and comes in various mesh sizes. 1/4 inch mesh is very common.

Rogervan

 
I had the brilliant idea one day that I should separate the babies and so the breeders wouldn't get disturbed every time I went in to get some nymphs. Well, production absolutely stopped for about a month. Every time I change their environment, it takes them a while to get going again. But they don't seem to mind if I bug them daily.

The majority of mine are 8+ months old and are still going strong.

 
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