So this is an issue with MY health, but it seemed like the best place.

J

jebbewocky

Fourth Instar
Nothing serious, so far, but I've developed an allergy to dubia, or possibly their frass, or a bacteria on their skin.

Just taking them out to feed my tarantulas results in hives.

I keep forgetting to wear gloves, which would probably help, but I've been debating changing over to discoids me as some of my Ts are pretty big and even a fully grown dubia just..doesn't seem substantial enough to me. Plus if the wiggle out of my grip they crawl on my arms past the glove anyway.

Any ideas on if changing over to discoids would be better for my apparent allergy? I can handle my other roaches (B.gigantues, G.portentosa,the Horseshoe Crab Roach whose binomial name evades me at the moment), just fine.

 
Actually, after looking over some info--I'm probably going to go with a Eublaberus species, more than likely E.distanti as it doesn't have the defensive odor.

 
E. distanti has a defensive odor just like orange heads but it's not very potent. As for the hives, it's tough to avoid, I get them with most of my species. My fingers and palms are fine but my wrists and arm in general...forget about it. Eublaberus cause a strong reaction with the welts as well. The ones that don't are my Periplaneta and Hissers. Also all of my species two inches are less don't really cause any effect...Panchlora, Schultesia, Blatta, ect. I suppose it's their tiny foot hooks not penetrating my skin at all that much and that's why the reaction isn't there. My suggestion is get a long pair of feeding tongs to use.

 
Update: on a hunch, I decided to add substrate, and keep it somewhat moist. I figured that would encourage a microclimate for springtails, and I could add isopods. I haven't seen any springtails yet, and I haven't seen the isopods I added in awhile, BUT, I have noticed my hives are MUCH improve. I still get the occasional itchiness, or hive, but it's not clusters of itchy pustules.

 
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