Blaptica dubia
A subadult female B.Dubia. Image copyright to Charles Hannum
Dubia roaches (Blaptica dubia) is a brilliant feeder cockroach. Unfortinately blaptica dubia hasn't taken off in the UK as a live food as much as it has in the US, which is a shame. I do however believe when it does reach the UK it will be very popular. They are large, prolific, and they can't climb or fly. They also encompass the characteristics of most cockroaches in that they are meaty and will eat almost anything.
Blaptica dubia are very easy to culture, they do most of the work themselves.
- A large plastic storage box from a DIY store
- Egg crates
- Food
- Heating via a heat mat or a lamp (optional but recomended)
- 20-50 Orange Spotted Cockroaches (Blaptica Dubia) to start the colony off
Being cockroaches, Blaptica dubia will eat virtually anything. Naturally however as a reptile keeper you want to ensure they carry the highest nutritional content possible for your pets. A diet consisting of dried dog biscuits along with various grains and oats is best. Aim for really cheap dog biscuits with a protein content of approximately 20-30% as this high protein diet is optimal for breeding. This diet can be supplemented with commercial bug gut loading products depending upon colony size (generally speaking any colony would benefit from this, however these products become expensive when used in large quantities on a big colony so simply may not be economically viable).
For moisture you can offer fruits and veg every other day. Apples seem to be popular as are oranges, make sure you replace them daily to avoid mould forming. Providing moisture for Blaptica dubia seems to be very important as they are known to cannibalise if they feel water is in short supply (presumably to remove competition). You should take the opportunity to introduce other vitamins, minerals and nutrients in to your cockroaches diets through the “wet foods” you offer. Offer a variety dark leafy vegetables which are rich in nutrients. Try to avoid falling in to the trap that your “wet foods” are simply there for moisture – they are a great additional way to gut load your cockroaches too.
You will need to provide ventilation, for this I recomend cutting/melting a hole in the top of the storage tub and putting aluminium mesh there. This can be glued into place or you can heat the mesh up and just push it over the hole so it melts onto the plastic.
Once you are ready with the tub, put the egg crates in, aim to get 5-6pieces stacked ontop of eachother. The cockroaches don't need substrate (they make their own, which you need to clean out every few months, if you catch what I mean). They are live bearers so they don't require an egg laying site either.
If you've chosen to use a heater now would be the time to add it. If you are using a heatmat simply put it under the tub, possibly under the egg crates so they can hide while being warm (you'll still get a gradient because the higher up in the crates the cooler it will be). Not sure how you'd use a lamp, I've never installed one on a plastic tub, be careful you don't melt the plastic though.
You can add the food do the cockroach set up, I prefer doing it in a bowl but you can just scatter it around if you like. Make sure whatever you do you keep the moist food in a bowl seperate from the dry food (wet dry food = mould = death).
All you've got to do now is put the blaptica dubia in and be patient. The time it takes for you to get youngsters varies but it can be quite a while. Your looking at months not weeks. The population will explode if you leave it though, you'll never need buy crickets again once you have a thriving community of blaptica dubia.
A subadult female B.Dubia. Blaptica dubia roach colony by chrisgauch
