Guess what I breed??

ROACHES!!!



Here's a female with her egg sack out. That little pink sack is filled with roach eggs, she will absorb it again and then give birth to live roaches



Here's a female on an apple


Here's a nice big female on my hand


Believe it or not, I love these little guys, they're so awesome!
But they are food for my lizards They do serve a purpose...

Ok, I was so going to come visit you, but now I'm changing my mind! GROSS!

The roaches kinda creep me out, too! Ick! (But I still like you!)

LOL Kailie I promise if you come visit you won't even know they're here!
They're in a rubbermaid container in the basement, most people don't know I have them. I've actually made alot of money off these bugs since they're 50 cents a piece, most people buy between 100-300 at a time

They breed by themselves with alittle extra humidty, heat and good food, so it saves me LOADS of money since I don't have to buy crickets or worms and roaches have more meat then crickets and worms anyways so they're very healthy for the lizards...

I was a little weary of them at first, too but they are truly awesome

Those look a lot like the giant gokkuburi (cockroaches) we have here in Okinawa. About the same size too, minus the stripes.

Aya used to think they were a tastey-cunchy midnight snack-y thing at my old apartment where they would pop up from between the tatami every now and then.

I was glad she was after 'em because they were damn hard to catch or squash, as the case might be.

There is literally thousands of different types of roaches....these guys are Dubia Roaches. They can't fly, don't bite, don't move fast and they can't climb (smooth surfaces) so they are the perfect feeder roach. They also are a tropical roach so they can't survive in our climate.

A bit creepy but very fascinating. I don't generally like anything which has more than 4 legs but I can see why you breed them. Would propably do the same if I had lizards. Maybe a snake will find it's way here some day, could feed it with mice and give some for the kitties too...

I do too. LOL. It just was a natural choice when you want to save money and have reptile mouthes to feed.

Yup and this way I know what they're getting. My roaches eat better than I do

Where's the RAID spray smilie? JK!

I actually like the big forest type roaches. So much so I really wish they had a different name, so they wouldn't be guilty by association.

What truly freaks me out though are the little slender flying super fast house roaches. I don't know what it is, but after having one fly right at my face and grab onto my head and then when trying to get it off have it stuck in my collar just traumatized me to where I want to pull out my glock and take em out with extreme prejudice.

I'm a member of a CDN reptile board and we call them feeder beetles

They look like a bettle, not a nasty ol roach.

Interesting group of pets you've got there.

Originally Posted by Momto3boys

There is literally thousands of different types of roaches....these guys are Dubia Roaches. They can't fly, don't bite, don't move fast and they can't climb (smooth surfaces) so they are the perfect feeder roach. They also are a tropical roach so they can't survive in our climate.

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I'm sure the Okinawa ones are some sort of tropical variety too　that's just more spry on its feet.

Oh my life!!!

ah yes the lovely dubias. I used to breed them when I was breeding bearded dragons.

lovely lil creatures aren't they? No smell like crickets thank goodness.

Great pics.

No smell, no chirping, no biting....

I HATE HATE HATE crickets, that's why dubia's were an obvious choice for me

Aw! So cute

I have some too! I had some small ones I got for $8 (for 50, free shipping) on ebay. I got some lobster roaches too about that time, and man, they were nasty! They stunk (because they kept dying), and were creepy and fast and ugly. So I took the heat off so they wouldn't breed and fed them all off.

I'm finally less creeped out, and was getting ready to put heat on the dubias again and someone posted on a gecko forum that he was overrun with dubias and wanted to know what to do with them. I jokingly (sorta) told him to put them in the mail and send them to me. And he did! He sent me about 150, mostly adults, for the cost of a flat rate shipping box! It helped him out too, since now he knows how to ship them to sell them.

They are gigantic! The lobsters are cricket sized. But still, even the male dubias with wings are much less creepy than the lobsters.

I have them on a heating pad and feed them a mix of stuff I found in my freezer, it's chickpeas, pumpkin, carrots and mixed veggies, all blended up. They're happy. And soon my leopard gecko and frogs will have an all you can eat roach buffet. And my sister has a "roach disposal" (bearded dragon) if they get out of hand.

What lizards do you have?

Originally Posted by Rosiemac

Oh my life!!!

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Even though they're not my cup of tea, thanks for sharing the pics. And I didn't know crickets bite. Learn something new every day.

Have you ever tried blattas? I've considered them since I have geckos, though I had stupid geckos that may not be able to handle something that fast. Being a quick breeder is a plus in the summer since I have turtles up then, too.

The only thing stopping me is that they look identical to the ones I see outside (western Oklahoma) and I don't know if they've made it this far north (they're an invasive species in parts of Texas). I don't want something that could live here.
On a positive note: the ones outside prefer to be outside. When one slips in (as they do when it rains a lot) they don't behave like a house roach does... which means they're dead in seconds from the cats. I have in the past caught one of the nymphs and kept him for a while, he did mature into a blatta looking adult roach.

Dubias are nice, though, a little slower.

I occasionally breed crickets in the summer... I hate the things. I don't think non-cricket keeping people realize how nasty they are. Never been bitten, though I have tough skin on my hands.

I plan to go centipede hunting when it warms up a bit, so I'll need to breed something non-larvae or worm again if I catch any. If I'm lucky and get some S. heros I'll have to share some pics... that'll bother people far more than roach pics.

Naw, Turks are too fast for me. LOL

I like the Dubia's cause they're slow.....plus I don't want more than one colony. My Leo will ONLY eat roaches, I bought her some mealies as a treat and no way would she eat them. She even licked one and then looked at me like "what the heck do you want me to do with those?!?!"