How do you clean your roach bins with so many babies running around?

How do you clean your roach bins with so many baby roaches running around?

When it comes time to clean out my dubia bins, I have to sit there for a good length of time and move all my roaches into a bucket, or something like that, so I can clean out and dry their bin before moving them back. But it takes forever to get all the tiny baby roaches out from all the waste, and I don't want to miss any and have babies running around in the trash and eventually out in a landfill somewhere.

So how are others doing it?

Have you tried using a sieve? Not sure if that would work with your set-up, but I use one when I clean out the supers and mealworms.

I use the craft plastic that I use for silkies (like a sieve) that has the bigger holes and sift the poop out and catch the babies. It takes a while, I admit.

There are tools for these things? Where can I buy one of these sieves suitable for this situation because I have the same problem....not really a problem but nuisance.

Silkyslim said:

There are tools for these things? Where can I buy one of these sieves suitable for this situation because I have the same problem....not really a problem but nuisance.

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It's called plastic canvas by Darice and they sell it by the sheet at Joann's and craft stores, probably Walmart too. The bigger holes work better. It also works great for silkies so the poop falls thru.

I've never tried using those but I guess it should work. It's because sometimes the babies are so little that I'm sure they'd fall through too and I'd have to sit there catching them with tweezers anyway.

Olimpia said:

I've never tried using those but I guess it should work. It's because sometimes the babies are so little that I'm sure they'd fall through too and I'd have to sit there catching them with tweezers anyway.

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I've never had the babies fall thru, just try to run away.

I use a small plastic container, almost like tupperware, and just scoop some of the poop out at a time and slowly pour it into another container, all the while looking for babies. Doesn't really take too much time and nothing gets by without me seeing it.

I got a 2 buck plastic bucket from wally-world. Picked out a drill bit larger than the poop but smaller than the babies and drilled a bunch of holes. Pour everything in from the bin... swish around a little...poop and old food drop out and all the roaches stay in the bucket and get poured back into the bin.

Some good tips by the roach guy at the end of his caresheet:

http://www.theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm

clean a roach bin i never do

i thought your not supposed to clean the bin because the babies eat the adults feces?

James, I read that too somewhere but I think that's false. Feces as a general rule is void of nutricional value, so I don't think anyone is eating it in my bins.

At the end of a month or two there are pounds of poop at the bottom of the bin and perhaps the egg cartons are a little damp, so I feel it's better to just clean everything out and refresh their environment. I have like a constant humidity problem in my roach bin that I haven't been able to solve yet lol I have huge air holes on the lid, but it's not enough, and when I leave the lid open there's always a male that manages to get out and give me the creeps. So for now I just clean it out when it starts to get a little damp.

Thanks for the tip about using the bucket with holes in it! I cleaned mine out for the first time in a long while last month, and gave away thousands of roaches in the process.....but the clean out time took FOREVER!!!! I will try the bucket next time!

Also, does anyone have a link to a place I can buy some egg flats???? Mine are too damp and old now.

Thanks!

Jeffrey

KCcham said:

Also, does anyone have a link to a place I can buy some egg flats???? Mine are too damp and old now.

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I'd like that info as well! I've been told Walmart would have them, but I don't know why they would? I've been forced to ask my friends to not throw theirs away!

The Wal-mart here has egg flats but they are the ones that have been used and are contaminated by the eggs and I dont want to take a chance of infecting my colony with something. The last flats I got were from Ebay. I got a dozen for $7.00. Yhe only drawback was slow shipping. I do believe THEROACHGUY has them for sale as well.

You can ask your local grocery store for the cardboard "egg" crate that are used in the boxes of apples and such. same stuff, just different size "hills and valleys"

I have two bins. I move the majority of the roaches to the clean bin. I put a fresh piece of egg crate in the old bin (having removed all the old stuff). the babies will soon be clinging to the new egg crate. I move them to the new bin. I put the new egg crate back in the old bin to collect more babies. repeat this process several times a day over a week or so, until no more babies in the old bin. It takes no effort, and just a few seconds each time. then I put all the old crap into a paperbag and burn it or in summer I can burry it in the compost (its a hot compost, so essentially the same as burning).

Except for the roaches that lay egg cases. Those are a pain in the butt to clean, since you have to pick out all the eggs.

ugh it seems like such a bummer to pay for egg flats--especially at the high (crazy?) prices most places sell them.

The grocery store is a great idea! I have a friend that works in the produce dept and I will pick some up tmrw! Too bad nobody here lives anywhere near me or I would be happy to share...both roaches and apple crates!

I keep three bins because I like to sex them once they reach a half inch so I don't feed off females. I keep my juvi and extra adult males in an unheated bin, my juvi and adult females plus a few breeding males in a heated bin, and my unsexed babies and lateralis in a heated bin. I just pick out the 'babies' that have reached the 1/2" mark and throw them in their appropriate bin and scoop out some old poop but leave a layer for the babies to dig in. Every month or so I do this and I also throw all babies in the adult female bin as well as the frass/poop in the unsexed bin.