Dubia roaches in FL

[chamluvr]

I just read an old post on breeding dubias in 5 gal buckets- it was great. I really want to try it, but many suppliers cannot ship to FL. It is warm enough here that I can breed them outside year round. Are there any FL members who have Dubias, and where did you get them. Thanks.

 

[reptilover]

U can breed them outside year round is thee exact problem! Noone will ship to you.. if they try it may be taken half way.. if they get loose they can be extremely invasive and florida does not need anymore species not native to it.

 

[chamluvr]

I especially realize the danger of invasive species, and introducing another one is certainly something I do not want to do. But I thought I have read other posts of FL members feeding Dubias to their chams. They are so highly rated as a food source that I thought it would be interesting to try.

 

[reptilover]

Good luck to ya. But I don't think its gonna be easy or at least not legal

 

[pssh]

They are illegal in FL. Try discoids instead. There is a roach company that sells only florida native species. Its called florida roaches I believe.

 

[Turningdoc]

From another FL member
Banana roaches rock!
http://www.floridaroaches.com/

 

[Dr O]

dubias ARE awesome, but not only will we not get shipped to, but i have heard of the law coming down hard on both the recipient and the company. i used them in NY for 5 years or so.

imo and knowing florida climates fairly well, they would probably make it in the wild from St. Lucie/Martin counties south, but i'm dead center on the east cost and they could not survive the winters here, not even close. it will go to the 40's most nights and enough dips into the 30's or lower that they could not survive from at least here and north.

so blame the south floridians!! someone should do a study of it and then maybe then they would ship to certain zip codes in the state.

 

[chamluvr]

The Banana roaches look interesting. I am no longer 100% sure I want to do roaches. I might just stick with my crickets and add some silkworms and butter worms. After looking at the pictures of all the legal FL roaches, hand feeding a roach is NOT something that I think I am ready for. YUCK

 

[pssh]

Discoids are about the same in care and size. The nymphs look the same too, so if you think you can handle a dubia nymph, you can probably handle a discoid nymph.

 

[Montium]

If you are looking for larger roaches you can always breed the natives lol. There are plenty of Dubias in the state of Florida but few are going to tell you about them. It's not like all the ones that got shipped here before it became illegal magically disappeared. I would guess that they will be established in Florida soon if they are not already. I'd rather have hissers establish than Dubia but hissers are too slow to reproduce lol.

 

[chamluvr]

I have decided Fred and I can both do without roaches. There are plenty of other foods out there to provide variety. Thanks for all your thoughts.

 

[Dr O]

There are plenty of Dubias in the state of Florida but few are going to tell you about them. It's not like all the ones that got shipped here before it became illegal magically disappeared.

and there might have been some of us who drove down here with our critters and such when we moved here, and it's not like there are signs when you enter the state that say "No Dubias!". so maybe the first time swim heard about the laws was when they tried to order some more.

 

[Dr O]

I have decided Fred and I can both do without roaches. There are plenty of other foods out there to provide variety. Thanks for all your thoughts.

chamluvr, i just want to say that i think you are doing yourself and especially your chams a disservice. i personally have a cricketless breeding operation; i can't stand breeding them and they are terrible food unto themselves. roaches are so clean, quiet, easy, NUTRITIOUS......

even though i'm a vet roaches generally made me shriek like a little girl my whole life. but once i started working with dubias, i lost 99% of my fear and even grab wild ones outside barehanded now, which was something i never could have done before. they're almost more like beetles in their mellowness and slow-going ways. if you think of them like that, maybe it will help.

 

[Dr O]

If you are looking for larger roaches you can always breed the natives lol. There are plenty of Dubias in the state of Florida but few are going to tell you about them. It's not like all the ones that got shipped here before it became illegal magically disappeared. I would guess that they will be established in Florida soon if they are not already. I'd rather have hissers establish than Dubia but hissers are too slow to reproduce lol.

how about you, montium? you live right in the area that I was mentioning; do you think dubias would survive your winters in general?

 

[absolutbill]

This thread is timed interestingly - just yesterday I was contemplating dubias and how I would be able to get them here. I've got a couple of ideas, but was wondering if anyone knows "hypothetically" if a person would be able to keep them year round on a lanai, or garage, without using a heat pad in a location such as Naples. We do get cold temps in the winter for a few nights down in the 30-40s, so "hypothetically" a person could move them from a lanai to a garage. Also, "hypothetically", do you cup feed them, or hand feed them to ensure you don't have any escapees?

As a sidenote, I blame Hurricane Andrew for destroying so many buildings back in 1994 that non-native wildlife were able to escape and establish breeding colonies here. You can trace the appearance of lion fish in the Caribbean to just about that exact time frame.

 

[BocaJan]

I raised and bred Discoids for a couple years. They breed like crazy, just like Dubias. All you do to keep them happy is to toss in some food and they are happy. You'll have babies running around in no time.

Unfortunately, we had the exterminator spray our attic and I wasn't home to move my Discoid box and there was enough fog coming down from the attic hole in the garage to kill off all my roaches. I just didn't start up my colony again.

 

[Montium]

how about you, montium? you live right in the area that I was mentioning; do you think dubias would survive your winters in general?

We get to odd freeze but I'm sure they could survive here. We have a few wholesale importers in the area and I have found some strange things on my door step or in my area. I think there are far more non-native animals here than anyone could imagine it's just the bigger ones that get all the attention. From dealing with some of the wholesalers in south Florida I know that there are quite a few things that have escaped or been introduced because they thought they were going to die anyways. In Stuart there is a large population of red headed agamas, curly tails etc etc. In my 40yrs of living in Florida I have found that most animals will live here and at the same time nature usually finds a way to balance it out. There are exceptions obviously and it's those exceptions that need to be culled or monitored. The Lion fish is the biggest threat here right now, bigger than the pythons as pythons are not poisonous and have native predators that can eat most of them.

Between the Lion fish and that fact that we need a bag limit on the " Goliath " grouper those two fish are seriously tipping the balance of the reefs down here.

 

[Dr O]

In Stuart there is a large population of red headed agamas, curly tails etc etc. .

yeah, I ran into those agamas in the parking lot of the Specialty Veterinary Clinic when I was down there a few months ago. they ran from me and regrouped at a dumpster.

 

[Dr O]

but to my point, that's what I thought. from your area and south they could make it, but the climate zone change around Sebastian gives us much colder winters and they wouldn't make it a season. I do wish they would allow shipping to different areas of the state.

 

[BocaJan]

Why would you want to do something illegal. Discoids are just as nutritious. In fact, they even look like dubia. I read an article in the paper where this guy spent a year in jail and had to pay a BIG chunk of $$$ for having dubia in Florida. Please don't bring them in just because....There is no reason to. Discoids are easy to handle, don't climb up your bin and reproduce quickly. Trying to figure out how to break the law is irresponsible and criminal.