Mixed cricket/dubia combo

[Garf]

I've got some 3/4 inch dubias on there way to me. I may attempt to breed them at a later date but for now these are just going to be feeders. Am I able to keep them with the crickets in my cricket keeper? Thanks in advance

 

[KellysChameleons]

At one time I had my dubia tank underneath a few baby cages and a bunch of pinhead crickets would jump out and fall into the dubia tank , much to my surprise they coexisted fine and the crickets grew ..I did see a cricket terrorizing a molting dubia when the cricket had grown into an adult ..so I guess I would have to say ur best bet is keeping them seperate

 

[Garf]

Thanks. Thought that may be the case. I was just trying to simplify things. I'll keep them seperate, just in case

 

[Garf]

Does anyone know the BEST way to look after Dubias, for feeders?

 

[Garf]

Dubias arrived today. There a bit too big for feeding our little George, so I guess it's straight into cultivating them. Theres even a few adult females in there, i was expecting medium nymphs but some are an inch long. Done loads of googling so am pretty sure I will be ok. I'll put a pic up of my mini cultivation attempt when it's up and running.

While I'm here, I'm pretty interested in growing calci-worms. Has anyone done a small DIY jobby, instead of the large composters that you see on the tube.

 

[Garf]

Got a small heat mat at the back. Any obvious improvements that should/could be made?

 

[nightanole]

Mine wont eat green peppers if their lives depended on it...

Also dubia dont need substrate. And for that mater neither does crickets. Odds are it will mold from humidity before they eat it.


Also both critters hate light. Put them in a dark area and use a always on heating pad if you are trying to breed them. If you are just keeping them alive, then just keep them above 70F.

 

[Garf]

No, mine aren't eating the peppers either, its original purpose was for a water supply but not seen them anywhere near it! Got some apple in there now. That's not substrate as such, it's bug grub the light is just there so we can see in the cupboard.

 

[Garf]

Got some rather large brown crickets yesterday. Seems like loads of them were trying to deposit eggs into the food. So I put a small tub of nuked soil in. Some of them dig a tunnel first before doing the deed. The apples are the "stairs" to the tub.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYjenJKKuXU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[nick barta]

Cover the sides of the Dubia container with self-sticking shelf liner, you will find Dubias produce better in the dark.

You will need to hit high temperatures to get breeding going, temp the container, you should be 90 degrees or so. If breeding isn't your need, room temp is good.

Nick

 

[pssh]

Looks okay to me, but like said above, the food on the bottom might mold pretty quickly. I put my dry gutload in a shallow dish/lid (like a bottle cap or a delicup lid) or sometimes i will turn a small piece of egg crate on its side and put some in one of the cups. If you need anymore care/breeding/feeding them off info, I have a pretty inclusive blog entry about them on this site.

 

[Garf]

Cheers pssh. I've now cut up one of them small containers that bugs come in, and using it to keep the food in. I've been contemplating using Cali-worms. Is the only benefit the calcium rich outer casing, or is there any mileage in allowing them to turn into flies? My veiled runs around the enclosure to catch the odd small fly that gets in.

 

[junglefries]

Have had some crix escapees survive in with the dubai also. wouldn't recommend it, but in a pinch it might be ok for a short time (ie.. cage clean or breakage)

 

[Ninkylou]

A cheap Rubbermaid or like, smooth interior container is good for both Dubias and Crickets.

I keep my breeding dubias in one that has a bunch of holes I drilled in it in a closet under a ceramic heat emitter, I move the feeding size ones into a smaller container that I keep near the chams. I don't care of those ones grow so I don'w worry about temps.

I priced out those cricket keepers....plastic tub much bigger 5.99 vs 19.99 for the cricket one. I just pull the cricks out with tongs. Better control too.

 

[pssh]

They loose nutritional value pretty fast once they are flies as they have no mouth to eat anything. They are great for enrichment though! All of mine LOVE them and go crazy for them. Even the lazy chameleons that dont move much will haul their little behinds into gear for some flies. Blue bottle flies and house flies are good too, and can be somewhat gutloaded. Just be sure to buy them and not catch them from the wild.

 

[Garf]

Thanks very much. Maybe I could buy some really small BSF larvae, grow them out, feed some as large larvae and put some in a closed small leaf litter tray with a small exit tube in the enclosure to emerge at their peril.

 

[Garf]

Not got the calci worms yet but I do have baby crickets;

And baby silkworms;

Everything seems to be happening rather quickly

 

[Garf]

Quick question - is there an easy way to transfer the baby silkworms to another container? Tried moving them this morning to a large container but seemed to transfer over most of the crud at the same time, not good considering my aim was to "clean them out". I was thinking maybe putting blobs of chow on a rigid plastic sheet that I could lift out and brush off onto a fresh chow mix but these caterpillars seem to stick to everything! Any help is appreciated, thanks

 

[busterboy]

where did you get the baby silkworms? And the best way is just to move them with the food. When I pick up the food, I have at least 100 of them on it lol

 

[Garf]

There's loads of places selling them over here in the UK, can't remember which one now. So, it seems I've made things difficult for myself by smearing lines of chow onto the new container, I should have left it in big blobs?

Edit - does anyone use mesh to separate them, from the old food like I've seen on the professional silkworm farms?