Why are roaches so expensive?

[jadeaudio]

I have been pondering this before I bought some. I bought 30 Dubia adults a few months ago as I found them at a reptile show. Let's just say they already multiplied several times. I probably have 100 of them now at least. They do not die. They are stronger than crickets, live longer than crickets, are easier to reproduce and feed than crickets, but they cost 10 times more than crickets. I was looking into other roaches like banana roaches and such, but damn they are expensive. It doesn't make any sense why they are probably the most expensive feeder insect.

 

[OldSkoolxReasons]

They are more expensive for every single reason you just listed. They breed faster/ get bigger/ gutload easier/ DON'T SMELL/ don't make noise/ die less. basically that add up to the cost. I gladly pay 10x more one time and get thousands of roaches from the originals I payed a little bit more for than keep buying crickets and having to deal with the stink.

 

[tkilgour]

You guys make an excellent point, that I totally agree with. Most of my chams devour roaches too. I only have 2 or 3 chams that tend to be picky and turn their cheeks to the dubias. I bought 100 roaches for $30.00 the beginning of summer and they have multiplied numerous times. Luckily, I have only had one escapee, that I know of.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

I was looking into other roaches like banana roaches and such, but damn they are expensive. It doesn't make any sense why they are probably the most expensive feeder insect.

Bananas are a slow growing roach, and not as easy to raise. Took me a good year to get my group going at a level to start feeding them off.

 

[nick barta]

Bananas are a slow growing roach, and not as easy to raise. Took me a good year to get mine group going at a level to start feeding them off.

Just got 4 dozen of the giant banana roaches, patience is the game! When I am successful breeding, I am going to offer pairs for sale, I had to buy 4 dozen!

Nick

 

[MEPOKEU]

i bought 50 dubia off a forum member 6 months.

I didnt feed any off for 3-4 months.
I now have roughly 1,000 and have been feeding my chams every day with roaches.


best investment ever....

 

[Zen Reptiles]

I think I see your question differently than everyone else here....

Roaches live for years, breed for most of that time, cost less to maintain, cost less to feed, whereas on the other hand....

You'd think a cricket, which only lives a few weeks, is much more difficult to breed, and only reproduces for a short period of time would be this rare and expensive feeder you'd think no one could get their hands on.

The problem is marketing. It's gonna take a long time before people understand how much better roaches are than crickets, and a name change that excludes 'ROACH' would help.

So therefor you have only a handful of people actually getting roaches out to the public, because of legal issues and just the major misconceptions people have with roaches it's not being done on a commercial scale like crickets are.

An interesting social experiment would be to call Dubia's some sort of beetle and totally let people misinterpret what they are, never alluding to the fact they are a roach, kind of like Phoenix Worms have this wonderful sound to the name, but are really 'soldier fly larvae' that thrive in rotting, putrescent waste.

I could imagine it'd take over the cricket industry overnight.

 

[Rocky]

I think I see your question differently than everyone else here....

Roaches live for years, breed for most of that time, cost less to maintain, cost less to feed, whereas on the other hand....

You'd think a cricket, which only lives a few weeks, is much more difficult to breed, and only reproduces for a short period of time would be this rare and expensive feeder you'd think no one could get their hands on.

The problem is marketing. It's gonna take a long time before people understand how much better roaches are than crickets, and a name change that excludes 'ROACH' would help.

So therefor you have only a handful of people actually getting roaches out to the public, because of legal issues and just the major misconceptions people have with roaches it's not being done on a commercial scale like crickets are.

An interesting social experiment would be to call Dubia's some sort of beetle and totally let people misinterpret what they are, never alluding to the fact they are a roach, kind of like Phoenix Worms have this wonderful sound to the name, but are really 'soldier fly larvae' that thrive in rotting, putrescent waste.

I could imagine it'd take over the cricket industry overnight.

I dont think it would work as well as you think. They still look like roaches >.<

 

[jadeaudio]

Well I see some of the points, but it still doesn't make sense how they cost so much. OK I get your point on breeding them, but that would make the adults worth a lot of money because it does take some time to get them that large and to be in reproduction age, but small nymphs still sell for a lot compared to all other style feeders. At first when I started with them I was freaking out because I thought some died, but they were actually molting. It's crazy to see them totally white. It's still gross to me when I replace the food like potatoes that I have to swat away the little nymphs off of it to get them off of it. They consume water crystals more than they come the food in my tank.

 

[Vegas Chad]

Bananna roach, hmmm I have some PITB eaters that would prob like some food of that flavor/color!

 

[Hilikus311]

I just ordered 350 for 45shipped from a friend, specificly b/c they are way better than crickets

 

[heloderm]

I've spent quite a bit of money on roaches because I don't like dealing with crickets. I also plan on having a very large collection of chameleons and other lizards and it would really help to keep overhead down. I currently have 145 adult males, 735 adult females, and probably around 2000 nymphs. I'm going to be feeding crickets for another month or two untill I have a ton of older nymphs in which I can feed off at well. One of the best investments!

John

 

[Digby Rigby]

Roach costs

About 6 years ago we first started selling cockroaches. At that time you were lucky to be able to get more than a couple dozen at a time. Dubia were three dollars a piece! Also you must put things in perspective. When you look at the price of store bought crickets, roaches can actually be less, in bulk on a cost per insect basis. Also the demand for roaches has a lot more growth potential than crickets at this time. Everyone uses or has used crickets. Relatively few use cockroaches in comparision to crickets and mealworms.

Crickets and mealworms were commercially bred for fish bait long before there was a market for them as feeders so the infrastructure was there. Even though crickets do not live as long they have far more eggs in a shorter period than cockroaches do. They also grow faster so in a couple of weeks you can have as many eggs from a cricket as a roach would have babies in a year. Cockroach stock came from people who actually kept them as pets and thus werent trying to maximize fecundity.

Roaches are also considerably more massive than crickets so you are looking at 2-3 times the amount of meat as crickets possibly more depending on species.

When buying roaches you arent buying feeders you are buying breeders and then feed what you breed. When doing that the cost then drops dramatically over time.

Now to the present day we are now at the point where we sell dubia exclusively in bulk, although we do sell other species. The dubia are by far the most popular. In fact the only complaint we ever got on them was that since they arent climbers the lady had to hand feed her arboreals

Digby Rigby [email protected]

Email is faster than private message

 

[Montium]

Put them on a screen and they climb ok