Dubias Crawling up Tub!

[jarich]

Hey all,

So I had an interesting discovery, and not the good kind of interesting. Once again, precaution should have been the norm but I went with what I thought was right instead. (Always a recipe for disaster, I should know by now) After getting my Dubia colony into two ten gallon Rubbermaid containers, I did not bother to put a roach ring around the outside as I had been told that they dont climb or fly.

As I was opening up the lid on one of the tubs to put in more food, three small roaches quickly ran up the side of the tub and tried to scurry away! I was shocked first of all that they could so easily run up the side. Then proceeded to slap and stomp like a crazy person trying to make sure to get them all before they got away. I finally got them all and low and behold another tries to scramble up the side to freedom. Like I said, not a good discovery!

So I have two thoughts about this. A) I live in Brooklyn, so its just possible that an indigenous roach got into the roach colony and laid eggs. In which case these little guys might not have been Dubias. B) Dubia young can, in fact, climb plastic tub sides.

As I am new to owning Dubias, Im not sure what the answer may be. Any thoughts? Either way, I promptly went out and got some roach powder and lined the edges of the room with it. While I know they are tropical and cant live outside the room, I dont feel like I want to be testing that theory either! I have also placed both tubs inside a glass tank to see if anymore escape the plastic in the night.

[presspirate]

In my experience with Dubias, The small ones can climb plastic enclosures. What I did to prevent this is to put a strip of 4" clear packaging tape around the inside top of the tub. Once they hit that, they just slid right down. It helps to have tall sides too.

[jarich]

Originally Posted by presspirate

In my experience with Dubias, The small ones can climb plastic enclosures. What I did to prevent this is to put a strip of 4" clear packaging tape around the inside top of the tub. Once they hit that, they just slid right down. It helps to have tall sides too.

Ah, a good and cheap idea. Thank you! I was also told there is some kind of stuff you can paint on the top inch to keep them from going any further, but I cant seem to find where I read that before.

[stephanbakir]

I just put a lid on it with a screen top. Whenever I get escapees from the monitor enclosure and they die, I feed the dead roaches to my rats.

[jarich]

Ya, I've got the screened lid, but there is just enough of a gap between the lid and tub for little roaches to run out. And the larger problem is that in my animal room they can still live. I have a large room humidifier, so it stays about 50% the entire time and a pretty constant 78 degrees. I scoured the room when I discovered they could climb and have found two already...very alive! I don't really want to think of how many I didn't find