By Ryan Huether

Once in every person’s life, the realization is made that they don’t own a Dubia roach colony. As this epiphany sinks in, one begins to wonder: where can I get Dubia roaches? How many should I get? How much TLC do they need? Will this be what fulfills all my hopes and dreams?

Fortunately for you, Josh’s Frogs has the roaches and we have the answers. And no, a colony of Dubia roaches will not fulfill all your hopes  and dreams. But it may do so for whatever animal you have to feed them to.

Housing

First, you will want to acquire an appropriate container: a ten gallon terrarium will work for most small colonies while a forty gallon container is suitable for a large colony. You can also use larger Sterilite containers, as dubia roaches cannot climb smooth surfaces. Whichever you use, it should be filled with egg crate with each sheet oriented with the opposite face toward the previous sheet and rotated ninety degrees. If a 10 gallon terrarium is used, use half sheets of egg crate instead of full. Make sure the egg crate is placed vertically, as this will allow any roach poop to drop down to the bottom of the enclosure.

Congratulations, you have just built the infrastructure for Roach City. To you, it looks like a bunch of criss-crossed sheets of cheap cardboard. To the roaches, it’s high rises and skyscrapers as far as the compound eye can see. But you're not done yet!

Feeding

Your roaches still need their sustenance. And as we all know, a fed roach is a happy roach, so it’s time to lay out the dinner table. Place an additional sheet of egg crate either flat on top or flat alongside the others to use as a food tray. Here the roaches will feast alternately on a banquet of dry foods and vegetables and fruits. As they dine like kings (if kings were dumped into forty gallon containers and tossed powdered food, bananas, and table scraps now and then), your roaches will most assuredly be anticipating some of Josh’s Frogs own, roach rations premium roach food.

Temperature

Roaches are warm weather friends. As such, it is only right to turn up the heat. But as the optimal temperature range for roaches is uncomfortable for most human beings, we recommend acquiring a heat source just for them. Dubia roaches are most comfortable between 80°-88°F, although they will still breed (just slowly) at room temperature.

Of course, when heating your roaches, you will also want to acquire a thermostat to maintain a stable temperature. Check out our blog on choosing the right thermostat.

Hydration

Now that your roaches are soaking up that warmth, why not give them a cool glass of water? Actually roaches are not that picky, which is fortunate because enough cups of appropriate sizes would be prohibitively expensive. They are perfectly content to drink their fill from the water accumulated on their cardboard homes by misting. As such you will want some kind of misting apparatus with which to shower your roaches with cold refreshments. I'd recommend grabbing a quality hand mister, then misting with reverse osmosis, distilled, or spring water.

And there you have it. A veritable roach paradise. Now where to acquire some roaches? Why Josh’s Frogs, of course! A good starter set to get your colony going would consist of 10 adult females, 5 adult males, and then 100 ¾” juveniles and 100 ¼” juveniles.This will get you some roaches that are immediately breeding, as well as some future generations to keep production going after the adults retire.

And someday, when you look back on what you have done with your life, at the very least you will be able to say, I have a happy colony of Dubia roaches.  

A note on shipping:

Josh’s Frogs has the proper USDA permits in place to legally ship dubia roaches across state lines. We’ve done the legwork and can ship dubia roaches to all US states, except for Florida, California, Louisiana, Alabama, and Hawaii. As long as you do not live in one of those states, you can legally order and receive dubia roaches from Josh’s Frogs. A copy of the relevant permits is available via email upon ordering.

Wikipedia article on dubia roaches:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaptica_dubia

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