Dubia roaches

Adam20202

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Messages
13
Hey guys, so I've bought Dubia's before and fed they're great.. And don't smell at all! But I've started to breed them etc... And inside the tub smells bad like really bad.. Worse then crickets.. I've cleaned the tub out twice and still smells again after a day or so!.... Does anybody have any ideas why they're smelling so badly! Thanks guys...

I know this is probably an odd question but it's getting bad now... :(
 

Jones0911

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 5, 2013
Messages
406
Hey guys, so I've bought Dubia's before and fed they're great.. And don't smell at all! But I've started to breed them etc... And inside the tub smells bad like really bad.. Worse then crickets.. I've cleaned the tub out twice and still smells again after a day or so!.... Does anybody have any ideas why they're smelling so badly! Thanks guys...

I know this is probably an odd question but it's getting bad now... :(
if I read it correctly somewhere, I think these have scent glads so that's probably what the smell is
 

samatwwe

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 30, 2009
Messages
365
They do emit an odor if you pick them up sometimes but I have thousands of dubia in seperate colonies and none of them ever stink. Could the smell be on anything inside the tub(egg flats, food, water source)? Also, how moist are you keeping your tub? I have the best luck with no lids on mine otherwise they get too much moisture, even with a screen top.
 

LordWaffle

Arachnobaron
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
451
My experience with dubia has been that while they may smell worse up close, they do not smell up a room like crickets will. To me, that's a fair trade off.
 

Beary Strange

Arachnodemon
Joined
Aug 30, 2013
Messages
670
I had that same problem when I first started mine-it reeked and they were dying like crazy. Many suggested it was due to a lack of ventilation (nope, there was and still is plenty) or that it could be due to me insisting on feeding fruits and vegetables rather than dry dog/cat food (which I refuse to let up on). The solution I found was to go natural, or at least partially natural. That is to say, they're on about an inch or so of coco fiber, moss and oak leaves and have cork bark hides for one side of the enclosure (the other has egg crates as per usual, which was added later to accommodate the growing population). This allows the use of clean-up crews, in my case darkling beetles/mealworms but you can use isopods and springtails as well, which helps with the smell immensely. When I open mine it smells earthy and nice and the incidence of death dropped markedly once I switched them over. When one does die, the beetles take care of it pretty quickly, as well as any other decaying matter. I also don't keep that nasty water goop in there-I simply make it rain for them every other day, depending on how dry it's been.
 

CLICKBANGBANG

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 4, 2013
Messages
35
I'm also having an Oder problem. I'm surprised as it is a very small colony still. I've replaced the water, cleaned out the tub. And kept the food fresh. Next will be replacing the egg crates.

I'm going to try the lemons.
 

ratluvr76

Arachnodemon
Active Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2014
Messages
759
I had that same problem when I first started mine-it reeked and they were dying like crazy. Many suggested it was due to a lack of ventilation (nope, there was and still is plenty) or that it could be due to me insisting on feeding fruits and vegetables rather than dry dog/cat food (which I refuse to let up on). The solution I found was to go natural, or at least partially natural. That is to say, they're on about an inch or so of coco fiber, moss and oak leaves and have cork bark hides for one side of the enclosure (the other has egg crates as per usual, which was added later to accommodate the growing population). This allows the use of clean-up crews, in my case darkling beetles/mealworms but you can use isopods and springtails as well, which helps with the smell immensely. When I open mine it smells earthy and nice and the incidence of death dropped markedly once I switched them over. When one does die, the beetles take care of it pretty quickly, as well as any other decaying matter. I also don't keep that nasty water goop in there-I simply make it rain for them every other day, depending on how dry it's been.
I love the idea of keeping the dubias with mealworms... You say you use coco fibre substrate.. What about a bed of oats with some other grain type stuff, I was thinking about a mixture of oats, wheat germ, cornmeal, fish flakes, possible powdered baby cereals. I used to use a mix of that with my mealworm colony years ago. But I wonder how that would work with the dubias...
 

CLICKBANGBANG

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 4, 2013
Messages
35
This last feeding I put lemon in with the carrots and other veggies. Let's see if it helps. I'll change the cartens this week as well. Also going to try to scrub the rubber made out better. Maybe use a drop of vinigar to help clean it and kill the smell.
 

pyro fiend

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
1,216
This last feeding I put lemon in with the carrots and other veggies. Let's see if it helps. I'll change the cartens this week as well. Also going to try to scrub the rubber made out better. Maybe use a drop of vinigar to help clean it and kill the smell.
thatd probably help. my first container STUNK because i added moisture or left in too many water crystals and itd be super humid in a low ventalation tank. now my roach bin is 100% vented top and never smells. tho the other bin smelled for weeks later even the now dried crates stunk peew! had to throw it all out. but now with 100% mesh top im fine. only smell i ever get is of the fresh food, orange banana etc

im not sure about people with sub in dubias i have a container i left accidentally open in a enclosure that was waiting on new arivals and a bunch crawled out into it.. so ima let them do their roachy thing. but when i tried take them out just seemed like a much bigger pain then chasing a single mm dubia thru 20 flats full of females XD
 

pyro fiend

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
1,216
Anyone have experience with Flys in the dubai tub?
fruit flies? or house flies? :p i think wev all has FF just offer less food. normal flys.. erm id think high mortality rate drew them in maybe? not sure i get flys in my room but never in cages
 

philthyxphil

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
46
fruit flies? or house flies? :p i think wev all has FF just offer less food. normal flys.. erm id think high mortality rate drew them in maybe? not sure i get flys in my room but never in cages
I'm thinking fruit Flys, it's a new colony, but I think the Flys like the orange in there. My ventilation is high, maybe it's just something I'll have to deal with?
 

pyro fiend

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
1,216
I'm thinking fruit Flys, it's a new colony, but I think the Flys like the orange in there. My ventilation is high, maybe it's just something I'll have to deal with?
maybe offer less portions, or even cut the orange up more. i used to throw in orange halfs, but now i cut it unto about 16 pieces. cut it in 8 then cut those in half so more roaches can eat at once. but if yours is a new colony maybe its your just offering way too much and food is being left way too long. i learned the hard way when id cut up like 2lb of fruit and veg for 300 roaches and itd last like 3 days befor itd start to rot and id have to remove it [yuck] maybe try half of what you have been. and see how that works FF seem to come around only when foods sat around a little bit. typically my roaches can devour the food i give them in about 4-6hrs [much quicker if i use only oranges tho lmao] but this is just my experience.
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
8,982
I've been using a more natural setup for some years now, I've gone a couple of years without cleaning their container but have had to remove some of the dirt buildup, just gets too thick after a while and I use that for fertilizer with potted plants. I start out with about .5 inch coco fiber, oak leaves and several pieces of bark with a curve to it. The leaves and bark I get from my yard. Or you can only start out with bark and leaves, the dirt will accumulate as frass is broken down. They eat and hide in the leaves. I feed fishflakes, organic dog food, citrus and other veg matter. It's probably the cartons your are using that promote the odor, those things smell really bad, the source of an ammonia smell you might be experiencing, the cartons absorbing waste from the roaches and not on the ground where it would break down faster, like on coco fiber and leaves. Paper material like cartons and cardboard will smell bad and it doesn't take long. That stuff starts smelling bad by itself just sitting in a humid garage in a day. Yeah plain boxes can smell bad alone if they get a little wet. I do use cartons for raising crickets though. You don't have to throw the dirty cartons away btw. I put the dirty ones outside somewhere, where it will rain on them and the sun comes down on them too. On a porch table, back of a truck in the driveway, etc. They harden up again as they dry. They never look as clean but they stop smelling, so I just re-use.
 
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