Dubias & no substrate?

Ok so now that I cut my dubia colony down to a couple-few thousand I am thinking of switching from aspen to no substrate. This will take some time as I will have to pick all the tiny babies out one by one Just like the tedious cleaning process every 2-3 months. My questions are:

Do some of the nymphs and/or adults die if they happen to fall over onto their backs? They arent the most graceful and like to burrow vs climb, and I worry that they are going to get turned over and not be able to get turned back?

Do they breed just as effeciently without substrate?

Should I fill the entire plastic container with egg crates and feed them on top of the crates? Or leave a small portion of the floor open for feeding?

Do any of you have pictures of your setups without substrate?

Any help, opinions, suggestions you can offer would be great. Thanks, Lindsay

ps. In case I dont get the courage to go to no substrate, mostly in fear of them not reproducing as much. Is there a better substrate, easier substrate then aspen?

I just started a colony a few weeks ago and didn't use any substrate. Several people posted thats it's not needed because over time their frass (aka poop) will accumulate on the floor. I do have parts of an eggcrate and a roach condo in mine and all seems well. Hope this helps. I'm sure others will make posts as well and hopefully shed a little more light on the subject.

no substrate is fine, what i use is paper towels on the bottom of the whole enclosure. (incase they get turned over and can't get flipped back)

LindsayMarie said:

Do some of the nymphs and/or adults die if they happen to fall over onto their backs? They arent the most graceful and like to burrow vs climb, and I worry that they are going to get turned over and not be able to get turned back?

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They will be able to right themselves without the substrate.

LindsayMarie said:

Do they breed just as effeciently without substrate? ?

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They will breed very efficiently with or without substrate.

LindsayMarie said:

Should I fill the entire plastic container with egg crates and feed them on top of the crates? Or leave a small portion of the floor open for feeding?

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It is not necessary I keep mine with eggcrates on 1/2 of the container and their food and water on the other side.

LindsayMarie said:

Do any of you have pictures of your setups without substrate?

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I'm sorry but I don't have any pics of my set-ups yet (I presently keep 13 different kinds of roaches), need to get a camera

LindsayMarie said:

ps. In case I dont get the courage to go to no substrate, mostly in fear of them not reproducing as much. Is there a better substrate, easier substrate then aspen?

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I use bed a beast for some of my more exotic roaches that need some bedding

LindsayMarie said:

Do any of you have pictures of your setups without substrate?

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I keep my B. dubia in the same way as N. cinerea. Here are my old pictures of tanks where I keep them. (eggcrates were removed, and I added better ventilation).

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=39260

As jojobear mentioned, you shouldn't have any problem.

Dark Raptor said:

I keep my B. dubia in the same way as N. cinerea. Here are my old pictures of tanks where I keep them. (eggcrates were removed, and I added better ventilation).

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=39260

As jojobear mentioned, you shouldn't have any problem.

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It really looks as though yours can escape....

I don't use substrate. They run all over and if they flip over, another roach will eventually crawl over it and it will right itself.

Much easier to clean and keep track of how many you use. If you are worried, just place some bark in there. Not to cover the bottom but just spaced around.

Bloodletting said:

It really looks as though yours can escape....

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If you look again at the pics, you will find that roaches stop on one special height... I'm using vaseline!

Dark Raptor said:

If you look again at the pics, you will find that roaches stop on one special height... I'm using vaseline!

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I thought you there may have been. I notice my young dubia can climb plastic but cannot climb over clear packing tape. Others could or coudn't, glass climbers I mean.

I keep hissers with no substrate