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So, has anyone had experience with this fellow? He's based in California, and seems to have pretty good deals. He offers member discounts and specials. This month the special, as far as I can tell, is 2 for 1 on small dubia nymphs. I ordered 250 small nymphs and 10 adult pairs. (My colony starter is fairly small, and I need to get it producing faster. It would certainly help if I'd stop feeding them off, lol... ) Priority shipping is free on orders over $60, which is nice (the site also says heat packs are included free of charge). You can pack up to 16oz of dry goods and 5 egg flats in the same package as the feeders, so I got a lb of water gel and 5 flats. The site says he ships Mon-Wed, so I should hopefully get my order in on Fri or Sat. Hopefully the order will come Friday before 2pm (I have to leave for work then). I will see if the neighbors can receive the package for me if I'm not home. I probably shouldn't tell them it's roaches, lol... It was only $72 for all that, and I should be getting 500 small nymphs if he lives up to his special, with a 30% overcount by weight. I should have PLENTY of roaches in no time. I won't likely have to buy feeders again, ever, lol... Now I have to see if there's a store with better prices on supers than the one I usually buy from.
Neat- how do you find roaches as feeders? I looked a little bit at the smaller Turkistan roaches- apparently they're illegal to keep here, but plenty of people seem to use them anyway. I've heard two sides as to whether or not escapees are able to survive and prosper in the home, but they seem really appealing otherwise.
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Aaron
Selling my collection for a plane ticket to Ecuador- PM for details.
Actually, I quite like them, AS FEEDERS. lol... I'm currently stocking dubias (with a couple of discoids... I need to get a few adult pairs so I can breed some of them as well), and they get fairly large, and that's when they both start looking like roaches and feeling like them when they crawl on you. I usually freak out (and I mean freak out uncontrollably, I've had a roach phobia since I was little and woke up with one on my face...) when the big ones crawl on me and it's hard not to shake my arm wildly and fling them across the room or squash them into juicy roach paste. But as feeders they're pretty good. My guys didn't know what to do with them at first, but now even my picky CWD will eat them. Plus, they are small enough when born that even really small herps (like my chorus frogs) can eat them with no problem. They are easy to dust with vitamins and calcium, unlike the superworms that were a favorite of my CWD. The biggest drawback is the initial investment. I got a HELL of a deal with this guy. I'm going to be heartbroken if the experience isn't a good one, but if it is, I'm going to highly recommend that anyone thinking of starting with some roaches go ahead and order this month. He emailed me back this morning and I WILL be getting 500 small nymphs PLUS a 30% overcount by weight (you can only get this deal if you join his site as a member). I'm hoping the 30% overcount will also apply to my adults, lol... I should have a heavily producing colony in no time with 15 pairs of adults and ~600 nymphs. I just need to pick up a larger bin and something to heat them with (though I'm thinking of moving my work table into the spare room over the heating vent and skirting it with cardboard to trap the heat and keeping them there). They'll produce and grow faster if they are kept at higher temps. They can survive if they get into the house, but only if your temp is above 60-65 degrees, but they shouldn't be able to grow quickly or even reproduce at household temps. And if any ever do escape, it's as simple to kill them as turning off the heat for a few hours (or you can make a roach trap without chemicals and put them back in the bin).
I was toying with the idea of ordering some lobster roaches as well, but they climb, and I don't want to risk them escaping into the house (plus they look more like roaches and will likely freak me out far worse than the dubias/discoids). The lobsters stay smaller and are less expensive than some of the others.
I think I might abandon crickets all together. To me, the roaches smell more, but I am STILL having problems with mite infestation in the crickets (flour mites, as far as I can tell... Thank goodness I left the predatory mites back at the old house) that keep getting into my superworms. I've also had a problem with nematodes in the past, I believe. That's one I can't prove for certain, but based on the signs I really think I got a shipment in that was infested. Now, I know my claim of smellier-than-cricket roaches may seem odd to anyone who's kept crickets before, but mine just don't smell, and the roaches do have an odor (though not very strong) that's kindof like rotting fruit. I don't know how I manage to keep crickets that don't smell, but I do, lol...
Anyway, so even though I grew up in the roach infested south, I quite like the roaches as feeders. I still want to offer plenty of variety and may get crickets from time to time, but I think I'm going to do away with the crickets after this batch, as long as I can get the roach colony producing.
All that said, the guy is shipping my order out today, so I'll let you guys know in a couple of days how everything went. He's just down in Cali, so I might even get them tomorrow, my cricket/superworm orders coming all the way from sunny FL usually get here in two days by priority mail. Here's hoping I can find a better deal on supers today than the place I generally order from. I've always thought well of them, until my hubby pointed out that I always have massive die offs after about a week (with the crickets). The supers have always faired VERY well though, so I might go ahead and order some. 1000 shipped for $20 (or was it $25?) is a good deal.
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Last edited by froggsong; 02-17-2010 at 01:35 PM..
Just ordered Roaches from Greg's Exotic Inverts
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