Ok, here we go ?
to start, Dubia roaches aren’t really a typical roach. They are not like the normal roaches that infest everything, everywhere. Dubias are a tropical roach, meaning they need a higher temperature to survive, and eventually breed. If you keep them at room temperature, they are very unlikely to grow quickly, if at all.
The tropic nature of them is especially good in the case that a few do manage to escape. First of all, they cannot climb smooth surfaces, as I’m sure you know if you’ve been buying them. They can’t climb the sides of their enclosure, so they can’t just escape out of a hole in their cover. Which leads to the second thing, if they do somehow manage to escape, they won’t reproduce, and they’ll eventually just die. Especially if you are in a cooler part of the country, or one that has snowy winters (like me, in the Midwest). If any get out, they won’t live any more than a few months.
Next up is the entire colony itself. Not only are they silent, and calm, they have absolutely no foul smell. The only smell from them comes from any fresh fruit that you put in there, and forget to get it out once it starts getting moldy. Other than that, as long as you don’t have scores of roaches dying, there shouldn’t be any smell. Not even fruit fly cultures can boast this ?
next is the maintenance. Simply put, there is none. More specifically, there are a few things to take into consideration. First of all, you will probably want to put them in a large bin of sorts. I would highly suggest a mid-sized aquarium, for a few reasons. First of all, it is very easy to clean. The roach droppings need a little scraping (gross!) but it all comes out, and you’re left with a “Like new” aquarium! The second reason why I would suggest an aquarium, is the heating element/conduction. You can slap a heat pad directly on an aquarium, and you can’t (or aren’t recommended to) on a plastic storage bin or something. And especially if you use a heat mat, a glass aquarium really conducts the heat well. It’s best to only have half or so of the aquarium heated, so there is a cool side and a hot side. The hot side is where they will mostly congregate, especially the Travis females, who need the heat to poop out their babies lol.
Another amazing thing about having a Dubia colony is the simplicity of feeding them. They don’t require much, only some oats, cereal, and grains to thrive. I use a mix of raisins (which they really like!), dried oatmeal, crushed nuts, and some stale bread flour. Just sprinkle a little in their enclosure, preferably on the heated side, as this will be where most of your roaches will be. Other than that, they do enjoy the occasional mango, orange, or broccoli stem (that’s right, just the stem, not the part is people eat). These things aren’t necessary, but the roaches do enjoy them from time to time.
Besides food, they do require some source of water. There are some really complicated methods with sponges etc, but water crystals work the best. Just have a little dish or something (I use the thin-lipped lid from a sour cream container). Just make sure it’s short enough for the little babies to be able to get to it.
Finally, the last thing I can think of (for now) is the rate at which the colony will grow. Dubias are very quick to multiply. They take 6-8 weeks to become an adult from a baby, and they live for about two year. In addition, one female will lay anywhere from 15-25 nymphs every two months. You don’t need to be a mathematician to know that that is a pretty high growth rate!
Thats pretty much all the benefits I can think of for them. Now for the drawbacks. There aren’t a whole lot, at least for me.
First would be the size of the Dubia itself. They are quite big when fully grown, perfect for a larger mantis species. But they’re way too big for smaller breeds, such as Ghosts and spiny flowers. But nonetheless, you can just use smaller, midsized roaches for the small species of mantids. Right now, I’m feeding my ghosts the baby dubias, and they’re loving them!
Another drawback I can think of is the growth rate of the population, which is also a benefit. They are so easy to keep and breed, but it can get away from you over a period of time. If you go a few months, six or so, without feeding any of your dubias, the population will probably grow way to big, and you’ll have to start freezing some of them, or they’ll just continue to multiply at an ever increasing rate. But if you’re actively feeding all your mantids on them, you shouldn’t have any issues with this.
The last drawback I can think of is perhaps the possibility of it getting infested with another pest. For example, my friends, who gave me my original 50, had a colony of over 6000, but it crashed and burned when it got infested with fruit flies. Literally millions of fruit fly larvae had taken over, and they had to burn everything, or else suffer from the billions of fruit flies that would have came out of their enclosure. The key to avoiding this is just having a lid, and making sure you keep it on, and just keep the enclosure itself relatively clean (not too clean, though, as the babies eat the poop. They naturally keep the enclosure pretty clean)
anyway, there’s hopefully a couple things in there that you can use for your essay. The big thing with dubias is just that they really are easy, and require minimal effort. The drawbacks can’t contend with the benefits, so I can’t see a reason why anyone wouldn’t want a colony. The hardest part is getting used to the idea that you’re breeding roaches, but it’s not like you’re going to release them into the wild.
Good luck on your essay, and if there’s anything you want to ask me, or anything that needs clarification, just give me a shout!
