Blaptica dubia Care Sheet
Guyana Orange Spotted Roach
Description:
Blaptica Dubia is one of the most popular feeder roach in the hobby. Adults can reach up 1 ½“ to two inches. Dubia also have the great advantage of being extremely easy to sex as the adult males have full wings while the adult females have only tiny wing stubs. Dubia are very slow movers, and are great feeder insects because of their shell to meat ratio. These feeder insects are live bearers, easy keepers, and very good breeders! This species should become much more popular as people discover how easy they are to breed and deal with.
Use as a Feeder Insect:
This roach is a great source of food for your pets (Tarantula’s, Lizards, or just about any reptile. Fish love them also!) It is always good to feed these roaches 24 hours before feeding them to your animals, doing this will give your pets a good amount of protein. Blaptica dubia are a great feeder insect because of their shell to meat ratio. This roach is better than crickets and much more cleaner (no smell at all)
A diet consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables supplemented with dry dog food, grain cereal, baby cereal, and fish flakes will provide a suitable diet. Just make sure you remove any old fruits or vegetables, mold can and will harm your colony. These items can be rotated through, or mixed together. There are also roach diets that can be purchased online. These are prefabricated mixtures that just need to be served to the roaches.
Breeding & Sexing:
Blaptica dubia are one of the easiest roach to sex. You can flip them over and look at the last segment on the abdomen, females will have a very large last segment, and males will have a small segment.
Housing:
Housing Blaptica dubia is very simple. Any glass tank or smooth sided plastic container would work since this is a non-climbing species. Provide a lot of egg crates for your feeder insects to breed, provide a good source of food (vegetables, dog food, etc.) Blaptica Dubia eat almost anything that is offered to them. Remember, what you feed your insect feeders will be what you’re feeding your pets.
Always keep mold out of the Dubia’s cage, mold can destroy a colony of roaches. This feeder insect does not require as much humidity as other species. They do however need an above average humidity level. If you notice bad molts then you may need to bump the humidity up just a little, you can do this by misting the enclosure.
Substrate:
Substrate is not required for this roach, and it is highly recommended that you do not use substrate. This will make your life much easier and you won’t have to clean as much. Adequate humidity would be above 40%. You may need to mist the enclosure occasionally to maintain these levels.
Heating:
The higher the temperature, the more your Blaptica dubia will breed. A heat mat can be placed under the container or a heat lamp on the top of the cage will also work. They need a temperature that falls between 80°-95° Fahrenheit. These are some other ways for heating your roaches,
Pre-heated Reptile Room
Nocturnal Light Bulb with Reflector
Heat Tape
Human Heating Pad
Reptile under Tank Heaters
Ceramic Heat Emitter
Heat Cable
Feeding & Watering:
Blaptica dubia will eat almost anything offered to them. A diet consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables supplemented with dry dog food, grain cereal, baby cereal, and fish flakes will provide a suitable diet. These items can be rotated through, or mixed together.
Watering- water crystals are a good source of water, and not messy. Provide a shallow water dish for your colony. They also provide a surface area that the roaches can walk on so no more drowned insects in the water dish!