This care sheet describes simple steps you can take to maintain the quality of your Dubia roaches.
Every Dubia roach we sell comes equipped with excellent health and nutrition for your animals. However, these things are perishable. Our roaches need a little maintenance to preserve their quality if you plan to keep them for more than a few weeks before feeding them off.
Fortunately, Dubia roaches are very easy to care for. Feeders can live weeks or months at room temperature with just a little food, moisture, and a dark place to hide. However, this is bare-bones survival. We want to help you do more, and it’s simple with just a little knowledge (below) and modest effort.
Table of Contents
NOTE: This information is about Dubia roach feeders, not breeders. While there is some overlap between the two, breeding Dubia roaches requires equipment, conditions, and effort beyond what is covered here. For comprehensive breeding information, please see our Dubia Roach Breeding Guide.
Temperature
Keep Dubia roach feeders between 50ºF and 80ºF. They can survive higher and lower temperatures, but they may become stressed. Stress can severely affect Dubia roaches. Maintain temperatures within this range to maximize their health and longevity. A dark, quiet spot in your home that stays between 62ºF and 72ºF for most of the day and night, for example, would do nicely.
Influence of temperature on growth
Keep your roaches between 70ºF and 90ºF if you want them to grow faster. The higher the temperature, the faster they will grow. However, many people buy the biggest size Dubia their animals can handle and don’t want them to grow any larger. If this is the case, keep them between 60ºF and 70ºF. Dubia roaches kept at 60ºF can take up to 10 times longer to complete an instar (growth cycle) than those kept at 90ºF.
External heat
The ideal temperature for Dubia roaches is 85º to 90ºF. Since room temperature in most homes is much lower, people often boost their Dubia enclosure’s temperature with external heat. The most common methods are heat mats, light bulbs, and ceramic heat emitters.
Be mindful of safety if you decide to provide external heat. Always follow manufacturer instructions and warnings. We don’t recommend placing heating devices inside Dubia roach enclosures. Nothing the roaches come in contact with should ever be hotter than 90ºF. As a rule, Dubia roaches should be able to escape temperatures above 90ºF. If they can’t, their health may suffer.
Hydration
Dubia roaches need water in some form. Their hydration needs can be satisfied with fresh fruits and vegetables, water, or both.
Note that it’s very important to use a dish when giving your roaches food and water. This prevents direct contact between moisture and frass. Frass wicks moisture and tends to dry very slowly, which can lead to mold and bacteria overgrowth.
Whatever dish or saucer you use, it must allow access to all the roaches. It’s very important that the smallest nymphs can reach the food & water because they are the most vulnerable to dehydration. A dish that all roaches can access is one with a short rim that they can step over, or textured sides they can climb.
Fresh fruits & vegetables
To the extent you can, provide your roaches with fresh fruits or vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are very healthy for Dubia roaches. In addition to providing nutrition, they will also satisfy their hydration needs.
Be sure to remove any uneaten food remnants before they become moldy. This is particularly important with high water content foods like fruits and vegetables.
Nutritional Note: Consider feeding your Dubia roaches plants that contain the nutrients you want your animals to consume. For example, you might choose vegetables with lots of calcium or carotenoids if you think these nutrients will benefit your animals. Also keep in mind that for any animal, dietary diversity is probably better than monotony.
Related reading: Gut loading Dubia roaches for the health of your animals »
Water
If you don’t give your roaches a constant supply of fresh fruits or vegetables, they will need supplemental water. Dubia roaches are notoriously prone to drowning, so you can’t just give them a dish of plain water.
You can provide water in several ways. Some common Dubia roach watering methods include water crystals, paper towels, and sponges.
Once you’ve chosen a hydration method and made sure all your roaches can access it, place the water crystals, paper towels, sponge, or whatever substrate you’re using inside a saucer. Set it inside the enclosure on the floor. Clean and replace the water dish every few days before it dries out, or before mold begins to grow. Dubia roaches can go long periods without water, but this may not be particularly healthy for them.
Nutritional Note: If you plan to feed off the roaches within a few weeks, water quality may not be important. However, if you keep them longer, consider distilled rather than tap water. There are a lot of chemicals in tap water and we know very little about their long-term effects on ourselves, let alone insects, reptiles, amphibians, and the like. What’s in your water depends on where you live, but a few common chemicals include chlorine, fluoride, pesticides, copper, lead, fertilizers, and prescription drugs. It’s an unknown, and we avoid the potential risks to roaches and our animals by using distilled water in our colonies. Again, if you meed their hydration needs with food, water quality isn’t something you have to worry about.
Food
Dubia roaches can survive a long time without food. They also have specialized bacteria in their guts that allow them to live on items with almost no nutritional value like paper and cotton. This is certainly not ideal, but it’s possible. Since these are feeders, and because Dubia roaches can live on almost anything, focus on supporting the nutritional needs of the end consumer rather than the roach. The end consumer, of course, is your animal. This goes back to the idea of gut loading, which we highly recommend. The healthy foods you feed your roaches that are intended for your animal will almost invariably be healthy for the roaches too, helping maintain their high nutrition value.
The bottom line is that while Dubia roaches benefit from a healthy diet, they don’t need much. They are scavengers with simple, basic needs. This is great for the animals that eat them. Feed your Dubia healthy foods with the nutrients you want your animals to consume, and they will live up to their reputation as superior feeders.
Examples of food for your roaches
Some common, widely available foods that are good for Dubia roaches (and probably also for the animals that eat them) are oats, whole grain breads, cereal grains, apples, oranges, banana, carrots, sweet potato, squash, and broccoli stalks. Any one of these are good, healthy examples of foods Dubia roaches like.
Experimenting with foods
You may experiment with different foods and food combinations if you like. Our Dubia roaches eat different foods depending on their growth stage, but you don’t have to worry about growth or reproduction. Your Dubia feeders have presumably arrived at or near the size you need them to be. Your concern is not their growth but your animal’s nutritional needs. Feed the roaches based on those, and do it with the knowledge that food can remain in their stomachs for up to three days.
Be cautious with protein
We don’t recommend loading Dubia roaches up with high protein foods. They’re already a high protein insect, and they evolved to deal with scarcity by storing uric acid when protein is plentiful(external link) for times when it is not. Uric acid is an anti-oxidant and a natural byproduct of protein digestion, but it’s also a toxin at high levels.
Instead of providing your animals with more protein, overfeeding protein to Dubia roaches may create a situation where the animals that eat them have to remove more uric acid than they otherwise naturally would. There is no benefit to this. While probably not a big deal for most captive insectivores, protein overload is potentially bad news for those with existing health issues – particularly kidney problems – or that are otherwise on the edge health-wise. You can read our post about Dubia roaches and dietary protein if you’d like to learn more. Protein is a bit of a mystery nutrient and lots of people think the more the better, but that’s not so. A diet high in protein is known to kill cockroaches, so don’t go overboard with protein.
Housing
Naturally, you will need a secure place to house your Dubia roaches. As feeders, they don’t need much. You can keep them in any container that is (a) unaffected by moisture, (b) provides you with easy access, (c) is slick-sided, and (d) opaque. Many different types of plastic storage containers work well for roach storage, but jars, buckets, aquariums, and more may also work. There are lots of options. Perhaps the top two most important things to consider when choosing housing for your feeders are escape and air circulation.
Nutritional Note: We notice a lot of things in large colonies that may not be apparent in small ones. One of these is the importance of shelter, darkness, and community. Dubia roaches with these things are healthier than those without. To maintain peak health, make sure your roaches have a dark place to hide and access to regular physical contact with other roaches. Interestingly, there is such a thing as “roach psychology”, and Dubia are particularly social roaches. They seek the company of other roaches for protection whenever possible, and they prefer to not be alone. Give them at least some shelter, if possible.
Container size
In addition to preferring company, Dubia roaches favor small spaces. They will survive in large enclosures, but they do better in tight quarters surrounded on all sides by other roaches. Keep this in mind when choosing a container. A group of 50 Dubia will do better in a shoebox-size enclosure than a 40-gallon tub, for example. Since these are feeders, there’s no need to plan ahead for a larger colony. Find a good size enclosure for the roaches you have now and if you end up with a larger colony in the future, you can upgrade at that time.
Harborage
To accommodate their need for darkness and physical contact, place some kind of harborage in their enclosure. This will ideally be something they can crawl on and hide inside. It could be paper egg cartons, crumpled newspaper, cardboard tubes from a used paper towel roll, and more. You can use anything that provides small, dark spaces where roaches can gather together. If you’ll feed them off in a few days or week, this probably isn’t necessary. But if you keep them longer, consider giving them a place to hide.
Lids
Lids are often unnecessary because Dubia roaches can’t climb smooth surfaces. However, lids also keep things out, which may be handy if you have pets or people who may want to check out your roaches. Also remember that Dubia roaches can climb lightly scuffed surfaces. With any new enclosure, make sure the sides are smooth enough to prevent escape before deciding to go lidless. Keep in mind that small nymphs are smaller and lighter and can climb smoother surfaces than larger roaches. Sometimes all it takes is a little dust or dirt on an otherwise smooth surface and they can climb right up. A container with smooth, clean sides will encourage the roaches to stay put.
If you use a lid, make sure the roaches have enough air. You can cut ventilation holes and secure them with window screen and hot glue or tape. Dubia roaches can chew through fiberglass screen, so if they can reach it, be sure to use metal. If you aren’t trying to keep anything out, you might also be able to get away with open ventilation holes.
If you have a container with walls the roaches can climb and you don’t have a lid, you can prevent escape by spreading a two to three-inch wide band of petroleum jelly all the way around the walls inside the bin. Apply it very thin, using only enough to coat the surface. Petroleum jelly loses its thick viscosity at high temperatures and may run down the walls if it’s applied too thick. If you keep your roaches at room temperature, this won’t be an issue.
Alternatively, you can apply a strip of clear packing tape to the upper inside surface instead of petroleum jelly. Both work equally well. Packing tape is less messy and would probably be our recommendation.
Substrate
Don’t use any substrate in your enclosure. As mentioned above, bacteria and Dubia roaches thrive in the same conditions, and the two are not always a healthy mix. Reduce the potential for bacterial overgrowth by keeping the enclosure clean and dry. There is no advantage to letting a little frass (roach poop and exoskeletons) accumulate. However, in most situations there is no harm either.
The exception to the no substrate rule is with Minis that may still be in their poop-eating stage. Young Dubia roach nymphs eat feces for the nitrogen and bacteria they need to colonize their intestines. However, you don’t have to worry too much about any of this if you plan on feeding the roaches off to your animals within a week or two.
Humidity
Generally, Dubia roach feeders don’t have special humidity requirements. If you live in a dry climate or the air in your home is dry due to central air or heating, your roaches may appreciate daily misting. However, it probably won’t improve their health or increase longevity. Humidity aids molting, so if your air is dry and you notice molting problems, consider increasing the humidity. If you spray, allow the enclosure to dry between mistings. Dubia roaches are not a super high humidity insect. 40% to 60% relative humidity is about all they need.
Light
Provide at least 8 and ideally 10 to 12 hours of darkness every 24 hours. This can be achieved by storing their enclosure in a dark place. Dubia roaches need darkness and they become stressed if they don’t get enough. Keep them in a dark place and that should be fine. Again though, this is probably not super critical if the roaches are going to be fed off soon.
While too much light causes stress, Dubia roaches cannot get too much darkness. There is no harm in keeping them in a place without any light, like a closet or drawer. They don’t like light and they don’t need it. Though they can see, most of what they do is guided by smell and feel.
Size Dependent Care
No Dubia roach care sheet is complete without size-dependent care information. We think it’s useful to pay attention to the various differences between sizes from a nutritional perspective, though it’s up to you how deeply you want to get into caring for your Dubia feeders.
Temperature
Large roaches can withstand environmental extremes much better than their smaller cohorts. Nymph Minis, for example, are particularly affected by temperatures outside the range recommended for growth above, which is 70º F to 90º F. They are also more easily affected by food and water shortages. The larger Dubia roaches get, the better they can handle environmental extremes.
Young Dubia grow fast, so they use energy quickly. They have fewer reserves due to their small size, and because they’ve had less time to build them compared to older roaches. Basically, the larger/older the roach the better it handles adversity.
Colony stress
Small nymphs are also vulnerable to predation within a colony. Stressed adults without enough protein, sporadic food availability, or poor food quality, will eat young nymphs. Adults also tend to take the young nymphs out when colonies are overcrowded and conditions are otherwise substandard. Adult males will eat the young when reproductive pressures are high, as when the female to male ratio is low.
Under normal circumstances, Dubia are social roaches and don’t tend to harm each other. Newborn nymphs can generally be kept with larger nymphs and adults without issue if you follow the steps below.
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Keep temperatures within the range for “growth” listed above
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Maintain adequate food and water
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Provide adequate safe harbor and at least 10 hours of darkness in a 24 hour period
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Reduce the ratio of adult males to adult females to 1:3 or lower
Newborn nymphs get a fair amount of protective care from adult females. Captive insects probably don’t need the protection to survive in well-stocked enclosures, but it may benefit their well-being. This in turn may affect their health, which influences how long they survive, how much they eat, how fast they grow, and ultimately how nutritious they are as feeders. Dubia roaches need physical contact and their growth can be stunted to the degree they don’t get it.
Frass
As previously mentioned, newborn Dubia roaches eat frass. This generally applies to roaches ¼-inch or smaller. If you have roaches this size, consider leaving at least some frass in the enclosure. On the other hand, neither frass nor its absence seems to have an affect on adults.
Conclusions
What’s important to remember while reading this information is that maintaining Dubia roaches is not an all or nothing proposition. There are some things they can’t live without, but once their basic needs are met, any marginal step you take to support their physiological (and in some cases psychological) needs will help maintain and even boost their health. And remember: healthy feeders are nutritious feeders.
To figure out what kind of care to provide your Dubia roaches, first determine their purpose. If they will be fed off in a week, there is nothing wrong with storing them in a warm, dark spot with a little food and water and leaving it at that. If you will be keeping them longer, or if you want to gutload them or grow them larger, you will need to do more.
Our bottom line advice is to decide what you want from your roaches, then act accordingly. We hope this care sheet has provided you with useful ideas as you work to accomplish those goals!