lack of water- dubia's going canibal?

[fallenangelfyre]

hey all-
so i recently purchased a dubia starter colony from someone locally. i have about 250 i was told- even though it seems to be less than 100 to me (think i was had). anyway, i can't seem to locate any water crystals locally which i didn't anticipate so i'm ordering them online. while i wait for them i have read around the net that many ppl don't use them, and just use fresh veggies and such to give them moisture, which is what i'm doing until arrival of water crystals. however starting yesterday i started finding dead roaches. not just dead- like dried husks as if count dracula had paid them a midnight visit. and today i found about 7 like that. i seem to remember reading somewhere a mention of water-deprived dubias going canibal. is that what's happening here? is this some disease? idk
i am new to keeping dubias, any insight would help- thx!

 

[CapCitySteve]

yeah sounds like you have some cannibalism. Just for your information, home depot and lowes sell water crystals in their plant section. I think the brand name is soil moist or something to that effect. When you add water to them the crystals swell. It's located by their fertilizers.
I had a similar problem starting my colony. you can always use a water dish with cotton balls or papertowels in it. The roaches can drink from that and also I mist my colony daily. They probably don't need it but they sure love it and will all come out after the mist session. I mist directly onto the sides and also onto the egg crates themselves. Just avoid the food. You can give vegies too, just make sure you rinse them thoroughly to remove any pesticides. If you start seeing roaches acting nuerologic before they die, its the pesticides that are getting them. I have not had a problem with this though since my colony got established.

Steve

 

[fallenangelfyre]

thanx so much for the info, steve!

 

[TheRed]

Are you sure they're not molting and you're just seeing the shed skin on the ground? Sounds like what you're describing.
I've been using oranges for months and they're fine.