UPDATE AND A FEW QUESTIONS.....with pics
so after almost losing hope thinking iv been doing things wrong, a couple of my pupae have turned to beetles....very tiny beetles...for some reason I still think they should be bigger.....
the concern im having at the moment; is that i seem to have several dead beetles in my beetle drawer and not many baby worms in the drawer just underneath it (beetle frass/baby worm(pupae drawer.... that has no mesh base)
in comparison I have a lot more baby worms in the last drawer (worm frass drawer), probably coming from the beetles/pupae I haven't been able to remove from the drawer above it (main worm culture with mesh base drawer)..... but this isnt that big of an issue since so long as im getting some births all is good right?
the pictures below show in order;
1.beetle drawer, with mesh base
2.beetle frass/baby worm/pupae drawer, with no mesh base + close up on pupae
3.main worm culture drawer, with mesh base
4. worm frass drawer, with no mesh base....




my real concern is regarding the fact that the beetles in the beetle drawer barley seem to want to touch any food, or so I think....granted i have a zillion worms that reduce an apple to shreds in a matter of hours, but the beetles seem to have no interest in any of the food i provide them. whether it be: oat, cereal, fresh green or fruit.....nor do they seem to fancy the adult bearded dragon pellets from zoo med....though the worms love them liz)...
on a different not I was able exploit the surrounding environment in which i keep my feeder cultures and "hack" a heating source.... the box you see over my house heating unit is the dubia culture, iv noticed that where its resting the heating unit puts out a comfortable 30-31°C (roughly 86°F) so hopefully this will "spice things up" in the colony....
Iv also divided the males and females and currently have 13 males for 39 females... for a grand total of 52 roached..... and two babies I didnt count in the equation....
anyway there you have it hope you enjoyed the update....
oh yes! I almost forgot I added a couple infrared bulbs to my set up but ill post questions and concerns about it in my other thread.