question about roach colony...

I am looking to start a roach colony as a means to compost food waste, and i was wondering to what extent dubia roaches will be able to do that job...

I found a nice article about a guy who uses red runners, and he says they will eat literally anything, including meat and dairy, and they produce amazing fertilizer in the process.

so i was wondering if dubia roaches are at all capable of the same thing, being as they are not an invasive species i think i would prefer to have them.


i raise quail and some chickens(and am thinking about getting some reptiles again!) so they will be used for feed, composting, and fertilizer production.

If anyone has any information on this subject please help me out!
Thanks in advance!

I have raised roaches and unless you have a mass amount of roaches they are not good for composting. Black soldier fly larvae on the other hand is a different story. You will have a tough time keeping them fed, I raise them to feed chickens, Koi, bearded dragons and sell the extras on faunaclassifieds. They have to be raised outside, which limits year round production. If you are doing this for composting, food for critters, and fertilizer, the soldier fly is the way to go. A small plywood box works best for me and can produce 100's of thousands in a summer. My setup will devour a 5 gallon bucket of food/garden waste in about 2 days and their waste is a great fertilizer.

thank you for the reply, i have a friend who uses those and he seems quite content with them. however i am solo, no wife or kids, so i really don't produce that much waste at all. it would take me a month to fill a 5 gallon bucket with waste to be composted.

i used to have a colony of dubias when i had leopard geckos, and i actually enjoyed the roaches, moreso than any other feeders i tried to raise. so that is another reason i am looking to roaches.