Red Racers Turkistan roaches
 

Hey I was interested in starting red racer colony. I have a Dubia colony going but I would like to get out of crickets as soon as possible and I feel the Turks are the way to go since they lay eggs constantly. I was wondering if they are easy to take care of and how do they compare to Dubia in terms of care. Also do they escape easy I keep hearing that the males fly

The males flutter a bit but nothing like really flying. They need a decent humidity level so that the eggs can hatch out but other than that keep them warm, feed, water and they will breed like mad!

I chose turks over the dubia when I first started my colony. I gotta say they were the best choice for me. I have thousands of babies that just hatched right now. It's as if I can never stop them from breeding. If you have alot of mouths to feed, I definitely suggest using them.

Lateralis versus dubia
 

Lateralis are very fast breeding as they lay egg cases instead of holding them inside until hatching. They can lay egg cases every 2 weeks and have 20 or even more nymphs per case hatch. The nymphs are also smaller. In fact Blatta lateralis aka turkistan roaches are aboutthe closest to cricket size of non climbing roaches. If kept sufficiently warm and a large proportion of males result the males can actually fly pretty well. Females are wingless and no danger of them escaping like that. Another advantage is they do not dig or burrow, however will crawl under things if they can. They are also very fast.

Dubia are a bigger, meatier roach. They also move slower, dig and burrow. As the leading bulk seller of roaches in the USA we can also state they arethe most popular, however the lateralis are a lot less expensive.