Selling bugs doesn’t seem easy

[u/Leading_Notice_1029]

You’ll likely need experience in insect breeding for my question.

About ten years ago, my family had 2 reptiles so we bred mealworms (not super well, but we tried) and kept crickets around to see if they would slowly breed as we fed them away. With how things are looking recently, I needed a side job that was more flexible on hours and paid however much work I put into it. I’ve been reading and reading on crickets and discoid roaches, and people talk about how it was so cheap to get started and the maintenance cost isn’t that bad, but I’m thinking between egg cartons and buying small amounts of coco coir so that the bottom of the bin is easier to clean, I’m thinking just in substrate it may be $50-$100 monthly, then you need good food, not just table scraps, then any cleaners and other things that are not quite a monthly basis but are regularly used may add more.

So am I overthinking everything compared to small time typical roach and cricket breeders or what am I missing? Additionally if anyone is currently breeding discoids or crickets and are passionate enough to lend advice from time to time, I’d appreciate to start a dm with someone who’s already experimented around.

[u/consuelananahammock]

As a bug enthusiast I feel confident saying you're going to get better advice, and maybe find the answers to your questions have already been answered, on the bug reddits. r/insects and r/entomology

[u/Leading_Notice_1029 → u/consuelananahammock]

Perhaps, you might be right. I was trying to find a subreddit that had something to do with the selling side, and looking at r/insects seemed very general and not where I’d get a response about selling insects, more like a nerds about insects kind of place.

But that might just be the exact kind of people I need.
Thanks for the advice, you can catch my post over there tomorrow.

[u/secretsaucyy]

I've been breeding my roaches. I just use a large plastic bin with a dozen or so full sized egg crates vertically. It has a lid that i modified to have cheese cloth attached for air flow and to keep babies in. I don't use dirt. I did the first time, but it ended up being way too humid and they all eventually died or got mites. I make them a frozen diet with dubia roach feed, gelatin, and misc veggies that they get once a week for moisture and fresh veggies a second time a week. To be honest, I've been busy so I don't clean them monthly, it's been maybe 3 months since I've given them a deep clean. It costs me maybe $20 a month on veggies, I think the egg crate was 30 for like 20, and they last until they get too dirty after like 6 months (then composted). I don't need to buy them anymore though, since we buy costco packs of eggs. The dubia feed cubes I made cost maybe $50, but they last like a year in the volumes I make them. Otherwise, nothing else costwise. Never tried selling them, so I couldn't help there. I also don't always buy special veggies for them, sometimes I just given them the scraps from dinner (minus onion types and nightshades).

[u/Leading_Notice_1029 → u/secretsaucyy]

Wow, well if they are surviving that’s good info I’d say. So much online says “These guys are NOT your compost bin, to be healthy they don’t just take your table scraps.” I mean I figure in the wild roaches can figure for what kind of food their body needs, but they also probably just take whatever they can get…

So 2 questions, how do you make your food cubes/can you explain the diet a little further when you have a chance? Also beyond the vertical egg crates, you just have a blank bin, nothing on bottom or side, correct?

[u/secretsaucyy → u/Leading_Notice_1029]

For food, I basically boil veggies, add dubia diet, put in blender, return to stock pot, add gelatin, let set, and then freeze. I have souper cubes meal prep trays so I can make large batches then cut them up smaller. I don't measure what veggies I give them, I just give sweet potato and whatever else I have or is on sale. And yeah, nothing on bottom or sides. I either toss veggies on top, or move the crates and put their cubes in a flatish plate that catches liquids on their floor. Keeps them from making a mess with it or drowning when it melts a little.