Best Feeders For Overcoming Insect Fear/Best Practice For Buying Unfamiliar Insects Online

[compact rivet]

Hi! I have an almost 3 year old gecko who I love very dearly, but I do not love her food. I started out feeding mealworms and dubia roaches, seeking out other feeders, but the dubia roaches kept crawling out of bowls, being incredibly difficult to grab, and getting loose out of tipped over containers, with some particular incidents scaring me off roaches and generally more crawly insects all together. I have been feeding my leo mealworms but I know she needs variety in her staple foods.

In general, my questions here are:

• Are there any tips to make dubia roaches or other faster insects more managable for me?
• What feeders do yall think would be better for me? (less fast, a bit closer to mealworms which I am more comfortable with)

I am interested in BSFL, silkworms, and hornworms, but I cannot find any in person and I am a bit afraid of ordering online, especially considering I don't know how comfortable I will be with them. I have searched for videos about these guys, but since they are less common compared to the faster roaches and crickets I haven't been very successful in learning more about them specifically. I'm also generally unfamiliar with ordering insects online, I don't think I've ever done it before.

Here I'm wondering:

• Are there any tips for finding any of these less common insects in person? (Like knowing how the chain pet stores handle them)
• What are BSFL, silkworms, and hornworms like? (special care, behavior, concerns with feeding)
• How should I handle ordering insects online? (What to expect to arrive, anything to be concerned about with the insects, anything to avoid)

This is a general attempt at forming my worries into managable questions but I am open to advice or questions based on what I wrote!

[north hound]

You can buy escape proof feeding bowls so they can’t get out of them and find some type of way to scoop them in the bowl or something

Not sure if it works for dubias but it does for crickets, you can put them in the icebox to make them sleep before feeding

For feeders that aren’t as fast, I suggest silk worms, horn worms and bsfl (basically any worms on the feeder list should be fine) and ordering online isn’t as bad as it may seem tbh! Most of our members order online or have before. With bugs i wouldn’t really worry a whole bunch tbh! I myself plan to order dubias online soon actually

And I can’t exactly say what they’re like because I haven’t owned any but I don’t think they really do much tbh, as for the other 2 questions can you elaborate on them because I don’t really get what you’re asking

Could be reading them wrong but

[compact rivet]

I think what I’m asking is like, do any chain pet stores occasionally sell other insects in person or does their stock stay mostly the same, and is there anything that’s recommended with any of the other worms on the feeder list (like squishing the head, or they die quickly, or something like that I don’t really know)

[scarlet vigil]

for large country wide chains stock is going to stay the same. small local reptile stores or smaller chains within a state/province or two may also have roughly the same stock but you can special order if there are other things on the vendors list

no special treatment required like squishing heads but gutloading works different for silks and horns since they only eat their premade foods. silks will only eat mulberry leaves or their mulberry leaf paste which means if you buy a larger quantity you'll need to buy the food as well

i pick up 5-8 at a time from my workplace to negate needing to feed them

hornworms get very large very quick so i would avoid ordering large quantities if you can help it.

theyre relatively common though, and i know for sure theyre a part of petsmarts stock list, and so are bsfl which are listed under calciworms or phoenix worms there