Heating Dubias

[Psychopopcorn]

I am going to be starting a dubia colony hopefully soon and I am just not sure on how to exactly heat the bins.
I have read about human heat mats, but then I have also read they can possibly randomly catch fire...
Please help I want to get my colony started before I get my beardie in the next couple months..

Thanks!

 

[Psychopopcorn]

Or, at least what brands of human heating pads are you all using? So that I know which ones are least likely to burst into flames. lol
Thanks

 

[bierdieman]

I have a very large Dubia colony that produces hundreds of babbies every couple of months and all I did was find a room that I did not use much during the day (the laundry room) and I put a space heater in there it has 3 settings I use the low setting during the day and the higher settings during the night depending on the temp outside. This works well for me and keeps the room temp around 90*.

If you want help with anything to do with starting or maintaining your colony let me know.

 

[Psychopopcorn]

That sounds like a good idea... sadly my apartment is too small and I dont really have any seperate rooms... They are all basically connected.. :/ thanks for the idea though.

 

[bierdieman]

NP

 

[NickBarta]

I built a wooden box with a hinged top, and put the styrofoam insulation for the insides. I heat the 4 foot long by 2foot high by 2 foot deep box with a 150 watt ceramic heat bulb in a dome fixture. I have the Zoomed thermostat that regulates the heat, so the fire danger is zero, and the heat is a constant 90 degrees. The Dubias are in an aquarium that is 36 inches or so long.

Hope this helps,

Nick

 

[SkitTer]

How many dragons do you have?

Or how big do you need your colony?


If it does not need to be big, I have used a simple 5gal bucket with a ZooMed large heat pad, aluminum taped to the side. This always maintains a 80-95F temp and my liquid crystals inside provide 50% humidity. Since this mat was meant to be run all day as a substrate heater I don't worry about it. I never had any problems with it getting too hot or anything else of the sort.

If you need something bigger, heat tape works really well. Plus, heat tape has to be controlled by a thermostatic timer, there is little risk of fire issues. Heat tape would have to be placed on something that won't get too hot though. As it, radiates heat in all directions.

If you need more help or anything just let me know.

 

[Psychopopcorn]

Nick: That sounds like a good idea I just dont have room or the skills to make a wooden box... but I was thinking of the ceramic heater idea maybe... on top of the screen cutout on a rubbermaid bin? Thanks for the help

Skitter: I am only going to be getting one dragon, and maybe a second one after a while, but just one for now. And I want it to be big enough to be never ending, I dont want them thinning out too fast.

I already have a heat pad that I bought for one of those rubbermaid bins, but then I started second guessing it (thinking the plastic would melt or something bad would happen) and thats why I posted this here.. But if it works well on those buckets I might give it a shot. If anything, I can always get two buckets if i want more roaches for a second dragon.

but for the 5gal bucket, what size heat pad are you using, and do you think the rubbermaid bins would be bad for this technique?

 

[Psychopopcorn]

Okay so I got a small rubbermaid bin, and a large Zoomed UTH for 50 gallon tanks. It barely brought the temps up 5 degrees. so I got a second UTH and put it on the other side. Still, wont go over 74F. So I got a large bin and put the small bin inside in hopes to capture more of the heat. Nothing.

I am getting REALLY frustrated, this is ridiculous. That stuff is not cheap and the whole reason I am doing this is to SAVE money. All you guys who have answered similar questions in other threads say you use only one UTH?????? and nothing else??? HOW does this work for you?

My entire apartment is covered in Carpet. So I cannot place any heat source UNDER the bin. I do not have any racks or shelves or anything. I am a college student with limited furniture options.


PLEASE HELP.

 

[sivuh5]

I tried UTH's also and couldn't get anything to work. So I finally broke down and got a human heating pad at Rite-Aid Drugstore. It was the store brand, a cheap one with no auto shut off. I took and extra lid from another plastic bin and put that on the floor, then put the heating pad on top of that and the bin with the roaches directly onto the heating pad. I plugged the heating pad into a special powerstrip I got at Walmart (around $15 I think) that calls itself "the safest cord made" because it has some kind of circuit interrupter that if the item plugged in to it overheats it immediately cuts power. It may be a marketing ploy that's all BS, but I bought into it because I rationalized that I was doing everything I could to prevent a fire.

With the heating pad on high I've been able to keep the temps in my 22 gallon bin at around 87 - 90 degrees F.

Hope that helps. I couldn't get any of the other methods to work effectively, and I was afraid of heat tape because it seemed too technical.

Good luck!
Sue

 

[Psychopopcorn]

I tried UTH's also and couldn't get anything to work. So I finally broke down and got a human heating pad at Rite-Aid Drugstore. It was the store brand, a cheap one with no auto shut off. I took and extra lid from another plastic bin and put that on the floor, then put the heating pad on top of that and the bin with the roaches directly onto the heating pad. I plugged the heating pad into a special powerstrip I got at Walmart (around $15 I think) that calls itself "the safest cord made" because it has some kind of circuit interrupter that if the item plugged in to it overheats it immediately cuts power. It may be a marketing ploy that's all BS, but I bought into it because I rationalized that I was doing everything I could to prevent a fire.

With the heating pad on high I've been able to keep the temps in my 22 gallon bin at around 87 - 90 degrees F.

Hope that helps. I couldn't get any of the other methods to work effectively, and I was afraid of heat tape because it seemed too technical.

Good luck!
Sue

Thank you for replying.. luckily i still have the receipts for the darn UTHs. I too am starting to look at Human heat pad option. Thanks for the tips I might just try this... I am eager to get things going.

 

[sivuh5]

You're welcome. Another option I've seen people try, which I almost decided on, I just using another aquarium and using the traditional uth on the bottom. They tape off the outside with duct tape or electrical tape to keep all the light out of the tank so it's nice and dark, and then just use a regular uth rated for the size of the tank. I liked the idea because the uth's are designed to run 24/7 and just seem like a safer heat source. BUT, the roach guys will tell you that the glass tanks do not hold heat and humidity as well as the Rubbermaid bins will. So it's a trade-off.

I also tried heat lamps above the bin, red so the roaches can't see it, but that didn't work either and took the humidity way down.

You may want to hold off on returning the uth's until you try the heating pad and are satisfied. Because you could always use them on another aquarium, say a 20 gallon, with the tape on the outside.

 

[Psychopopcorn]

You're welcome. Another option I've seen people try, which I almost decided on, I just using another aquarium and using the traditional uth on the bottom. They tape off the outside with duct tape or electrical tape to keep all the light out of the tank so it's nice and dark, and then just use a regular uth rated for the size of the tank. I liked the idea because the uth's are designed to run 24/7 and just seem like a safer heat source. BUT, the roach guys will tell you that the glass tanks do not hold heat and humidity as well as the Rubbermaid bins will. So it's a trade-off.

I also tried heat lamps above the bin, red so the roaches can't see it, but that didn't work either and took the humidity way down.

You may want to hold off on returning the uth's until you try the heating pad and are satisfied. Because you could always use them on another aquarium, say a 20 gallon, with the tape on the outside.

Yea I actually JUST went out and got the human heat pad, I am going to experiment with some things before returning anything. If the human heat pad starts feeling iffy, I might try the UTHs again .... in another way and possibly with the glass tank... we will see.

 

[jewelmick]

I have a sterilite 22 gal bin.....underneath I put a cheap walgreens heating pad with no shutoff.....its right on the carpet on hi. My problem is the bin is on the lower level of the the house directly on the cement slab in the basement....only place partner would let my put it. It is not too hot, 90 at the hottest spot on the bottom, but seems to cool off pretty quick at the top.

 

[sivuh5]

Try wrapping the sides of the bin to help maintain heat... I use an old eggcrate type foam mattress pad on all four sides - it really helps. The room where I have my bin is the basement, only ambient heat from the floor above with cement floors below and cement walls. Here in CT in the winter months the room temp was around 60 degrees most of the time, my bin stayed at about 87 on the bottom. I don't worry about the temps toward the top of the bin too much, as the bugs have a choice to stay where it's warm or climb to where it's cooler. The eggcrate pad helped alot with fluctuating temps at night especially.