Heating for Dubia

[vycine]

Hello!

I am trying to get my dubia colony to breed. It's a small colony (3-4 males, with about 10ish females, and a whole slew of other sizes). I set up a sterilite 18 gallon tote with a screen over a good sized cut out in the top. I put one 10-20 gal UTH on one side. temps inside were only around the 80 F range, so I added another UTH of the same size on the opposite side. Temps still seem to be the same, though I will check again today to see if there is any change (taking temps with a probe for air temp and a temp fun for surface temp).

What am I doing wrong? Should I add a different type of heat source?

Thanks!
Jessi

 

[Taterbug]

What is the temperature of the room where your bin is? If its in cooler area the heat mats will not be as effective, they only raise the temp so far above ambient.

 

[vycine]

What is the temperature of the room where your bin is? If its in cooler area the heat mats will not be as effective, they only raise the temp so far above ambient.

It's about 68 F in here. What would be a better heat source for dubias if the mats aren't working?

Thanks!
Jessi

 

[Taterbug]

I think some folks use heat emitters? I'm not sure. I've always had the mat and it's working fine for me.

I just measured my tank, on the floor of the tank the mat is at ~110, but the egg crates are between 80 and 65 depending on how close they are. I've never had a problem with breeding.

How are you heat mats attached?

 

[vycine]

I think some folks use heat emitters? I'm not sure. I've always had the mat and it's working fine for me.

I just measured my tank, on the floor of the tank the mat is at ~110, but the egg crates are between 80 and 65 depending on how close they are. I've never had a problem with breeding.

How are you heat mats attached?

they are stuck to opposite sides of the tote. I measured temps again, with temp gun. The sides are around 95-100 but everywhere else says 65-70. Maybe I need to switch to a CHE?

 

[john6six]

just a thought here, but I set up a tote and had a sizable screened in hole on top. After starting to harvest nymphs and putting them in a smaller tote, I put the tote on top of the breeder tote, covering some of the screen on top and my breeder temp went up 10 degrees. Maybe your good size hole is a little too good sized?

 

[SouthernCritter]

I breed Discoid's which are taken care of just like Dubia's. I used a heat pad for about a year before I switched to a heated room. A heating pad works just fine if it heats the bottom of the tote to at least 100 F. The entire tub don't need to be 95+. They will move around to get comfy. If you do have vents in your lid its best to vent the cool/food side and not the hot/egg crate side so some heat stays trapped in the rear. You lose a lot of heat if your use the mats on the sides instead of the bottom....heat rises so sides will heat up but not much in the center.

 

[vycine]

Thanks for the ideas. I think I am going to replace the lid with a smaller screened hole. It would make sense that heat would be escaping out of it. I do think my colony is breeding, because I looked today and there are more tiny guys than there has been! Yay!

Thanks
Jessi