where to take the temp

[JeepMiller09]

i just started a bin of roachs. i was wondering were do u take ur temperature reading from? the bottom of the bin middle , top, from the inside of a hotel ????? please help


thanks
miller

 

[rcpeacock]

All over. I periodically check inside my "hotel" and the cool side. I leave my stat laying on the floor by the food and water crystals, which are directly under the light.(which is where quite a few of them hang out). From what I have read, I would not go hotter than 95(under the bulb @ floor) If they get too hot, they just move to the cooler side.
I see why roaches are becoming so popular. They are extremely easy to care for, and seem to proliferate. I have heard people forgetting to feed or water them for many days, and they survived. As a matter of fact, about three weeks after my roaches arrived, some of my criks hatched. So I grabbed some spare egg crate pieces from one of my boxes, for my crickets. Put it on the floor in front of my cricket bin. When I picked it up, there was a dubia crawling across the floor! At the time, my roaches were in a different room on the other end of the house. That little bugger had been in a spare tote for three weeks or more, with no food or water. Tough little sucker

 

[JeepMiller09]

Yeah well I some how kill off every kind of feeder lol.... right now I have my heating pad on high and its only getting to 87 on the ground and 82 at the top.

 

[JeepMiller09]

I didn't know there was to be a hot and cold side. Right now I have a heating pad under the hole bottom of the tote. Is this wrong?

 

[rcpeacock]

Yes, there should be a hot side and a cold side. It just makes sense, to me anyways. That way they have a choice. Some of my roaches never leave the hot side, but most go back and forth, regularly. Just put half of the bin on the pad. 87 is a good safe temp. Mine really get active at 90+. Try covering your bin with a bath towel or two. Should raise temps several degrees. Just keep playing with it. You will figure it out. Dont sweat it.

 

[JeepMiller09]

Thanks for the info. My temps are from 87 to 92! Not sure how humid it is but they are living and molting so i must be doing something right lol. They are to be left in the dark correct with no light? As of right now I have them in a bathroom where there is no light at all. The only time they see light is when i come in to collect a few for feeding twice a day.

 

[rcpeacock]

They are nocturnal. They do not like light. I use a red/night bulb to heat mine, and they dont seem to mind it. I assume they do "see" the red light.