A lesson learned

[Stylopidae]

Never use heatpads on a rubbermaid. I just learned this this morning never to do this.

The heatpad ate a hole in the rubbermaid tote and discolored the carpet.

It's going to cost me $200 to fix and I have a landlord inspection this week

 

[the_frog_kid]

that sucks
what was in it
any thing worth alot
or special to you
i think its ime to get a area rug for the sistored carpet hahaha
i never trust heat pads or cable
barely trust lamps since one big bulb blew up for no reason and killed one of my iggies when i was a kid
i have my own heated room




thanx froggy

 

[arachnid dude]

that sucks man....what was in the tub?

 

[Stylopidae]

My lobster roach colony...and now about a quarter of them are in my bedroom. The other quarter is in a 10 gallon tank, and the rest are buried in my spare substrate tub, as that's all I had to catch them.

I had about 200 adults and a couple thousand nymphs of various stages.

Looks like I'm back to where I started again.

I'm currently using a heat lamp...is there anything else that's just as effective but doesn't involve light?

I've heard bad things about ceramic heat emmitters and inverts.

Any ideas? I'm staying away from heat pads.

 

[bengerno]

Hi,

Sorry to hear that!
Try heat wires (I think that is the name )...maybe not as hot, flexible. Put in a piece of styrofoam, try to glue the wire on it, and put the enclosure the top of all this...maybe works better!

 

[padkison]

I use 11" Flexwatt heat tape with a lamp plugin dimmer under tupperware tubs. However, I use two boards under the tub which serves to lift the tub off the floor to avoid heat buildup and as a place to slide the heat tape onto to keep it up against the tub. You can use another broader board to slide under these to keep it off the carpet. Mine are on wooden shelves.

Good place to get these (prewired at no cost) is here. IMO they work better than the heatpads in pet stores.

http://www.reptilebasics.com/store/home.php?cat=248

 

[the_frog_kid]

STYROFOAM AND A HEAT CABLE ARE YOU INSANE
heat cable is not a great solution
it melted my corn snakes rubbermaid and burnt the desk she was on
but she was smart enough not to touch the melted plastic
i think its time to set some raid dude
i have some traps goin in my room because my dog nocked over a pail of tartara and a deli cup of blatta orientalis
i have a bibrons gecko runnin around im sure hes happy hahahahaha




thanx froggy

 

[bengerno]

STYROFOAM AND A HEAT CABLE ARE YOU INSANE
heat cable is not a great solution
it melted my corn snakes rubbermaid and burnt the desk she was on
but she was smart enough not to touch the melted plastic
i think its time to set some raid dude
i have some traps goin in my room because my dog nocked over a pail of tartara and a deli cup of blatta orientalis
i have a bibrons gecko runnin around im sure hes happy hahahahaha




thanx froggy

Hi,

I am not insane, It works with 15 Watt cable for years without any problem!!!! I hope he don't want to work a thermal power station under his roaches!

Me..insane....?:4:...

 

[Stylopidae]

It's just N.cinerea. They don't infest...unless I'm wrong

 

[the_frog_kid]

no they wont infest
unless your house is 90 degrees and there is dog and cat food everywhere aswell as a leaky faucet LMAO




thanx froggy

 

[musihuto]

what exactly have you heard about ceramic heat bulbs and inverts? i've been using one for my scorps for over two months now... haven't noticed any ill effects.. :?

thanks!
- munis

My lobster roach colony...and now about a quarter of them are in my bedroom. The other quarter is in a 10 gallon tank, and the rest are buried in my spare substrate tub, as that's all I had to catch them.

I had about 200 adults and a couple thousand nymphs of various stages.

Looks like I'm back to where I started again.

I'm currently using a heat lamp...is there anything else that's just as effective but doesn't involve light?

I've heard bad things about ceramic heat emmitters and inverts.

Any ideas? I'm staying away from heat pads.

 

[Stylopidae]

I've heard they basically cook them from the inside out.

Not something I believe but i'm not taking the chance after having to start all over again.

Unfortunately, my petstores only sell the 50 to 100 gallon strengths

 

[the_frog_kid]

ceramic heaters do work well at low wattages
i used them on my hissers cinerea and discoids for a long time with nothing rong
microwaves cook from the inside out not ceramic heaters




thanx froggy

 

[Aquanut]

After much fooling around i built a 2x2x4 ft Styrofoam enclosure that i heat with regular light bulbs in a small lamp. I used 2x4 ft sheets of 1 in Styrofoam insulation with the foil on one side. I use a small lamp with regular light bulbs. I cover the top of the enclosure most of the way with cardboard to keep the light out, but leave enough opening to provide air flow. Since i changed from plastic tubs to a glass aquarium i wrapped it in foil. I keeps the light out and reflects heat so that end doesn't get to hot. The foil on the one side of the foam does the same. Neither surface near the light gets very warm even though they are only 4" from the light. I currently use 2-40 watt bulbs, changed from 1-100 w when it got colder (in my garage its about 50-55 degrees, a bit lower if it gets below 10 outside) I can regulate temp. by changing bulbs but mostly i change how much i leave the cover of the enclosure open. I am able to keep a fairly stable temp. of 85- 88 F most of the time. This wouldn't be to great for something you wish to view all the time, but mine is for feeders (and in the garage) and its still easy to get into to maintain and get feeders out. If i did another one i would use thicker foam (available in 1.5 or 2 in thickness), just to reduce the temp. swings. Its pretty cheap.

 

[Dom]

I don't use ceramic bulbs on my roaches but do in my scorp "incubator". I have it on a dimmer to keep the temps where I want them.

 

[TNeal]

Interesting Ihave been using heating pads for years on my snakes, lizards and other creepy crawlers. I trust them immensly.

My roaches are kept in a rubbermaid tubb and the heating pad is on high. Has been set up that way for several months. I also have kept many a snakes in the same scenereo for years. Maybe the heating pad malfunctioned?

Anyways - sorry about your colony

Tom

 

[Wade]

The problem wasn't combining a heat pad with a rubbermaid tub, it was with sandwiching the pad between the bottom of the tub and the carpeted floor. This prevents excess heat from dissapating, resulting in a build up of heat which can melt plastic and even start a fire. If the tub had been propped up so it wasn't actually touching the pad, this probably wouldn't have happened. However, I'd probably try to avoid carpet as an underlayer. Ideally, something that won't catch fire or melt, like steel shelving. Mounting the pad on the side of the cage also would work.

What type of heat pad were you using? This kind of thing can happen with just about about any pad or heat tape, but heat pads used for people tend to get a lot hotter than the ones intended for animals. I know a lot of people like the human heat pads, but they're not intended for use 24/7.

Wade

 

[Stylopidae]

The problem wasn't combining a heat pad with a rubbermaid tub, it was with sandwiching the pad between the bottom of the tub and the carpeted floor. This prevents excess heat from dissapating, resulting in a build up of heat which can melt plastic and even start a fire. If the tub had been propped up so it wasn't actually touching the pad, this probably wouldn't have happened. However, I'd probably try to avoid carpet as an underlayer. Ideally, something that won't catch fire or melt, like steel shelving. Mounting the pad on the side of the cage also would work.

What type of heat pad were you using? This kind of thing can happen with just about about any pad or heat tape, but heat pads used for people tend to get a lot hotter than the ones intended for animals. I know a lot of people like the human heat pads, but they're not intended for use 24/7.

Wade

Here's the interesting part, the pad was stuck to the bottom of the rubbermaid and I used the towel as a buffer.

I'm thinking that it must have gotten knocked down and I didn't notice it.

The heatpad leached dye from the towel into the carpet.

It was a reptile heat pad, but I don't remember the brand.