Humidity control for dubias?

[EightLeggedFrea]

Me again

Currently I keep my dubias at little above 80 degrees in a dark closet and with constant access to crushed cat food and whole grain cereal and bowl full of water gel. I also placed black matt board over most of the top to keep humidity in when I mist the sides of the cage (which is a 10-gal aquarium, with currenty 50 yet matured roaches in it, of different sizes). I had heard that keepers who keep tarantulas in closets keep the humidity up by placing buckets of water in the closets. I've never done this with my Ts or other inverts but will this work with dubias?

 

[Truff135]

To be quite honest, I don't even mist my dubia's. Just make sure they have some warmth, water and food and they'll do just fine. Mine have exploded in numbers with very basic care (not that they're abused lol). Putting buckets of water in a closet sounds a little overboard though, if you ask me. But, I can't see how it would hurt anything if you want to give it a try.

 

[Xaranx]

i have never misted by dubia's, and keep them completely dry on no substrate except for the water crystals/veggies.

 

[Rich65]

I agree with the other posts, no need for extra humidity. Just keep them warm with water crystals available and offer fruit such as banana, apple slices and also grated carrots. No substrate and just layers of egg crates, works great. My 200 to 300 are now in the thousands!!!

 

[EightLeggedFrea]

I agree with the other posts, no need for extra humidity. Just keep them warm with water crystals available and offer fruit such as banana, apple slices and also grated carrots. No substrate and just layers of egg crates, works great. My 200 to 300 are now in the thousands!!!

Are the egg crates really necessary? I don't know where to get them locally.

 

[Xaranx]

I actually use cork tile now, easily found at craft stores or wal-mart, merijers, etc. The tubes are where i get my feeders from.

 

[EightLeggedFrea]

I actually use cork tile now, easily found at craft stores or wal-mart, merijers, etc. The tubes are where i get my feeders from.

What if I just used some kind of large cave-like thing for a hide? Would that work, if the roaches absolutely need a hide. I keep them in my closet, where it's dark all the time.

 

[Moltar]

You should have something in there for them to crawl around on. They seem to like tight places to squeeze into, i guess it makes them feel secure. Plus the more surface area they have to walk around on the more you can have in a given size container.

i get my egg crates from a local greasy-spoon grill joint where I buy breakfast sandwiches from at work. Most places that cook lots and lots of eggs get them in flats of 2 dozen. I just asked them to save their egg crates for me and in one week i had a huge stack of them.

I'm thinking of switching to something more like what xaranx has because the eggcrates get funky after a while and have to be switched out. I expect the cork would last longer.

 

[arrowhd]

I expect the cork would last longer.

I have basically the same setup in the above picture with cork. It does last longer, but cork is expensive. My dubia tend to chew on the cork and it is about half as thick now as it was 6 months ago. I can't imagine it having any nutritional value. They get fed all they cold ever want to eat with good variety. I also never mist or provide any additional moisture outside of food.

 

[magikscorps]

I use this same style cork tile set up its NINJA................dont mist your dubia unless you want mold.................................Cheers

 

[billopelma]

I use roof shingles with good results, no misting.

Bill

 

[pinkfoot]

Great looking setup, Bill ~ :clap:

How deep is it, and what are your d00bs standing on?

 

[magikscorps]

do you think you could fit a few more in there? LOL how many is that?

 

[Moltar]

Yikes Bill. Methinks you need a bigger box for them there roaches.

 

[Mister Internet]

www.eggcrates.com for eggcrate material...

and I've never even thought to provide extra humidity to mine... I've got thousands, and they seem to do fine even when I've left them without water for a week. They don't really *need* humidity, just access to water most of the time... with the amount of frass they produce, you're asking for a wicked mold problem with humidity too high.

 

[Hedorah99]

I have fed them to my Leopard geckos from time to time. I fed really young nymphs. The setup it about 90 degrees on one side and has only a small dish for water. I pulled one out a few weeks ago that was near maturity. They do just fine with little to no water.