Low Cross Ventilation in Roach Totes

[l4nsky]

Hola,

So I recently moved my lateralis colony to a much larger tote (https://arachnoboards.com/threads/new-lateralis-tote.348717/) and I'm still in the process of dialing it in. With the current ventilation, the water crystals themselves keep the humidity 90%+. Since the colony is newly setup on fresh substrate, I don't have odor issues yet, but I know with such high humidity that it's only a matter of time. I could add more ventilation to the top, but it's been my experience that without a way to bring air into the tote in the bottom levels, the air turnover is minimal in comparison to what it could be. The complication is any lower ventilation can be reached by the roaches to chew on or squeeze through to escape. I don't want that.

So, I have an idea based on an old, computer controlled fruiting chamber for fungi that I saw. The creator used an aquarium, and instead of drilling a hole in the aquarium, they used, what is in essence, a snorkel made out of PVC to bring air to the bottom. They were using active ventilation by means of a small fan to suck air out of the fruiting chamber, and it was replaced by air that was passively pulled down the PVC pipe to the bottom of the chamber. I'm curious if a similar method can be used on my tote. My idea is to use a 2" Uniseal flexible bulkhead to embed a short length of PVC pipe into the tote wall a few inches above the substrate, behind the egg crates that are leaned against the tote wall. Inside the enclosure, the end of the PVC pipe will have a screen cover. Outside of the enclosure, the short length of pipe will go to a 90 degree fitting and then another 10" segment will be attached to the fitting and secured to the outside of the tote. The 10" segment will be lined with packing tape and have a screen end cap as well. While I won't be using active ventilation to draw air out, I believe that the passive air currents from the heated, humid air rising from the tote will create enough of a vacuum to draw air down through the snorkel. The placement of the snorkel behind the eggcrates would mean there is air circulation over and through the whole enclosure to reduce the humidity and smell. The tape lined snorkel with screen at both ends would prevent escape.

Has anyone seen or done something similar, had the same idea, or see any potential flaws or failure points that I don't see?

Thanks,
--Matt

 

[birdonfire]

I'd remove the water crystals and feed moist vegetables.

 

[l4nsky]

I'd remove the water crystals and feed moist vegetables.

Honestly, I'd rather not. I feed powdered, prepared food so the roaches can't drag it out of the dish and mess up the enclosure and I don't want to bother with keeping fresh food for them. Water crystals and a diet from TheFeederFarm is simple and reduces my husbandry time.

 

[Kaqpewqt]

i keep my lateralis at around 40-60% humidity as this is my room humidity. They breed like crazy, don’t smell (i start noticing a smell at around 70% humidity). I use water crystals, powdered food and fresh vegetables or fruits (big pieces so they don’t drag it around). i wouldnt worry about anything you say, and for sure wouldnt make it so complicated, just cut out a bigger piece of the lid lol
if you really want to add cross ventilation, cut out a piece on the lower side of the tote and glue very fine metal wire mesh to it, but i don’t really see the benefit if you could just make the ventilationholes in the lid bigger.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Why not just use wire mesh for your vents?

 

[l4nsky]

if you really want to add cross ventilation, cut out a piece on the lower side of the tote and glue very fine metal wire mesh to it, but i don’t really see the benefit if you could just make the ventilationholes in the lid bigger.

Why not just use wire mesh for your vents?

Paranoia I guess. Prior to this, my colony was kept in a double enclosure until I got comfortable with them. Experimenting with cross ventilation that might potentially offer a means of escape without the security of a second enclosure isn't something I want to do, hence the snorkel question.

i wouldnt worry about anything you say, and for sure wouldnt make it so complicated, just cut out a bigger piece of the lid lol

Lol that's my achilles heel, overthinking/overengineering. That's plan B, but at this point the lid is about 30% ventilated. Since there is no cross ventilation and all of the air exchange happens at the top, the air turnover isn't as efficient for the amount of ventilation present in comparison to a mixture of top and cross ventilation. I'd probably have to double the top ventilation to get a 25-35% increase to the turnover rate. Plus, if the design works reasonably well in a passive system, then I have some other applications for it.

 

[Kaqpewqt]

I'd probably have to double the top ventilation to get a 25-35% increase to the turnover rate. Plus, if the design works reasonably well in a passive system, then I have some other applications for it.

That’s what i mean, don’t make it too complicated. I have around 80% cut out from the lid, no problems whatsoever. And crossventilation with metal-mesh has no Risk to it.