Small Dubia housing

[runCMD]

So I wanted to breed some dubias but not take up too much space. I only have a few Ts and will feed the extras to my in-laws nearly 30 chickens/ducks/goose. I basically copied an old thread on a roach forum with instructions for using a single 5gal bucket per colony. I cut a square hole in the side and used silicon caulk to affix fiberglass screen(for screen doors) to both inside and out. I then used a large seedling mat wrapped around the outside for ventilation. This is kept out in my insulated but unheated garage in Northern California.

I found that I couldn't really maintain temperatures (staying around 66F and colder at night so I tried making the hole smaller by putting really thick "insulated" mastic duct tape on the outside. Still unable to maintain temperatures I bought a roll of insulating foil. Today I created a wrap(including a circle for the bottom of the bucket and a cutout for my window) and wrapped it up. As I sit here typing this with my garage open in 59F weather the thermostat is at 72F and climbing. I have it set to heat to 75F for now and we'll go from there. See pictures below, and let me know what you think:

 

[RTTB]

You put some serious effort into making that. I hope it pays off for you.

 

[runCMD]

I wouldn't consider myself very handy at all. This really only took about thirty minutes total. The idea was something that would require less effort over the long run(easily cleanable/etc) I put on a twist-off lid and can easily slide the bucket out of the "sleeve" I made. I can tell you its sitting out there at 75F and I just grabbed a roach for my LP - they are WAY more active than they were previously. I have an order of 25 adult females/10 adult males with a small cleaner crew to supplement the 50 some odd nymphs I have in there.

 

[runCMD]

An update in case someone finds this via a search later. I have the thermostat controlling the heat mat set to 80F and that seems to work okay. Occasionally I'll get an escapee dermestid beetle because they can fly around that temp when I open then lid. Not too concerned with infestation because of the location of the bucket and my climate.

The dubia have successfully reproduced and I have small babies to feed my little C. Versicolor sling. I think it will be a number of months before the colony approaches a point where I need to cull but I can feed my 3 Ts out of it with no problem. When the time comes I will feed off to my in-laws chickens and provide some to the son's class bearded dragon. Will update at that point.

My main concern is I don't see many dermestidae pupae so hopefully they will reproduce at some point, they are supposed to be the canary in the coal mine for problems with the colony.

 

[crashergs]

Here's my colony setup, you can apply the same principle for larger containers. I use a vivarium electronics thermostat for a zoomed UTH. The UTH is glues on to a 1/2 inch plate of tempered glass and the bucket sets on the glass. With this thickness. The glass retains heat very well and there's minimal changes for the heater to come on. That little blue square in the container is a SensorPush thermometer/hydrometer and it pushes and graphs temperature/humidity on your phone. I also have a fan that sits on top which I can trigger on/off if I get alerted that the humidity reaches over 70%.