Dubia Heating

ArcadiumGeckos

New Member
Messages
20
Location
San Jacinto, CA
To all those who feed/keep dubia, how do you keep yours heated? I want to start a colony in a large plastic container and I'm not sure how I'm going to heat it. I was thinking of using a heating pad for humans, but I'm not even sure if it's safe to leave that thing on all day..

Any insight would be very helpful. Thanks!
 

SC Geckos

New Member
Messages
854
Location
here
I have had a dubia colony for about 3 years now and I heat my 21 gallon tub with a reptile heat mat connected to a cheap rheostat. It has worked great for me. I have seen people using a heating pad (for people) but I don't think they are designed to be on constantly.
 

ArcadiumGeckos

New Member
Messages
20
Location
San Jacinto, CA
So it's safe to use a regular reptile heating mat? I heard it wasn't a good idea to use on plastic containers, but maybe I'm wrong.

I live in Southern California, so it shouldn't be much of an issue usually. I just want to make sure I have them at a good temperature so they'll breed. :D
 

SC Geckos

New Member
Messages
854
Location
here
So it's safe to use a regular reptile heating mat? I heard it wasn't a good idea to use on plastic containers, but maybe I'm wrong.

I would not recommend using any heat source on a plastic tub without some way to regulate the heat. I only let the heat mat get up to 90 - 95 degrees. This is not hot enough to melt plastic.

I live in Southern California, so it shouldn't be much of an issue usually. I just want to make sure I have them at a good temperature so they'll breed.

They will breed at 75 - 80 degrees but they tend to breed faster at higher temps. I hope you are feeding alot of animals because under ideal conditions dubias will multiply like crazy. I feed them to over 30 tarantulas, 6 geckos, 1 beardie, and I still have to sell off a few hundred about once every month or two.
 

BadKelpie

Member
Messages
138
Location
WA
I use an old reptile heat rock I found at goodwill. It gets really hot so I bury it in a couple inches of sand or unscented clay cat litter, then put the egg crates on the substrate. I don't measure or regulate the temps but it has worked great for more than a year.
 

wsumike87

New Member
Messages
46
Location
Virginia
I use an old reptile heat rock I found at goodwill. It gets really hot so I bury it in a couple inches of sand or unscented clay cat litter, then put the egg crates on the substrate. I don't measure or regulate the temps but it has worked great for more than a year.

LOL finally! A use for heat rocks and there was much rejoice. "YEAHHHH";)
 

ArcadiumGeckos

New Member
Messages
20
Location
San Jacinto, CA
Interesting about the heat rock thing.. Never thought of using it like that.

@Brad1980 Thanks for the info, it's good to know that the heat isn't absolutely necessary. I don't have a whole lot of animals at the moment, but I'm planning on acquiring more, so I should have a use for the babies :p I'm planning on ordering about 250 nymphs, I'm not sure how many they'll eventually produce, but I'm hoping I won't be overrun LOL
 

BadKelpie

Member
Messages
138
Location
WA
They do need heat to breed, but if you're in CA, something like a closet that doesn't get AC would probably work. I keep a bin of "feeders" separate from the breeders. They're kept at room temp and grow very slowly and don't breed. I have a chinchilla who could die if the temps get above 80, so I keep my house at about 75.

If you have a bunch of animals, you probably won't be overrun with that many. I think I have around 100 breeding females, and 20 or 30 males. I feed 4 leos and sell the ones that get too big for the leos to someone with a beardie. She takes my extra males too. I recently switched out my old breeders with young so I have a nymph explosion. Gotta find someone with a whole bunch of something that will eat those :). Or I could just get more animals :).
 

EpicGeckos

New Member
Messages
8
Location
Utah
I use 11" flex watt tape under my bins I have about 1000 females, I run my flex watt at 95*and have never had a tub melt.
 
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ReptileWorld

New Member
Messages
208
Location
Hoboken
I use to keep my dubia in a 64qt bin with a reptile heat pad with no way to regulate the heat. never caused a fire but after about 10 months i realized it was beginning to bow at the bottom a bit. the bin was great for its size and when my colony reached max i took 1 cup of mixed nymphs and moved them to a 10 gallon glass tank and within no time that tank was full! now i just keep 2 10 gallon tanks of dubia. i use zoomed repti heat pads that cover 75% of the bottom of the tank and they get very hot and the dubia seem to love it. the heat rises through the flats.
 

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