Dubia Heating

[ArcadiumGeckos]

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]

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.

 

[marauderhex]

I just keep them in my closet, which is about 80 deg F.

 

[ArcadiumGeckos]

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.

 

[SC Geckos]

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]

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]

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]

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 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]

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]

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.

 

[ReptileWorld]

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.