My Setup (s)

[12many]

[4/16/11]
The day i received my 200 dubias. One died because it got stuck on the glue on the box while i was unwrapping it.

This is my dubia setup. I use to have mealworms too but i gave up because they weren't producing anything. I will start on them later on though. I will use this thread for my mealworms too.

I plan to keep this thread updated, so hopefully i am still able to edit this in the future.

Im using a 18 gal/68 L bin, a couple egg crates, strips of cardboard to separate the egg crates, and some Styrofoam party cups.

I started out with 200 mixed dubias and i've been feeding them a bunch of fruits/veggies. Also, can you feed them lemons? I have a huge lemon tree in my backyard and it'd be great if i can just feed that to them.

The towels underneath the bin is to protect the bin from melting (though im sure that it won't melt, but just in case right?). There is also a piece of wood under the human heat pad so it won't damage the wooden floors. Since I can't get the temperature to reach 90F, I use a 150W heat lamp to help with the heating. I'm not sure how high the temp. is suppose to be at in F or in C because the info i read online just says degrees. Doesn't say if its in Fahrenheit or Celsius. Can anyone tell me the temp. ranges in F and C? I'm pretty sure it's in F though. But just in case right?

ATM, the temperature ranges from low 80sF to high 80sF. Max temp. I've seen was 89F and lowest temp. was 82F.

As you can see, i taped the screen (the material is cloth and i got it at walmart for $3 for a huge roll). I was going to use my glue gun to fix it, but i've been lazy.

Here is my setup now. I figured that the space between the cases is big enough for a lot of the heat to pass through, so i took off the cardboard that separates them and placed them somewhere else.

I was going to do this but, since the heat source is coming in from the top, it'd block the heat from passing through the crates. So, i decided not to do this.

This was how my setup was, but as you can see, the spaces between each one was quite big.

 

[Wowoklol]

Looks ok. Do you have water in there? Water crystals? The cups look a little high. Babies should be able to climb but I like lower bowls. I'd swap that light for a ceramic heat emitter http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/ceramic-heat-emitter.htm. Roaches do not enjoy the light at all. Gotta watch that tape as well. If it peels back, your roaches may get stuck to it. Break out that glue gun! But yeah, it looks fine except for the big bright light on the top

 

[ReptileWorld]

The set up is nice and clean so you can tell its still new lol. but you seem to have it all done very well.. only thing is once you start producing tons of dubia all that extra stuff doesnt matter anymore. such as the cups. i use petri dishes and the lids for food and water gel. the food though when i pour it into the dish it overflows and falls onto the bin floor which is fine which is where tons of the babies hang out at. when i feed fruit and veggies i lay it directly onto the bin floor also and it gets attacked instantly.

I use a reptile under tank heater on my Bin which i believe is 64QT's and its not tall nor low and i stuck it directly to the bottom of the plastic bin and it has yet to come close to melting. i slice a row off the eggs flats and leave about 2 inches of space between the egg flats and the lid. i have the egg flats inside and tilted a bit to keep them lower and to give the dubia some type of small slope to climb. also i cut up 1 egg flat into pieces ( chunks ) which i find many females giving birth in there and also babies and small nymphs hanging out.

my temps go from 78F to 90F depending on the day and time ect.. i try to keep my apartment it self at 75 all the time so that brings the temp of the bin down a lot. so on a average its 80 to 85 and i get great production i have thousands of dubia to the point i over feed the animals and give 100's of dubia to my friend that has a rather large bearded dragon colony.

:main_thumbsup:

 

[TokayKeeper]

ditch the fabric screen. The possibility of it tearing is fairly high. Go with a metal window screen mesh. Rough up the sides of the opening, about 2 inches all the way around, and as others have said bust out that glue gun. Roughing up the sides will give the glue something to better adhere to also.

 

[12many]

thx for the input.

so Tokay as far as screen goes, you mentioned that it will tear easily. Can the roaches chew through cloth? Or were you implying accidents?


@reptile.

Thats clean? lol i thought that was dirty. How dirty can their bins get? Like sticky stuff? Also, since it's plastic, the bin will get stained and the smell (that is if they do reek), will stick on to it. Is there a reason to replace the bin once, other than the damages, its been inhabited for a long time?