Dubia Roaches/heat mat?

[MonsterPyxie]

Yeah I poked a bunch of needle size holes on the top of the cap. It doesn't seem like a lot of water has evaporated out of it, but I didn't place it directly on the heat pad which would probably help. I put the water bottle in the corner because I don't want to put it in the middle where the heat pad is in case it fell over. It's probably brought the moisture up a little, with the water gel crystals I have placed over the heat pad. Still better than nothing right.

what is your humidity percentage at?

if water crystal, and misting isn't enough, you probably have way to much ventilation. try covering some holes with tape, or screen with a cloth.

[Sublime]

what is your humidity percentage at?

if water crystal, and misting isn't enough, you probably have way to much ventilation. try covering some holes with tape, or screen with a cloth.

I really don't know yet, I need to buy a humidity gauge. I figured it was at least 20%, I don't mist though... Don't want to make a mess in there. I do have a good size ventilation cut out, if I find out that the humidity is escaping too fast I'll use a cloth on the screen like you said. The temps are perfect in there though, 105-110 on the floor and 90-99 on the bottom of the egg flats going up to mid 80s moving up the crates. I think I saw 2 brand new clutches of babies so hopefully I produce 500 out of this month. I don't know how old the females are that the guy gave me, but 3 of them have died already. I have about 200 adults with some baby nymphs in the mix now, he gave me mostly females too so I'm pretty stoked on the colony right now. Is that what you do to bump the humidity a lot is misting the sides of the enclosure inside? I want to get the most out of these adult females before they die.

[ViperJr]

I just want to add that in my experience, humidity is not something you need to think about, ever, when breeding dubias. I never mist, I don't have a water bowl, I don't use water crystals. The only source of water I have is the cucumber pieces that I put in there once a week. That's generally enough water for the colony. Of course, you need to adjust how much cucumber according to the population.
Also, the lid I use is basically a screen mesh, so it does not contain any humidity at all, that somehow got in there in the first place.

[Sublime]

I just want to add that in my experience, humidity is not something you need to think about, ever, when breeding dubias. I never mist, I don't have a water bowl, I don't use water crystals. The only source of water I have is the cucumber pieces that I put in there once a week. That's generally enough water for the colony. Of course, you need to adjust how much cucumber according to the population.
Also, the lid I use is basically a screen mesh, so it does not contain any humidity at all, that somehow got in there in the first place.

Yeah I've heard that dubias don't require substantial amounts of moisture in the air, they can do fine in drier climates. Just a few people from experience including "MonsterPyxie" said that the higher the humidity was for them the more the dubias started to breed at a faster pace. I know that they do require a little bit of moisture though to molt through their cycles without have an unsuccessful molt and dying off. I'm sure there's enough humidity in mine as of now, I just wanted to get optimal range for humidity to bump up the breeding process since my temperature is perfect. Thanks for the clarification, is your colony really thriving? How many are you up to right now after you started out?

[MonsterPyxie]

It's pretty dry here in Colorado, so maybe thats the issue, but I wasn't seeing any breeding, and my dubia where not eating that much. Found my humidity was around 30%. So I started misting daily, water crystal, oranges, and now im around 50-60% They have started eating about 1 cup of the ground up "roach chow" in about 2 days, where before it was over a week. I also seem to notice new babies, or females with egg's hanging out there butt just about every time I look in there now, where before I didn't.

it could just be my super dry climate, but so far im seeing great results.

Mark, I only mist the sides and egg crate lightly. enough for the water to bead up on the sides, but not enough for it to run down the sides and puddle on the bottom.

[Sublime]

Oh ok, yeah my roaches seem to not eat that much roach chow. I switched it up yesterday and made a different blend with some dry breakfast cereal for a little bit of sweetness, so hopefully they like that stuff more. I've read dubias love sweet foods, they eat all the oranges I put in there though. I'll try the light misting. You also have a colony of like 1200 and mine is 200 so that's probably why I'm not expecting great results from the food being eaten really fast. 50-60% humidity is perfect, I would like to get in that range hopefully.