# Lighting/Heating Question



## DeadInTheBasement (Jan 24, 2009)

my room can easily slip to 55degrees early int he morning and i have heat lights on all of my cold blooded pets at all times. my red(night time  ) bulb blew last night and i was just going to leave the regular daytime bulb on for tonight. my question is does constant light bother mantids? sure they could hide under leaves in there containers... just leaving this bulb in would be alot cheaper than me having to go to the petstore and buy another red bulb for $11.


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## DeadInTheBasement (Jan 24, 2009)

nevermind people....i used the search feature and found a topic on the subject only a couple of threads down  hahahaah

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=12412


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## PhilinYuma (Jan 24, 2009)

DeadInTheBasement said:


> my room can easily slip to 55degrees early int he morning and i have heat lights on all of my cold blooded pets at all times. my red(night time  ) bulb blew last night and i was just going to leave the regular daytime bulb on for tonight. my question is does constant light bother mantids? sure they could hide under leaves in there containers... just leaving this bulb in would be alot cheaper than me having to go to the petstore and buy another red bulb for $11.


Try covering your mantis enclosure with a towel or other opaque cloth at night. You might also want to check to see if your regular bub is putting out as much light as your heat light.


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## DeadInTheBasement (Jan 25, 2009)

PhilinYuma said:


> Try covering your mantis enclosure with a towel or other opaque cloth at night. You might also want to check to see if your regular bub is putting out as much light as your heat light.


well by regular bulb i meant regular heatbulb that ISNT RED  i have 2 lamps witha timer on them durring the day the regular daylight bulb would com on and at night it would switch off and the red bulb would turn on and start over the next day.

after reading thay whole thread im kind of nervous about posting this topic! LOL


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## shorty (Jan 25, 2009)

I have the same problem. When it drops below 10 degrees outside, I can literally see my breath in my room. I'm not bothered by cold temperatures at all as I'm very warm blooded and much prefer cold to hot. However, my mantids also share my room and I know they aren't as tolerant to the cold temperatures as I am. Instead of getting light bulbs and lighting, I went with the much cheaper route of buying a space heater. I need to spray their enclosures a bit more, but I can keep my room at whatever temperature I desire. I keep it around 75-80 degrees F when I'm not at home, and when I am here I keep it around 72-75. It works great and my mantids have been a lot more active and there is less time in between each molt.


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## Katnapper (Jan 25, 2009)

shorty said:


> Instead of getting light bulbs and lighting, I went with the much cheaper route of buying a space heater. I need to spray their enclosures a bit more, but I can keep my room at whatever temperature I desire. I keep it around 75-80 degrees F when I'm not at home, and when I am here I keep it around 72-75. It works great and my mantids have been a lot more active and there is less time in between each molt.


The space/room heater works very well for me too!  I'm really glad I ended up going with this option rather than individual heat mats or a bunch of different heat lights.


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## DeadInTheBasement (Jan 25, 2009)

i cant use space heaters because they give off teflon fume which will kill me african grey parrot


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## shorty (Jan 25, 2009)

DeadInTheBasement said:


> i cant use space heaters because they give off teflon fume which will kill me african grey parrot


I read that that's generally a myth as most space heaters aren't quite hot enough to emit the fumes. However, if you are concerned about your bird they make "bird-safe" space heaters you can buy that do not emit fumes.


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## nasty bugger (Feb 4, 2009)

My living room is up in the mid high 80's in the day, and when it's not too cold out at night, due to my grow light.

I keep the mantis' in the dining room and they are dandy with it. I do have to mist them more on hotter days.

I actually had to put a plastic sheet up to divide my bedrooms and bathroom from the living room, to keep it cooler in the back. I have earthworms in my bedroom, cause I have a a/c unit on in there, yes, it's a/c time in phoenix, cause my worms need it in the 60's or low 70's to be productive.

I keep the partition open in the evening, to warm the rear of the house with the excess heat from the front of the house, that is way warmer than necessary, in the evening when the grow light is on.

I keep my bedroom door open about 6 inches so the cool air spills out into the hallway and onto the table my tarantula sits on, and keeps my tarantula cool enough, and the other room and bathroom nice, but not too cold.

Mantis' and crickets, and tropical fish in southside or front of house, the warmest part, and cooler temp lovers, worms and tarantula, in the back/northside of the building.


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## tnienhaus (Apr 6, 2009)

so what was the concensus? To heat lamp or not to heat lamp...that is the question...


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## Rick (Apr 7, 2009)

Mantid Friendly Squire said:


> so what was the concensus? To heat lamp or not to heat lamp...that is the question...


It can be used if the room gets as cold as he describes. Most animals benefit from a day/night cycle but for temporary use I don't think constant light will hurt. I never use heat lamps for mantids as my mantis room is also my computer room and also hold my uromastyx and his heat lamps which all work together to keep the room warm.


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