# super high humidity



## wuwu

is it even possible to get 80 - 90% humidity without a humidifier of some sort? because when i use wet moss as substrate, with daily misting, the humidity is only around 60 - 75%.


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## Justin

Using live plants in the container will help raise the humidity.


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## Johnald Chaffinch

at different temperatures the humidity will be different even when there is the same amount of water in the air.

warmer temperatures can hold more water in the air so the percentage will be different


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## Tall Leland

I want to set my avatar as the picture of my pet dog... how can i do this?


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## Johnald Chaffinch

does you pet dog need to have super high humidity? :wink:

click Profile at the top. the pics width can be no greater than 80 pixels, and the height no greater than 80 pixels, and the file size no more than 6 KB :roll:


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## danswan

> does you pet dog need to have super high humidity? :wink: click Profile at the top. the pics width can be no greater than 80 pixels, and the height no greater than 80 pixels, and the file size no more than 6 KB :roll:


Putting a pet dog in a mantis cage can increase humidity, particularly if it has recently gone for a swim.


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## 13ollox

yum yum , hotdogs !!!


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## yen_saw

To increase the humidity, spray the enclosure more often and increase the temperature to 90F and above. Reduce the air ventilation would help.


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## mackids

Getting 80% humidity is difficult to achieve initially. I dont know if this is comparing apples to oranges but with my T.blondi spider I have reached a consistant 80% humidity. Her tank is 80-90% covered by glass and her substrate is about 4 inches deep. I spray the tank once a week give or take. I havent had a mold problem thus far and the spider seems to be very healthy. I am new to the mantids but I would imagine some of these methods can be applied. Good luck!


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## wuwu

but wouldn't reducing the ventilation be bad since all mantids need good ventilation?


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## mackids

You can also try using a breathable fabric over open parts of the container that may be able to retain some water. this way you have breathability and increased humidity


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## ellroy

:idea: I have thought about using a pot of water covered with mesh which could be placed in the enclosure. If placed over a heat mat the water would evaporate and could just be topped up as it gets low.

What do you reckon?

Alan


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## Johnald Chaffinch

i did that ^ for my blephs ( cos i didnt want to spray them ). i thought just a little bit of humidity might be good for them even though they like dry conditions.


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## yen_saw

> wuwu Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 3:14 pm Post subject: but wouldn't reducing the ventilation be bad since all mantids need good ventilation?


Yes, so clean the container frequently to avoid bacteria or fungus growth, it is hard work to keep a mantis happy!


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## Johnald Chaffinch

is there a way of having both good ventilation and high humidity by having strategically placed holes?


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## julian camilo

i think one way to achieve that might be cross-ventilation, putting holes on the sides of the container, specifically nearer the bottom of the enclosure, near the surface of the substrate, as if the container is quite deep/tall, the air towards the bottom can collect and sit and become stagnant and this is where most of the mould happens, due to excrement and waste food items and a humid substrate. so i guess holes in this area would help ventilation greatly yet still allow relatively high humidity. i havent tried this yet as i havent had such a big problem with mould for some time, but in theory it seems to make sense to me, so you might want to give it a go.


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## Monkey King

PETCO sells a humidifier called tropicaire that that pumps in clean air and humidity at the same time. With this system you could seal the lid completey. It requires an air pump made for a fish tank. I would recommend using a strong air pump to achieve high humidity. I used one of these for a pacman frog and the cheaper pumps did not give me the humidity I was looking for but after I upgraded to a stronger pump It was perfect. I'm new to mantids (in fact I don't even have one yet) so I don't know how well it would work for mantids but I thought I would throw it out there. Here http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?familyid=10190 is a link


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## captainmerkin

the main aquarium I use is between 90 - 100% humidity since I changed the lid from mesh to covered tube lighting.

Im not particuarly happy with this level as it seems to wet but need to devise a way to get air into it in the near future..

although it certainly seems to keep the mantis happy and the millipedes are out and about all day climbing and munching.


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## hibiscusmile

:lol: :shock: At that high humidity, isn't it raining in there?


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## Asa

That humidity is far too high. Get it at least 30% lower.


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## Birdfly

A good way to increase humidity and keep a good airflow is to buy a good, expensive air pump with multiple out-lets, get a big water proof plastic box and an aquarium heater.

Mount the pump near the top so as it wont touch the water and kill you when you touch it wrong or mount it on the lid, outside with a large enough hole for the pump to draw heated/humid air out of the water container and have this air pumped via aquarium tubes into the desired tank. The heater will help evaperate the water and keep the air above it warm n humid this is then pumped were ever you need it.

But i dont understand why you need to keep it so humid, extreme humidity kills mantids and spiders as easily as no humidity.Lots of condensation on the glass would indicate to me:

1 There is to much water in the air and the exess is condensing on the walls, trickeling down into the substrate and repeating the cycle. Keeping things far too wet, causing moulds, fungus and bacteria to thrive and not much else

2 There is not enough air flow to take the exess moisture away were it'll do less damage.

Spiders living in to humid an environment die at moult time because their skin becomes so elastic that they cannot break out of it, also it promotes fungus and mould to actually grow on them, killing them.

In the wild terrestrial spiders have a long or deep burrow, they move up and down it to keep themselves at the right temp/humidity. You should try to create some thing similar for your captive ones. As you might have a thermal gradient so you should have a moisture gradient. Arboreal spiders have evolved to be better suited to lower humidity, being that they are more exposed usually.

Arboreal spiders like the main stay of mantids do not need exessive humidity, rather more like little and often will suit them best, enough to drink/rehydrate and aid breathing.

The pumped air method mentioned above is a good way to keep humid air from stagnating but it is really unnessasary, esspecially were small numbers of Arthropods are being kept and simply spraying a selected area is good enough.

Warmer air holds more humidity this is why moisture condenses on colder glass or plastic.

If you still want more humidity you may have to:

spray more often,

Decrease ventillation,

Warm &amp; moisten things up, but beware if you get it wrong you could lose your charge


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## Asa

Just spray it a couple times a week. Nice and simple.


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## Peekaboo

I'm not sure spraying a few times a week would be adequate enough. Wuwu lives in SoCal, which is typically drier than Virginia. I live in NorCal, and I have to spray 1-2 times a day for moderate humidity.


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## Asa

> I'm not sure spraying a few times a week would be adequate enough. Wuwu lives in SoCal, which is typically drier than Virginia. I live in NorCal, and I have to spray 1-2 times a day for moderate humidity.


Oh you're right. In that case once or twice a day then. :wink:


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## Birdfly

I see your point.

Might be an idea to invest in a humidifier or depending on how many inverts you keep to perhaps build the humidifier with air pumps from a warm water chamber?

Sorry but i think you are gunna have to experiment with that one..

Still try not to exeed the recomended humidity levels as they are potentially as dangerous as too dry conditions.

If you do build a humidifier with a pump and tank/water container you can play around with the humidity levels by increasing/decreasing the water heater temps, good luck.


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## captainmerkin

> That humidity is far too high. Get it at least 30% lower.


I would have thought it was too high myself, but the mantids and millipedes both seem to be thriving in there at the moment..

any mould appearing is devoured on sight by the millipedes and the mantis are shedding their skins very well and on a very regular basis with no problems whatsoever as of yet.

where I work we keep the mantids at around 20-40% (despite recommendations to raise this)

I will keep them as is until it proves to be not so good, because right now they seem fine and very active and dare I say it perhaps content.


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## Asa

The millipedes eat the mold?! That's awesome! They can't get all of it though...


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## OGIGA

They do??? I hate millipedes, but maybe I'll get some just to take care of the mold.


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## Asa

What I was thinking. What kind of millipedes are they?


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## Nick Barta

Perhaps a wet sponge cut to fit the bottom of the container would raise the humidity.

CHEERS!!!

Nick Barta


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## Asa

I use spagnum moss.


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## OGIGA

Wow, I just changed my moss, went home for the weekend, and now my moss has mold all over it.  It grew all over the body parts of roaches that my mantises dropped.


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## Asa

I've never had that happen.


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## captainmerkin

Yeah the millipedes go round climbing all of the vines and munching off the mould, they seem to do this religiously even when they have loads of food in the tank (cucumber, tomato melon etc..)

But you are right they cant get all of the mould out, the dead bonsai tree I recycled into their tank is getting very mouldy and may need to come out if it doesnt clear up.

The millipdes are giant african black ones.

As for mould forming round dropped roaches, I think that there must be something not quite right there as they would usually just tend to start rotting shortly after being dropped (if not cleaned up), I have never seen mould appear on a dead animal before, have you added something to them or sugar fed them?

Also in terms of keeping my tank clean it has around 3 inches of potting compost and some top soil in it, about 10 adult earthworms, woodlice and devils coach houses that all clean up the dung and churn up the soil (seemingly pretty well), the large beds of moss and tunnels through them and hollow branches are the pedes favourite spot and the mantids tend to hang around the middle section of the tank above where the pedes are fed (flies tend to breed there when I put fruit in).

Its working pretty well at the moment so I am confident that it is just right for them all!


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## OGIGA

> As for mould forming round dropped roaches, I think that there must be something not quite right there as they would usually just tend to start rotting shortly after being dropped (if not cleaned up), I have never seen mould appear on a dead animal before, have you added something to them or sugar fed them?


Really? I see it all the time. I didn't do anything to the roaches. They are fresh from outside. Maybe mold likes humid envoronments because they grow fastest when my sphagnum moss is wet.


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## captainmerkin

hmmm.. thats strange news to me, I have never seen mould growing on a dead animal before.


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## Asa

I only see it when the humidity is high. Maybe you and OGIGA keep your humidity at different levels.


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## OGIGA

> I only see it when the humidity is high. Maybe you and OGIGA keep your humidity at different levels.


Yeah, when the moss is dry, I don't get anywhere near as much mold.


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## chrisbrock

In one of the setups I've built for Manny (Chinese Male) over the last month, I used a sand substrate with a small cup of water with a sponge in it. I also added some nylon screen to the inside lid of the container so Manny had full access to the lid. I noticed as the temp decreased, Manny moved over the cup, and as the temp increased, he moved over the sand. I assume this was to moderate the humidity. I've also noticed that when I put crickets in his cage, Manny will do the same thing with the cup of Flukes Cricket Quencher.

In a small enough enclosure, you can just breath in the cage to increase temp and humidity. Human breath is about 90 degrees F and about 90% humidity.

Now having said all that, in my home, with the AC set to 70, the humidity is naturally around 70%. If I needed to get Manny's humidity up to 80%, I'd just move him outside for a while. Gotta love North Carolina summers


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