Bought a hygrometer...

[Stuart89]

Bought a hygrometer to measure the air-humidity of my ghosts, I set it up this morning directly above one of the cups they are kept it. It reads at ~40% humidity.

Now, I have 3 layers of cotton pads at the bottom of the cup, saturated with water to keep the humidity up.

Im using a 40watt reflector bulb (heat bulb) pointing at the sides of the cups, connected to a dimmer thermostat keeping it constantly at 26°C (80°F)

For humidty I spray all of the cups lightly daily, I just did this now and the hygrometer went up to 99%, then back to 60% where its settling atm.

My question is, when a care sheet says to keep them at 60-90% humidty, does this mean 24/7 ? or at times when you spray them? I got a slight feeling the bulb may be reducing the humidity given off by the damp substrate and that a heat mat would provide better results as it heats the substrate directly, would that be right?

2 of my 3 ghosts have succesfully moulted without any problems.

Worry or not?

 

[mrblue]

i would say not. firstly, i dont know what type of lids you have, but even with lids made of just mesh, the humidity will still be higher inside the cup than just above it on the outside. so while your hygrometer reads 40/60%, in the cup will probably be higher, and thats where it counts. also, while caresheets give those kinds of humidity ranges, at night (im assuming you switch the lamps off at night) the humidity is usually higher.

in short, while the bulb is probably reducing humidity more than a heat mat would, it is giving more heat and light. also, while your humidity readings may seem too low, they probably do not reflect the actual humidity the mantis is experiencing.

 

[iain5]

I don't know your exact set-up, but I would expect that since your hygrometer is set up outside the cups, that it is reading the ambient air humidity rather than the humidity in the cups themselves. The reason it reads higher when you spray is because the air around where you spray will be more humid immediately following the spraying, but it an airspace as large as a room that will quickly dissipate. I figured this out a long time ago keeping various other small critters. If you can fit your meter inside a cup you will get a true reading of where you're at, but it sounds like you're doing everything right.

 

[Stuart89]

Thanks alot for the very detailed answers guys. Ill rig up an extra cup the same as the ghosts and use that as the "reading cup".

and yeh, I dim the temperature down to 23-24°C at night using the thermostat.

Stuart.

 

[Rick]

Don't worry over overcomplicate things. People tend to worry too much around here.