cricket cage humidity and heat?

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Ricardo

Ricardo

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EDIT : thread is reffering to MANTIS humidity

Now I've heard that some people aren't fond of the cc, but the petstore owner recommended it to me so I bought it .

Anyways, I have both enclosures beside a basking bulb ( for bearded dragon )and I'm wondering about the humidity.

One spray in the morning and one at night?

The reason I ask is because the cc is well ventilated and also gets some nice heat from the bulb. just wondering if that changes the humidity increments.

( Egyption mantids ) - ( miomantis paykulli )

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Don't bother spraying. I find humidity kills crickets fast. I would find dead crickets everyday when I used a cover (with ventilation holes) on my cricket tub. Then I decided to leave the top off and no more deaths.

 
Mantids generally need 50-80% humidity, depending on the species. Some will need more. Since your's is more exotic, I would do a forum search or try to find a care sheet for that specific breed. They sell digit temp/humidity gauges at WalMart for like $6 if you don't have one and you want one.

 
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Facts:

Don't leave crickets in any cage with any animal if they were not eaten during their feeding time. I take out whatever crickets were not eaten by my Panther chameleons at 1 P.M.

Mantids are a different story from Panther chameleons of course. I let my Mantids have flies in their cages 24/7 so they are allowed to eat whenever they'd like. However, if crickets were being fed to them, I would without a doubt remove them if they were not eaten.

Crickets being left in any of your Mantid's enclosures all day is a bad idea.

1. They eat anything, if they are hungry enough they will eat your Mantis!

2. They will eat your Mantid's poop.

3. Having the enclosure wet, the crickets will die very fast and rot quickly, creating a very unpleasant stench, on top of that, a party bus of female bacterians will be getting dropped off to party with the male Frat bacterians! ;) lol

I love the idea of "cup feeding, or even shallow container feeding". Leave a few crumbles of bee pollen powder in the container for the cricket to occupy his or herself, that way he/she will have fresh bee pollen to pass to your Mantid's gut. ;)

You must keep your crickets dry as can be. If you have a container keeping them a live for the time being, put a paper towel roll or something cardboard or thick paper like, for them to hide in. They love hiding! :)

Put a clean milk gallon container lid in with them or something similar, and fill it up with bee pollen powder. You could easily hydrate them with a small piece of wet paper towel that MUST be placed on top of a separate piece of plastic.

If these crix are only meant for your Mantids, feeding them just bee pollen powder and only hydrating them with clean water and no fruits or veggies would be most beneficial in my opinion.

Although, maybe romaine lettuce, kale and carrot top and some other goodies like dandelion leaves and other plant matter would be good for a Mantis? Not sure how many sp. actually eat vegetarian insects in the wild... Kinda off topic!! lol

 
Seems like many people are misunderstanding Ricardo's post. He means the CONTIAINER called a CRICKET CAGE. He's keeping his mantids in there, and he's asking how often to mist since they cage is relatively open/overly ventilated. It has nothing to do about keeping crickets. ;)

 
Myrmecologist said:
Seems like many people are misunderstanding Ricardo's post. He means the CONTIAINER called a CRICKET CAGE. He's keeping his mantids in there, and he's asking how often to mist since they cage is relatively open/overly ventilated. It has nothing to do about keeping crickets. ;)
Click to expand...
noone's paying attention to my edit :eek:

 
CCs are not super ventilated. But the bulb will have a drying effect.

And there is the random factor of how dry your house (or where ever you keep your inverts) is.

LG is right, you'll need a humidity meter. At least for a while until you get the "feel" of how humid it should be. If your collection grows you can use the meter in the new tanks once you already know how to handle the older species. Or buy new meters.

Failing that, mist daily. If you see mold take it out and consider misting lighter (less misting, but still daily).

 
Depending on the temperature you may have to mist twice a day. Be careful it doesn't get too hot in there. I can't see how close the bulb is.

 
Peter J F said:
CCs are not super ventilated. But the bulb will have a drying effect.

And there is the random factor of how dry your house (or where ever you keep your inverts) is.

LG is right, you'll need a humidity meter. At least for a while until you get the "feel" of how humid it should be. If your collection grows you can use the meter in the new tanks once you already know how to handle the older species. Or buy new meters.

Failing that, mist daily. If you see mold take it out and consider misting lighter (less misting, but still daily).
Click to expand...
how much are humidity meters and where can I get one?

 
Ricardo said:
how much are humidity meters and where can I get one?
Click to expand...
Though they aren't that expensive, I wouldn't waste money on something you don't really need. Just make sure it isn't too hot in that CC, and mist 2-4 times, 2 times a day. One in the morning and one at night. I may have little experience with molting mantids but humidity is relatively easy to control, with an absorbant subrate and something to evaporate it. Bascially you want to keep the container from losing all forms of moisture, that paper towel should be damp a couple hours after misting, not wet or soaking.

 
Yup. A peice of (clean) sponge will keep you about right in one of those. You can spray or pour water directly on the sponge.

Wtach how close the container is to the light, though. I melted a hole in one of those once over the course of about 2 days.

 

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