Daily misting not enough to maintain humidity?

[TrentAnthony]

I just received 10 Carolina ooths and have them in separate 32oz containers. I purchased a heat lamp and currently have a control cup with a hygrometer and thermometer inside the 32 oz cup. Yesterday I checked on my ooths and became worried as one of them had darkened at the top(worried its mold), however, the cup was dry and the paper towels at the bottom of my cups were dry.

I then lightly misted all my ooth containers and did similarly to my control cup. The control cup read humidity levels at around 70-80% all throughout the night, but when I came in this morning, the control cup had humidity levels at around 48-55%. Though my heat lamp seems to be keeping my center cups around 75-80 degrees, I'm wondering why its drying my cups out so much. I've read that you should mist every few days, but I'm beginning to think I might need to mist every day or 2x a day.

Anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to overdo my misting and end up with mold killing the eggs, but I also don't want them drying out.

Any feedback is much appreciated!

 

[MantisGirl13]

Humidity levels always vary, because if there is ventilation in the cup (a necessity) the air is constantly moving. As long as you spray once or twice a day you should be fine.

Where did you get the ooths?

- MantisGirl13 

 

[hysteresis]

I just received 10 Carolina ooths and have them in separate 32oz containers. I purchased a heat lamp and currently have a control cup with a hygrometer and thermometer inside the 32 oz cup. Yesterday I checked on my ooths and became worried as one of them had darkened at the top(worried its mold), however, the cup was dry and the paper towels at the bottom of my cups were dry.

I then lightly misted all my ooth containers and did similarly to my control cup. The control cup read humidity levels at around 70-80% all throughout the night, but when I came in this morning, the control cup had humidity levels at around 48-55%. Though my heat lamp seems to be keeping my center cups around 75-80 degrees, I'm wondering why its drying my cups out so much. I've read that you should mist every few days, but I'm beginning to think I might need to mist every day or 2x a day.

Anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to overdo my misting and end up with mold killing the eggs, but I also don't want them drying out.

Any feedback is much appreciated!

Try throwing an inch of sphagnum into each cup. While youre incubating.

 

[lectricblueyes]

This is a super late reply.  You have the exact same setup as me.  1 control cup with an Exoterra humidity/temp device.  I also had wildly varied humidity readings.  Then I put a  circle of wet paper towel in the bottom.  This didn't help much.  I added 2 more circles.  It helped a little. I live in the midwest and we have temps going into the low 30's here still so my heat kicks on and dries my entire condo out.  I just wasn't happy having to mist 2-3 times a day for unhatched ooths.  So, I picked up some ExoTerra coconut fiber bricks.  It was like 3 bricks for $6 I think? Wow.. each brick is like a bucket of dirt.  I put some soaking wet coconut fiber dirt on the bottom and I only add water to the dirt every 3-4 days.  Humidity stays above 70% even when the temp dips to 70F.  Now I"m using it in my nymph cups to keep them humid for molting.

 

[minomantis]

I like that idea blueyes, my only thought would be is clean up would be a pain after a while cleaning up the fiber diet. Maybe not a smart idea, but along with two paper towels folded up, I would actually fill the bottom of the cup with about a quarter inch of water so they wouldn’t dry out so fast. I don’t recommend doing that with small mantids, but an ooth and L4 mantids and bigger should be fine I would think. The important thing is making sure there is ventilation. Good luck!

 

[hysteresis]

I now incubate ooths within a bin w substrate and hygrometer and thermometer. The whole bin goes under a heat lamp.

I had been using a similar setup for pupating and bringing them close to eclosing, without drying out (they don't dry out in the summer at all, but winter...)

It was actually @hierodula that got me onto the idea of throwing ooths in there.

Of course, the ooths are only in 5.5oz cups or even right on the flats they were produced, while in there.

It's on me to mount them properly in the right hatch container when they're due to hatch.