# Roach colony problems



## Fizz (Jan 18, 2014)

I have a smallish colony of dubia roaches which is breeding well but i am having problems with moisture beading on the walls and lid of thw box they are in. I thought incresing ventilation would help but it has only made a very small difference. 
They are in a rub with a heat mat underneath. The problem is that the water eventually pools and soals their egg crates and can drown babies if it isnt mopped up. 
Any advice?


----------



## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

Can you post a pic of your setup, as well as the ventilation holes?? 

How much wet food you feeding??


----------



## Fizz (Jan 18, 2014)

I will get onto the pic. They always have a piece of fruit or veg in there which i guess counts as wet food. The vent holes have been drilled over about 40% of the lid


----------



## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

Yeah that's wet food...

How big is your colony?? Mine have large squares cut out with fine alu mesh hot glued to the top.. Allows for a great deal of air flow...


----------



## Fizz (Jan 18, 2014)

I might have to do that i think. Would limiting the wet food help ? How often do you offer yours friut or veg ? I have always offered it as a moisture source... hmm


----------



## Fizz (Jan 18, 2014)

The colony isnt fully de eloped yet but i now have loads of babies. I couldnt really guess at how many i have.


----------



## CloudForest (Nov 27, 2013)

what temp is your room? I wouldn't bother with the heat mat at all, or put it on the side...mine are kept at 24C (max 26C sumtimes), and breed like crazy

ventilation is vital, get rid of the lid, and cover it with mosquito netting, tie it down with elastic (if its not secure, expect to find hundreds of roaches crawling around your room next morning haha...made that mistake after one to many drinks one day doh)


for the fruit, use the top of a takeaway box, or the top of a cricket box, and put it on top of the egg cractes, then put the fruit on that, rather than at the bottom of the enclosure, that will help reduce humidity in the main enclosure

give them Carrot, Squash and other veg like that, which isn't packed with loads of water...cucumber for eg, is the worst for humidity and water drips!

hope that helps....


if you haven't already got a mite problem...expect it any day now...millions and millions of the b*****d's crawling all over everything! but a couple of days drying out the enclosure will sort it


----------



## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

As cloudForest says above... With the wetfood I put enough in that the roaches clear it before it goes moldy..


----------



## Fizz (Jan 18, 2014)

Thanks guys. The room they are in gets pretty cold, I tried to not use heating when I first got them but they just didnt breed. I can definitely try it on the side instead of the bottom of the box. That might help by not heating the box so much as I think its the cold outside the box that causes the condensation to be such a problem.


----------



## CloudForest (Nov 27, 2013)

Fizz said:


> Thanks guys. The room they are in gets pretty cold, I tried to not use heating when I first got them but they just didnt breed. I can definitely try it on the side instead of the bottom of the box. That might help by not heating the box so much as I think its the cold outside the box that causes the condensation to be such a problem.


it should help allot, having the fruit/veg high up will help just as much to

also be sure to change the grain/oats substrate out every couple of weeks and remove any dead roaches, coz they release moisture to


----------

