Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello I was wondering if anyone here raises roaches. Last winter I kept them in my extra room in the house where it was pretty warm. Well this year I have a new born son that now stays in that room and the roaches are forced to put on a shelf in my laundry room. The temps in that room in the winter are much lower.
I keep them in a large Rubbermaid container. I was wonder the best and safest way to heat them. I herd some people say a heating pad for humans, 3-inch heat tape, and that heat cable. If anyone can help that would be great.
Please give info and links to sites with picks. Or if you has pics of your set ups that would be great as well. Please send pics to fireballdragonz@aol.com .
thanks for the help peach

Heat tape, under tank heater (or human heating pad set on low and without auto shutoff) and heat cable are all safe ways to warm your roach colony. However, I am not sure what temperatures a roach colony should be kept at, most of the under tank heaters (tape, cable, heating pad etc) may be too hot for the roaches. A human heating pad set to low still heats the bottom of a rubbermaid container to about 95F which may be too hot.

Getting a basic thermostate with probe to monitor the temperature may be the best thing to do though this will add a bit more cost. The thermostate can raise or lower the amount of heat produced by any of the three heating methods used to maintain a constant temperature within a few degrees of error. (the better ones are actually less than a tenth degree of error).

If your laundry room is small, it may be easier to just heat the room to a comfortable level. A ceramic room heater can be set to maintain the proper temperature and there will be much less risk of the roaches getting too hot.
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PHLdyPayne

hmm maybe u can use a heat rock i know they now have temp controle ones that shut off when too hotcause the roachs should hide under it, try that out?