Heating Pads vs. Heat Emitters

[Zan❤sChams]

I'm setting up a dubia colony soon and have been looking at possible heat sources for it. I know that a lot of people have heating pads. A lot of the pads I looked at only lasted a limited amount of time, usually 24 hours. Are there any heating pads that can be plugged up and that will last a while? I have only seen the medical heating pads. Are there ones that are used for terrariums?

I also looked at ceramic heat emitters. Do they work better than heat pads? I am only setting up a small colony, as I only have one chameleon. Which would would be best for a small colony of dubia?

Thanks in advance!

 

[nightanole]

might want to look at flex watt heat tape. then you can use a rheostat or temperature controller to dial it in. else its hit or miss on getting the heat pad with the 2-3 hour timer off function. It seems the low end ones with the low medium high do not turn off, but the ones with the digital display do turn off.

 

[Andee]

Ultratherm are the heat pads I use, use it on a thermastate, the are called a UTH, for belly heat reptiles. I don't use ceramic heat emitters for roaches or any species that does molting and does best with high humidity unless they need a basking light, because it dries out the air really bad. I have never needed to mist my dubias. I keep my ultratherms ducktaped to the side of my bins. But they work fine on the bottom too, the only problem with that is they would need to be a raised a bit and have air flow so they don't melt the plastic or burn whatever they are on.

 

[Mtnlaurel]

You might check out seedling heat mats, with a temp controller.

 

[Zan❤sChams]

Thanks for all the heating pad recommendations!

I read that you don't want to keep the pad on at all times. How often does it need to be turned on and off?

 

[Andee]

It depends on how large your heating pad is. Otherwise get a thermostat that once it hits a certain temp will turn itself off. There are certain temps that certain places in summer reach that you just unplug your heat pad and don't plug it back in until the heat wave is gone

 

[Andee]

In my opinion anything that uses heat pad or UTHs for that matter are pretty good at self regulating (unlike certain basking reptiles that we love) and as long as you provide enough area for the roaches to escape the heat they will self-regulate their temps.

 

[Zan❤sChams]

Ok! As I said before, I only have a small colony(about 9'' by 13''). I'm getting an ultratherm 6'' by 11'' heating pad. Hopefully that will allow the roaches enough space to cool off when they need to. It gets pretty hot here in the summer so I'll probably unplug the pad then.

 

[Andee]

That sounds like a good idea. What are you getting for a thermostat?

 

[Zan❤sChams]

That sounds like a good idea. What are you getting for a thermostat?

Probably just a rheostat. I looked at the digital thermostats, but they were twice as expensive as the normal ones and just didn't seem necessary.

 

[Andee]

rheostats don't do the same thing as thermostats and from what I understand don't work at all for the what is wanted in this sense... but I am not sure, I never use rheostats.

 

[Zan❤sChams]

rheostats don't do the same thing as thermostats and from what I understand don't work at all for the what is wanted in this sense... but I am not sure, I never use rheostats.

I didn't realize that. Thankfully, I haven't ordered it yet! What kind of thermostat do you use?

 

[Andee]

Generally any thermostat that has an outlet for a pronged plug is good, I end up getting slightly more expensive ones because they come with multiple outlets and I use multiple heat mats for various insects.

 

[WAMBO]

I got heat tape at Petco. A ceramic bulb lasted two weeks.