Keeping feeder colonies going over winter.

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Ryan-James

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This time of the year again and as per usual all my feeder colonies fall apart with the onset of cold weather (crickets/woodies). I have a lot to feed - geckos, angles etc plus a massive amount of tarantulas, scorpions etc and if I have to buy everything in I would be looking at chopping through around 6 tubs a week, I need every size from pinhead to large, any advice or good ideas for heating all these 50 litre containers without smashing through so much electricity?
Cheers Ryan
 
Dunno how or why... my woody colony sits outside all winter every year, has done since 2012. The bin regularly has frost on it, gets well below zero up here, -10°C easy. My colony of woodies never dies off. They slow down and eat a lot less food over winter and stop breeding but they don't die.
 
I have a 6 foot fish tank for my roaches, I have 2 heat cords under half of it, (the half I feed and have all the cartons on) 15w for summer, 50w for winter. They still slow down eating and breeding cos the heat isnt excessive, but it keeps everything dry. Without the heat cord it gets damp and smelly and then mass die offs happen.
 
I have a 15W heat mat under half my 50L tub but it only gets turned on in winter. I used to kill them all off in winter and start a new colony in spring every year. But then I got central netted babies who needed to feed through winter,then I got frillies who don't brumate. Now I have baby dwarf beardies who won't sleep so I need to keep the woodies awake.
This brings me to superworms,it's my first year of breeding them. Do they need to be warm? In summer there was no need but they seem to be slowing down now.
 
My woodies thrive on neglect...if anyone needs some let me know
They get a bit of carrot and bio mare.....no heat at all....i have trillions of them.
Cheers
 
Yep cheers for the replies, they weren't dying off but I can't afford to stop breeding for 3 months, ended up with most tubs going in cupboard above the water heater with a heat cord and small hydroponic fan on a timer and they are all chirping like crazy, so must be a good spot.
I laid our new Telstra wifi thing on its side and popped a critter keeper on it and put in a few egg laying tubs and must have had close to a thousand hatch in the first 24 hours, just need to get a system down pat.

Cheers
 
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