Jump to content

How Necessary is Ventilation?


noivurn

Recommended Posts

So, coming into the bug hobby from keeping mice, I was in the mindset of always needing ventilation. Mice need as much ventilation as possible, to avoid respiratory issues due to their sensitive lungs and ammonia buildup from their waste. Coming into the invert hobby, and especially with roaches, I'm now seeing a lot of setups that have very little ventilation, or have no ventilation at all. I was wondering how important it really is to ventilate a big bin? 

Or maybe a better way to phrase that is, what's the criteria for when you should or shouldn't add ventilation? What's the criteria for when you MUST have ventilation? Are there instances where it's better to actually not have ventilation? 

Ugh I'm usually better at phrasing my questions than this, but my brain isn't cooperating. 😕 

I'm probably going to end up at least including some ventilation for the Halloweens, as well as for my newest roaches - just got Dubias yesterday! But I'm still curious. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It depends on the species, but most should have at least a moderate amount of lid and cross ventilation, be it holes melted/poked into the plastic of their bins, or mesh ventilation holes.

Some genera, especially those in the subfamily Perisphaerinae, need very high amounts of ventilation, both lid and cross ventilation, to gestate their broods in a timely manner... Whereas other species like Dorylaea orini, Anallacta methanoides, and Lanxoblatta rudis do best with low ventilation levels, with the first two liking near stagnant conditions. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...