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Keeping reptile pets can be demanding. As a pet owner, you need to keep up on feeding and cleaning on a daily basis. More than that, you need to keep up on feeding your pet’s food, too. So what happens when you go out of town? How can you set your feeder insects up so that they don’t eat each other (we mean that literally) over the course of a weekend?
In this article, we’ll talk about how to prepare your feeder insect colony for times when you aren’t there to keep an eye on them. This is everything you need to know about taking time away from your bug colony.
Risks of Long-term Storage
Bugs are basically little machines that eat, poop, and reproduce. So the risks of leaving them alone all come from them eating, pooping, and reproducing unchecked by you.
Cannibalization
One of the biggest worries of leaving your feeder colony alone is that they will run out of food, and start eating each other. This is common with most feeder species, and it’s obviously a big problem. With no outside food source, your colony can eat itself alive in a matter of days. Cannibalism can also lead to other issues like disease.
Disease
The risk of disease usually comes from hygiene issues. When you stop cleaning, your feeders’ waste accumulates and can increase their humidity, which can lead to all kinds of diseases and other issues like mold. Crickets are pretty notorious for producing tons of ammonia, which rapidly increases the humidity in their colony and can kill them off quickly.
Mold
This is the other part of not cleaning your insects’ enclosure. Especially with substrate feeders like superworms and mealworms, there is a risk of their food getting moldy. Mold can kill your feeders quickly and is terrible to have in your house.
Overcrowding
Overcrowding is the product of your insects reproducing. This is mainly an issue with insects that reproduce really quickly, like crickets. The more insects in your colony, the more they’re all eating and pooping. This increases the risk of all of the above issues happening.
How Long Can I Leave My Feeder Insects Alone?
The question of “how long will my feeders survive without me” is important, and it depends a lot on what kind of feeders you keep. The most important variables here are your feeders’ metabolism and how fast they reproduce.
On the low end of the scale, you’ve got crickets. Crickets have fast metabolisms, meaning they eat fast, excrete a ton of waste, and reproduce fast. They’re prone to cannibalism and overcrowding even with a lot of maintenance, but left unattended, they’re almost guaranteed to go off the rails quickly. The most you would want to leave crickets alone is a few days.
Dubia roaches are a little less likely to crowd themselves out. They have longer reproduction times, which stops them from rapidly reproducing and eating themselves. But they are prone to cannibalism if they run out of food, so there is a limit on how long you can leave them. With careful planning, you could leave dubias for over around a week without a major incident.
Best Insects for Long-term Storage
Mealworms are some of the best insects for long-term storage. This is because they have the unique ability to go into hibernation when exposed to cold temperatures. You can take mealworms, pop them in a deli cup, and keep them in your fridge for three to four months! Sadly, this is a power superworms don’t share, although they can be kept on zero maintenance for as long as two weeks.
Hornworms are also a great long-term storage bug. They can’t be kept in the fridge, but you can lower the ambient temperature to 55 degrees or so to slow their metabolism. So just by moving their deli cups into a wine cooler or similar environment, you can keep them alive with zero maintenance for several weeks.
The main key when considering time away from your feeders is to consider what your insects can handle. Don’t expect crickets to make it through a month-long hiatus, for example. If you need to leave your feeder insects for longer than they can take it, try instead to have a friend watch them while you’re away.
How to Set Your Feeders Up for Time Away
If left on their own, your feeder insects will eventually destroy themselves one way or another. Like we said, bugs are machines that eat, poop, and reproduce. So you need to try to control those three processes as much as you can.
Climate Control
The first order of business is keeping your feeders cool and dry. This can be a challenge when you’re home, but when you’re gone you need to make sure nothing goes wrong. Make sure your colony is away from direct sun and properly ventilated.
If you have a feeder that benefits from cooler climates like hornworms or mealworms, you might move them to the fridge or a wine cooler. If it’s winter, you might consider leaving them somewhere warm, like next to your water heater.
Cleaning
Always do a good, thorough deep clean before you leave your feeders alone. Move them into a separate container and clean all the surfaces with bleach, then replace their substrate or egg flats. You want them to start with fresh bedding and food when you leave. This will buy you some more time before their poop accumulates to critical levels. Ventilation can also help maintain this.
Feeding and Watering
Last (and definitely not least), you need to make sure your feeders have enough food and water to tide them over, so they don’t start eating each other alive. But bear in mind that loading them up with food can also increase the risk of hygiene issues. Give them enough, but not too much. If they need moisture, leave them with some citrus fruit or hydration gels.