Feeders | Springtail cultures

These awesome little hexapods act as the clean-up crew for your terrarium or habitat.
They munch their way through all the nasties that can arise like mould, algae, dead or dying matter and fungus. They're the absolute must have critter for your enclosures and this video explains how to "grow" your own.
A World of Hedgehogs - simonwildlife.blogspot.com/
Instagram; @stgbooks
Springtail photograph; Willy Chung.

[@themantisgarden]

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[@rockyreyes9320]

A very cool thing that I learned about springtails is that they are able to store sperm for the purposes of reproduction for a very long period of time after mating just once. So as long as you have one female that has mated you will be able to then have a full Colony granted it will all be of brothers and sisters but insects don't care about that type of thing

[@themantisgarden]

A great deal of insects (and hexapods which springtails technically are) can hold sperm - mantis are an excellent example of that.

[@Guishan_Lingyou]

I wonder if I can capture some springtails in cool weather. I am collecting materials to make a terrarium with my daughter.

[@themantisgarden]

You can indeed. You can collect them all winter but the warmer it is the more you will catch

[@Guishan_Lingyou]

@@themantisgarden Thank you for the reply! I will try soon.

[@mimikyuw2506]

I made a springtail trap (adding charcoal, rice and moisture for mold in a bottle) and place under a plant pot. Why did I barely capture one? Is that because I'm in a city or it is dry season here?

[@themantisgarden]

Lots of reasons. Placement will be the most important, if there are no springtails or very few where you tried then you won't can't any - also, why did you add charcoal? Charcoal is only used as surface area in cultures so they have somewhere to lay their eggs. Cucumber attracts them 100x more than rice. Dry season? We don't have those here so I have no idea, but sounds like a reasonable excuse. City? Springtails are everywhere in the world so the city shouldn't pose a problem if you find the right place.

[@mimikyuw2506]

@@themantisgarden tysm for your help. Gonna use cucumber now. Also I live in tropical lands so no rain for about half a year, so I guess springtails must migrate to deeper underneath the ground.

[@themantisgarden]

They're real easy to find in temperate climates but I can't recall ever seeing any in far off lands. On this you will know much better than I do :)