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Are there any? If so, do they only get rid of mold or can they prevent it? And where can I get my hands on some?
Isopods that deal with mold
- Thread starter MrsHaas
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Arachnomaniac19
Arachnolord
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You can't really get rid of it since it will always be there in small numbers, but they do eat it (I think most mold, not all). Just get some of the ones outside and keep them for a few weeks to make sure they're healthy. After that, dump them in!
Beary Strange
Arachnodemon
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Or err on the side of [strike]paranoia[/strike] caution and buy them online. I know Bugsincyberspace almost always has them and other places occasionally carry them.
Arachnomaniac19
Arachnolord
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If you can find a place that sells them do it. I just prefer the local species since they're more hardy IMO.
Smokehound714
Arachnoking
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Most isopods in general actually prefer rotting wood that has mycelium invading it, they dont particularly enjoy the fruiting bodies.
if you want to prevent mold, introduce the isopods BEFORE visible mold develops.
if you want to prevent mold, introduce the isopods BEFORE visible mold develops.
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I just had my first experience with springtails courtesy of a new substrate that apparently has springtail eggs in it. My P. rufilata left a bolus on the ground and it molded. Bunch of springtails popped up around it and have eaten half of the fruiting body. Look into a combo of springtails and Trichorhina tomentosa.
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People who want isopods should live on the damp coasts. Everyone's windowsills, decks and outdoor furniture is rotting, sow bugs are everywhere by the millions cleaning up the 'dry rot' fungus and getting blamed for eating the wood.
Smokehound714
Arachnoking
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I actually have a species that prefers dry scrub conditions- porcellionides pruinosus! Great if you want a cleanup crew for a dry enclosure, all they need is a piece of wood to hide under.
They do reproduce ridiculously quickly, though..
They do reproduce ridiculously quickly, though..
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@Anubis77 -- Where did you find that substrate? I really need more springtails for several of my vivaria.
Jacob Ma
Arachnoknight
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You can honestly get that substrate in any forest Erin. Just turn over an old log, scoop up a clump of moist soil to fill a small container, and it should have springtails. Otherwise you can just get them from places like Josh's Frogs or BugsInCyberspace.
They aren't that hard to find. They exist everywhere around the world.
They aren't that hard to find. They exist everywhere around the world.
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Yeah, I've bought some from Josh's Frogs. I'm not sure whether they've successfully cultured any of my vivaria; of course they are small, but they are white in contrast with the substrate and I would expect to at least see them in my millipede habitat; perhaps I should have let them multiply further in their charcoal first.
I wonder whether they would be in the soil of my surrounding forest... It is strange, turning over an old log, none of what you'd expect to find is there. It makes me wonder whether there isn't something very wrong with the soil -- some chemical or pathogen that particularly afflicts detrivores or perhaps something which eats them, maybe too many ants, although they are not everywhere...
Anyway, I had not previously seen the different varieties of springtails offered on BugsInCyberspace and am going to get a bunch. I had might as well protect the drier enclosures of my tarantulas even as I try to get the mold in my millipede and isopod terraria under control.
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Pardon me for saying it but have a good look at your log. Some create pathogens as they decompose. Cyanide compounds are common especially with oaks. Euacalyptus is a big no no, as is camphor.
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Then perhaps it is the abundance of oaks around here? I had thought that oaks were healthy for detrivores but I guess I am mistaken. If oaks are indeed noxious to them, it would explain why I haven't been able to find any isopods and very few millipedes throughout this park. There are oak leaves everywhere here, untouched...
It would at least put my mind at ease to have that mystery solved (and then I'd best remove all oak leaves from my terraria!
). It is ironic, I thought to find all kinds of life in these woods (and I do, of other kinds, especially flora), but it is instead in mulch outside main campus that I find the life I expect -- lots of isopods, millipedes, centipedes, earthworms -- You can bet I grabbed a bunch, guess I should have grabbed some soil too! It's alright, I'm a scientist in training so people expect me to do crazy things like that, hehe! 
Hisserdude
Arachnoking
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No, oaks are one of the best leaves you can feed your bugs, more likely that they use pesticides there. And you know, it's still pretty early in the year, many bugs are not out yet.
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I have been told this before and tend to agree. But some oaks also have an exclusive ecosystem that repels or is outright hostile to certain insects. I'm thinking of the Engleman oak as I write this.
Hisserdude
Arachnoking
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Trye true, but well rotted leaves should be fine, right? Any chemicals the tree created should disappear once it rots. Even something like pine wood is safe for bugs once it reaches a certain level of decay.
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Ye gads. Hoping you could tell me!
We are talking organic compounds, each of which will have it's own properties as it decomposes. So like, we need a prof of organic chemistry to weigh in for some accurized guesses.
My greatest concern is the synthetic environment as found in a terrarium. This typically concentrates the chemicals found in nature over a period of time. What is considered harmless out in the wild, or initially dumped into a tank, may yield toxic levels some time down the road.
My brain is sort of locking up here, fixating on apple seeds that pack a pretty lethal dose of cyanides, for the average bug, throughout the germination process.