Woodlice cultures

[ajc]

Woodlice are the ideal food for a wide range of amphibians and are easy to culture. The video I did about Drosophila cultures (http://tinyurl.com/yrrae2) has had a lot of favourable comments and people are requesting more, so here's a video on how to culture woodlice:
http://frogroom-podcast.blogspot.com/2007/10/woodlice-cultures.html

 

[Jennewt]

I love it! I culture them just the way you show, with two minor deviations. I use fish flakes and axolotl pellets to feed them. And for harvesting, I simply take a whole spoonful of dirt + woodlice and put it directly into the terrarium. A lot of my terrariums have an established "internal" population of these woodlice, which I encourage by occasionally feeding them a flake of fish food wherever the woodlice appear abundant.

By the way, for folks in the USA, I know of two commercial places that sell the white dwarf woodlice. I've never dealt with either of them, so I'm reluctant to advertise for them by posting their names, but you can probably find them by googling. If not, PM me.

 

[cheddarsox]

I enjoyed the video...especially when the Dendro's toe twitched, as if in anticipation and excitement over the fresh meal!

 

[Otterwoman]

I couldn't play the drosophila movie...do you have the other version of it?

 

[navaros]

Both videos are great. I never heard of the orange juice method for Drosophila. The method I used to use was the same besides the OJ. I used water and microwaved the jar/media then added yeast when it was cooled. I am definitely interested in trying your method though. And the woodlice culturing couldn't be easier, I will have to give that a shot too. Keep up with the videos, they are done well, get the point across perfectly and it is one thing to read how to culture something and another to see it done first hand. Very nice.

 

[Otterwoman]

I decided this was a great idea and decided to start my own culture of woodlice.
Well, someone must have warned them, because when I went to collect those bugs this morning, instead of the usual hundreds that I see when I look for worms in my yard, I found JUST ONE!
They must have decided it's time to hide for winter? Well, I'll look again tomorrow. Unbelievable, they are usually everywhere. On the upside, I did find 8 nice fat slugs, just enough for every Tylo and Taricha who wanted one.