# springtail ventilation



## Guest (May 22, 2005)

It's my understanding that springtails will get smelly if they don't have some air exchange every couple of days. Would it be possible to cut out a hole in the lid of their container and cover it with some kind of fine mesh to allow the air in or are the springtails just too small and would escape?


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## Spar (Mar 27, 2004)

i never see my springtails crawling along the top, so I dont see why not. just make sure there is at least 1/2" of space between the top level of charcoal, substrate, etc, and the lid.

However, do you not open the top every couple days anyway to feed them?


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Yes, you need to ventilate it every couple of days, I just had one of my cultures die because i did not open it in several days. If you use food such as cucumber peels or rice that could decay quickely and mold, you should ventiliate even more regularly. I punched 15-20 holes in the top of the lid with a thumbtack to give adequate ventiliation, but im sure you could put a piece of mesh on top also.

Luke


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

I've gone for a month without opening a few of my springtail cultures with no ill effects.


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

I generally tend to open my cultures every couple of days to feed them so I haven't had a problem with cultures crashing (knocks on wood). The only time I've ever had a springtail culture smell was when I overloaded a startup culture with white rice and had it grow a bizarre blue-green mold. Fortunately the springtails seemed to enjoy the mold and cleaned it all up.

Bill


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