# Springtail food?



## Keni

What the best springtail food that I can make at home?


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## Encyclia

They'll eat a variety of scraps, but I have the best luck with brewer's yeast. I use less than a pound a year, which costs me about $5. 


Mark


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## FrogTim

Uncooked rice just a few grains works well too. Brewer's yeast has better yields IMO.


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## hp192

FrogTim said:


> Uncooked rice just a few grains works well too. Brewer's yeast has better yields IMO.


I concur. Rice works just fine...I even hide a few pieces in the leaf litter to keep them happy in the tanks. But I use the yeast in the cultures...for me , the difference is visible noticeable.


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## berksmike

Another vote for yeast here - personally I use dried active bakers yeast sprinkled on surface and lightly misted
I've tried others like instant oat cereal, rice and fish flake but find yeast yields better results
I have found in if container lids have holes the yeast attracts fruit flies and the larvae will eat up the yeast


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## Keni

berksmike said:


> Another vote for yeast here - personally I use dried active bakers yeast sprinkled on surface and lightly misted
> I've tried others like instant oat cereal, rice and fish flake but find yeast yields better results
> I have found in if container lids have holes the yeast attracts fruit flies and the larvae will eat up the yeast


Bonus for free fruit flies. Lol

Thanks guys. I'm going to get some yeast tomorrow


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## MDfrog

You can also use mushroom slices or the powder.


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## Pumilo

Be aware that every item listed above, save one, has the potential to contaminate your culture with mites. The only one that won't, is the one that has to be ultra pure to do it's job. That would be the active baker's yeast. Yes, it's a little more expensive, but very effective. One could argue it could be the most effective in terms of production. 
"How could it be more effective than brewer's yeast?", you ask, "after all, they are pretty much the same thing".
That's both true, and untrue, depending on how you look at it. For the first week, month, maybe even several months, production of a culture raised on brewer's yeast, has every possibility of producing the same as a bakers's yeast raised culture. 
Eventually, if you are putting "unclean" foods in your cultures, mites will rear their ugly heads. That is where my still clean, bakers yeast culture dramatically outproduces the mite ridden, brewer's yeast culture. 

You can get a 4 lb. bag of active bakers yeast, at Costco, for a few bucks. You can run many dozens of cultures for over a year on that. That makes it dirt cheap, well, unless we're talking frog dirt, which can get to be expensive!
Seriously, buy it at the right place, and it's quite cheap, so why should pricing come onto play on this? Use the product better suited for the job, and do less labor down the road.

That was a real question, brewer's yeast people. Is there a reason why you select brewer's over baker's yeast? I've given my reason...what's yours?

Oh, and Keni, my answer is active bakers yeast. I've grown out and distrubuted hundreds of springtail cultures using active bakers yeast. I've tried about everything else, and came back to active bakers yeast. 
PLUS...you can bake bread with it! If you could brew me a beer out of that waste product, brewer's yeast, you might bend my ear...but you can't.


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## Broseph

Pumilo said:


> That makes it dirt cheap, well, unless we're talking frog dirt, which can get to be expensive!


This made me lol.

And I also use live active yeast. No contaminating organisms for my charcoal cultures, and still better than everything else for my "dirty" cultures of leaf litter, peat, and turface.


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## rjs5134

PLUS...you can bake bread with it! If you could brew me a beer out of that waste product, brewer's yeast, you might bend my ear...but you can't.[/QUOTE]

THIS made me laugh...


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## Keni

I actually picked up bakers yeast at Sam's club today so sounds like I'm good. Also Idk about beer but i make some Hella good mead 😆


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## Keni

Now what problems do mites cause? And what do they look like.


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## Pumilo

They look like tiny spiders. Most people can see them with the naked eye, if you are looking for them. Vivariums will always develop mites, and it's not a problem, there. It's just free food. Baby pumilio go nuts over them. The term, "Pumilio Candy", has been used referring to them.

In a culture, however, nobody eats them, so they are uncontrolled. They can eventually slow your production to a crawl, or even kill off a culture, simply by out-competing the springtails for natural resources, like food, breeding space, and living space.

Everything gets contaminated, eventually, unless you have lab conditions, and none of us do. All cultures can eventually have trouble, no matter how careful you are, but if I can run for a year, instead of 6 months, well, to me that's worth the extra effort to run them as clean as possible.

Hmm, it's been more than a few years, Keni, but it's nice to meet a fellow mead brewer! All too few even know what it is anymore. Let's get really obscure. Do you know these, without looking them up? 
Metheglin?
Melomel?
Cyser?
Pyment?
I made a mean Melomel, back before the kids were born. Wow, it's been 20 years. Now you went and made me feel old!

I have a few links for you, Keni. I'm sure more than a few saw this coming.

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/66991-how-culture-isopods-woodlice-springtails.html

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/157202-giant-orange-isopod-reproduction-speed.html

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/94348-3-micron-filters-why-how-where.html

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/fo...clean-your-mite-contaminated-springtails.html

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/79208-pumilo-dougs-bugs-my-new-closet.html


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