# My first woodlice culture..HMMM??



## speed211 (Jan 27, 2006)

oK for background this is my first tropical white woodlice culture and this is the method i chose to culture them.
Woodlice (um not sure how to link)

So it has been about a week now since i seeded the culture with the woodlice. I flung it open, rifled through all the cardboard sheets and NO WOODLICE. the oats have molded over nicely and i added a few cucumber peelings for good measure that have also molded over and SMELLS really nice! but no visible woodlice there either. 

Here is the part that bothers me! in the soil substrate i can see what remind me of a mini earthworm and also one or two flying bugs that make my meglonasties look like The hills have eyes rejects....is my steralite container lid not fitting properly(walmart special)and all my woodlice gone AWAL? Am i just being impatient?


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## Adven2er (Aug 17, 2008)

You will probably have to wait a few months to see any noticeable reproduction. I used basically the same set-up you have and I had the same results with Fungus Gnats or whatever they were. I stopped feeding Items that mold over and started using whole potatoes. I use three small red potatoes in my culture, about the size of a half dollar. When the stem grows I just cut it off so it doesn't get out of control. When I pick up the potato I find hundreds of them feeding on the roots. I only add water about once per month. Hope this helps.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

keep your temps at 80 they breed faster. Their life cycle is much longer than a week! Wait a few months before feeding


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## speed211 (Jan 27, 2006)

i knew that there would not be an explosion of the little buggers but i was expecting to see the original 30 or so i tossed in to begin with. at least one or two you know


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

OH if you are culturingthem like that they are mist likely inside the corrugtions of the cadboard, or buried into the soil. No worries. Just forget about themfor a while


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## speed211 (Jan 27, 2006)

ok thanx...so the reason that the woodlice r not so popular as a pdf food source is there slow turnover rate? bcuz everything i read says that there exoskeleton is a great source of calcium that could reduce the need for artificial supplementation. and in my opinion the culturing is Way easier and cost efficient.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

once they get going they will be pretty prolific.....they are not quite like FF so don't expect quick booms.

I currently have Spanish giant orange and white dwarfs. The giant orange are cool....they get big and are really nice and orange.

Cardboard....corrugated plain brown cardboard on top of the culture substrate at all times.....mist is so the carboard is nice and moist.

They absolutely go mental for cardboard and the fungus that grows on it.

Woodice? I remember my first woodlouse


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## jeeperrs (Jan 14, 2010)

This post made me laugh. I could just imagine little woodlice going AWOL ha-ha. 

Ok I have a serious question that may sound dumb. If woodlice get out do they get in your walls and eat any type of wood??


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

No...they are not like termites....

Your house is safe!


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## jeeperrs (Jan 14, 2010)

ok, cause every time I read a post about them I wondered about that  I want the orange one, just because I am an OSU cowboy fan


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## speed211 (Jan 27, 2006)

haha, yeah my wife asked if they will get in your hair  lol


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## speed211 (Jan 27, 2006)

lice and flies what kinda hobby have i gotten myself into? haha


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## speed211 (Jan 27, 2006)

ok so i misted my cardboard pretty good....i hadnt been doing this because i was worried about getting it to moist. the top pieces were pretty dry but the bottom 2 or 3 sheets were damp. i only misted the cardboard and not the soil. 

so phil do u culture more than one species of these dudes together? or seperatly?


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

seperately.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

The soil should be damp.

Cardboard can start out dry and just lays on top of the substrate and you can watch it - it acts as a gauge as to the degree of moisture. If it stays dry then you know the culture substrate is too dry. If it bcomes waterlogged and falls apart and some huge gross mold grows on it, then the substrate is too moist.

some mold is good as the bugs like it, but you don't want it taking over the whole top of the culture.

Use mixed substrate like the composition you would use in your vivs - like an ABG mix. I use a tiny bit of large river rock fish peebles too, just a few to give the culture some airspace.

Feed quality fish flake, potatoe slices...that sort of thing.


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## ZeeMan (Sep 19, 2008)

LoL.... the hills have eyes rejects...

Happy to see this thread
I am having a quite a challenge culturing woodlice. 
I find if I put cardboard in there, it gets swarmed with little brown mites.
(The same brown mites that overtake and kill my springtail cultures).
So I have been using coconut chunks.

I am definitely going to try potatoes.
Do woodlice eat fungus (like springtails) or do they eat vegetable matter? 
I have been feeding them whatever I gave to the springtails, but there has been a huge infestation of fungal gnats.

Thanks!


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

woodlice eat mold and veggie matter. I feed carrots, zucchini, and fish flakes high in carotenoids


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## speed211 (Jan 27, 2006)

ok....so its been several months since the seeding of my tropical white woodlice culture. i began and until now have been feeding these little buggers a variety of items which include...tropical fish flakes, baby cereal, various soft veggies such as cucumbers, potatos, tomatoes(not so good to acidic i think), occasional canned green beans...ect... needless to say i have seen an explosion of pinhead size microscopic (gray in color) woodlice all over my cardboard inside the culture. i rarely get a glimpse of any adult isos...so i started poking around my substrate...yep lots of em'. 

soooo i was under the understanding that they would be all over the cardboard feeding on it...thus making them easy to harvest and feed out. Not the case...

Any observations or tips and hints would be appreciated!!

on a further note, i also am finding lots of "centipede" looking...for a lack of a better description..faunua in the culture....GOOD or BAD?


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