My terrestrial isopod (woodlice, pillbug, sowbug, etc.) culture.

[ozarkhellbender]

I thought I would share a technique I came up with for culturing terrestrial isopods. First I combined shredded newspaper and just enough hot water to thoroughly moisten the newspaper in a blender, and blended it into a chunky pulp (Note: This coats the inside of the blender with ink, so you might want to purchase an old blender from a garage sale or used appliance store). Then I pour this pulp into a plastic sweater box with holes drilled into the top for ventilation. Now just add isopods and spray with water when the pulp starts to dry out. The pulp hold moisture very well, so you won't have to spray it often. The pulp acts as both a food for the culture and a substrate for the isopods to burrow into.

 

[Azhael]

Interesting!
Could you possibly post pictures so that we can make an idea of how well this method works?
I´m planning on starting a largish culture myself (i´m waiting to find a decent starter culture).

 

[ozarkhellbender]

Certainly!
Here they are:

 

[ozarkhellbender]

In the photos above, I have some lager shredded pieces of newspaper on top of the pulp. It's hard to see them, but there are several dozen isopods in this culture. They already eaten quite a bit of the newspaper.

 

[Azhael]

Thanx! I like it, i´ll definitely try this method instead of a soil based substrate.
This is basically the way i culture earthworms (or at least the way the culture started) and in the culture i have Trichorhina tomentosa, which are doing nicely. It´s great to see it works for larger, temperate species too!

 

[josh1990]

That is really cool! I will have to try this as well.

 

[nhaislip]

Personally I prefer the method that taherman perfected. It is based around using corrugated cardboard. The cardboard layers can create a nice moisture gradient and then when you want to feed out or add them to any tanks, you can just pick up one of the flats and shake it out.

Works like a charm for me!

All credits to Tim for the method!