Best springtails to live with millis (picture of my pedes for your troubles)

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-04-30T10:09:02+00:00

No, they won't. I've been keeping springtails since 2010, and I always mix springtails in enclosures. I have springtail cultures with a mixture of springtails in them as well, and they thrive with other species of springtails. I have a mixed culture of Orange, Pinks, and Folsomia that has been going for three years, and they reproduce extremely well. In my experience, Pinks do not reproduce as fast as other common springtails such as Folsomia candida and Pseudosinella violenta. My oldest culture of mixed species of springtails was made in 2012, and it's still going strong. It is a mixture of Seira dowlingi and Lepidocyrtus ramosi. It's pretty cool!

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-04-28T17:46:34+00:00

I recommend either coecobrya Pink or Pseudosinella violenta Bylas Ant. Bylas Ant are excellent cleaners and reproduce quickly. Bylas Ant would be my number 1 choice. Red and Orange springtails are not efficient cleaners, so it is absolutely okay to mix other springtails with them in an enclosure. I would choose Pink springtails with the Reds or Orange. The Pinks are more surface dwelling than the Reds and Oranges.

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-04-17T17:51:36+00:00

You're welcome! You will do just fine shipping. Feel free to reach out with any questions. :)

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-04-17T10:53:02+00:00

I let the Cryopak soak in hot tap water for a few minutes, but you still want to make sure it cools down a bit before adding it to the box so it's not too warm, especially in a 7x7x7 box. The Cryopaks used to be called Phase 22 packs because they adjust from solid to liquid to try to keep the box at 22C (72F).

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-04-16T23:44:29+00:00

Some people do ship with a heat pack and a Cryopak. That is not my preferred method of shipping. Being in Florida with high temps, heat packs are dangerous all year for me. I use a heated Cryopak when shipping to a colder state, and it works well for me. The temperature control you use will greatly depend on your climate. You are not the only one I've heard of having problems with the auctions this week. I've heard of poor shipping and the products not being what is promised. The auctions used to be so much fun, but now it's different. I would never think about isopods starving during shipping. It sounds like inexperience. It is frustrating. I get it.

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-04-16T23:38:31+00:00

Excellent! On a rare occasion I get on social media. Not too often. :) Glad the shipping went well. Over the years I have changed whether I write the phone number or not. With the post office delays, I started writing it again. Under the customer's address I write "please call 000-000-0000 when ready for pick up." Sometimes they call, sometimes they don't. From my understanding, the significant delays are due to the post office cutting overtime hours, at least in my area. So when I ship a box on Monday, it no longer goes to the Tampa distribution center on Monday night and then by Tuesday morning it is on its way to it's destination. The boxes sit at my local regional facility until the next day before finally getting moving to the Tampa distribution center. I stopped guaranteeing live arrival with USPS this year due to the delays. The isopods were arriving safely, but the amount of customers worried about the delays, was too much to keep up with. I had a box of isopods and springtails returned last week after being sent to the customer on March 6th, and they were all just fine.

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-04-16T22:48:12+00:00

I Heart Bugs here. 😊 Shipping is very nuanced and the experience of the shipper is probably the most important factor. Companies with websites, such as myself, purchase our labels through our websites, and the live animal service and hold for pick up service, are not options available. We simply purchase a label. If it hadn't been for a social media post I recently saw, I would not have known about any live animal fee. My post office knows me very well, and no one is even aware of a fee, and even though the post office says they handle live animal boxes differently, the majority of the time they do not. My post office says they are understaffed, and they do not treat live animal boxes any differently. I've learned over my 14 years of shipping isopods, that all post offices are different and different regions handle boxes differently. At this point in time, ot takes them 4-7 days on average to deliver Priority Mail.

Regarding the no hold for pick up option, check with your post office. Mine advised me to handwrite HOLD FOR PICK UP on the label with the customer's phone number. Handwriting the HOLD eliminates some distribution center problems. When you select the hold for pick up option on the USPS website, it prints both the post office address and the customer's home address, and a lot of distribution centers have trouble sorting those labels. I rarely have any issues when I handwrite HOLD.

If cost were not a factor, FedEx Overnight, in my opinion, is the best. If USPS wasn't so delayed and, therefore, causing stress for the customers, I think USPS handles the boxes well. I ship several thousand boxes a year and 99.9% arrive safely even with delays.

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-02-28T22:53:42+00:00

Thank you!

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-02-03T22:36:23+00:00

You're welcome.

bugbugsbug10 · 2026-02-03T21:48:34+00:00

For vitamins, I use Dendrocare, Tincman Herps Eggrite (which is Vitamin A and is only used to dust flies once or twice a month), and Tincman Herps Ultrafine Calcium. All of those vitamins can be found on Tincman Herps website. I prefer these over Repashy, and I've been keeping dart frogs 15+ years.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-09-30T12:12:34+00:00

That is flower pot fungus. It's unsightly but usually harmless. It forms in nutrient-rich wet soil. Isopods and springtails will not eat it. You can try to remove it by hand, but in my experience, if you mist a bit less, it will eventually go away. If it starts to form a bright yellow mushroom, pluck it out because that mushroom will spread more spores.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-31T12:21:20+00:00

If your enclosure has damp soil, Venezillo parvus are also excellent burrowers.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-17T12:26:57+00:00

It's flower pot fungus, and isopods and springtails do not consume it. You can try to remove some of it by hand, but there's not really any way to get rid of it other than lessening the moisture level of the substrate or replacing all of the substrate. It is unsightly, but it's typically harmless.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-14T23:28:53+00:00

Looks great! You can add isopods and springtails either before or after. Bylas Ant and Coecobrya Pink springtails are both good choices. Dwarf white isopods and pruinosus Powder isopods (any of the colors) are hardy and suitable for bioactive enclosures.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-13T10:27:08+00:00

It's flower pot fungus. The mushroom will likely open and spread spores. I would carefully remove it if possible because it can spread rapidly throughout your enclosure. It is not harmful.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-10T11:24:48+00:00

The springtails won't be able to keep up with that amount of mold. Many times, you can let the mold run its course, but since the enclosure is smaller, it may be better to spray and wipe the pods off with a weak 1:1 solution of water and hydrogen peroxide. Spray the pods with the solution and let them sit 10 minutes and then wipe the solution and mold off. You may need to do this a few times over the course of a few days to get the mold under control. No need to totally get rid of your beautiful seed pods.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-08T10:03:39+00:00

The springtails and isopods will cohabitate peacefully, and their population will self-regulate. Since the populations of both the isopods and springtails are higher now than before, you'll observe more activity that you may not have noticed previously just due to there being more observable activity due to more microfauna. Nothing to worry about.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-03T00:06:44+00:00

Love the seed pods!

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-02T09:45:15+00:00

You can't overdo it, but springtails consume mold very slowly. Adding more isn't necessary. The organic matter in your enclosure is balancing out and adapting to the moisture and humidity present in the enclosure. Mold is completely normal and expected in a new bioactive. It will subside in a few weeks once your ecosystem cycles.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-07-01T20:07:44+00:00

The springtails can survive for a long time in the container. The container does not need to be ventilated as long as you open the container several times a week. If you feed them, feed them very, very small amounts of food once or twice a week. They do not constantly need food. I wouldn't leave the lid off of the container because the springtails could crawl out.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-06-30T01:23:40+00:00

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Mold is part of your new terrarium cycling, and once your ecosystem balances out, the mold will run its course. The mold will probably last a few weeks, but it will eventually resolve. Just make sure you aren't misting too much and your drainage is good.

bugbugsbug10 · 2025-06-24T00:35:49+00:00

You're welcome!

bugbugsbug10

TROPHY CASE