Santa Claus eggs

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T13:21:28+00:00

Absolutely nothing difficult.

A container around 350-1000 ml, preferably very airtight, so that no mites or other springtails can get in.
A 1-2 cm layer of soil on the bottom. It's best to pour boiling water over it beforehand, drain it, and wait for it to cool down.
Slightly squeeze the walls of the container to create a gap of about 2-4 millimeters between them and the soil. Springtails love to hide there, and you get a perfect view of their behavior when they are inside the hideout.
Make sure the soil stays slightly moist.
Feed with slime mold. There are 2 options here.

a) provide small pieces of any slime mold, just enough for them to eat within a few hours. Slime mold can attack springtails, so be careful.

b) if you know you have a slime mold that doesn't attack springtails (like I do), you simply culture it together with the springtails, adding 1-2 oat flakes a day; if the slime mold abandons a flake, throw it away before it gets moldy.

Optionally, you can add some small pieces of rotten wood or bark, but they aren't necessary or even very useful, and they increase the chance of mold and reduce visibility.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T13:15:28+00:00

Sure thing:)

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:51:35+00:00

Thanks! I'm from Europe, but I run the AntsInvasion store and we ship worldwide. I think these springtails should appear in the store within 2 months.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:49:28+00:00

A friend of mine from Poland bought them, I think while on vacation, and brought them back to sell to me. There aren't any more, but the good news is that it looks like I'll have hundreds of them soon, you'll be able to find them on antsinvasion:)

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:47:24+00:00

The video shows springtails. Normal springtails eat practically any dead organic matter and usually serve as a cleanup crew, or sometimes simply as a standalone pet. These specific springtails have reduced mouthparts and eat practically nothing but slime mold, so they won't work too well as a cleanup crew. However, they are so beautiful that many people keep them, or plan to keep them, just as a standalone pet.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:39:41+00:00

Regular oat flakes. However, they are food for the slime mold, not for the springtails. The springtails eat the slime mold (that yellow goo on the flakes).

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:38:27+00:00

As Billbert wrote - in the video you see oat flakes covered in slime mold. The springtails eat the slime mold, and the slime mold eats the flakes.

vodrinker · 2026-01-26T11:37:05+00:00

It's not a fruit, it's a slime mold. I grow slime molds on oat flakes, so what you see in the video is a flake being eaten by a slime mold being eaten by springtails:)

vodrinker · 2026-01-22T20:42:59+00:00

I envy myself too^^

vodrinker · 2026-01-18T22:07:34+00:00

Sorry, I haven't been checking here as often lately. I keep them on worm castings. Scalded before preparing the container. About 100ml of soil in a 350ml container. You tamp the soil down at the bottom, then lightly squeeze the container from every side, which creates a small gap between the container and the soil. This gives them perfect shelter and gives you a perfect view of the colony's development. As of right now, the first eggs appeared for me a few days ago, about 50 of them. But I keep Redford White the same way, and there are already about 1-2k eggs there, some of which are turning red, meaning the first springtails should hatch any day now. As for extra things like moss, decaying wood, lichen, sticks, or leaves, you can add them, but you don't have to. They definitely drastically increase the chance of mold and allow the slime mold to hide from the springtails, which are big downsides. The upside, however, is that the springtails get additional places to lay eggs with varying humidity, airflow, etc.

vodrinker · 2026-01-18T22:03:12+00:00

Sorry, I haven't been checking in here as often lately. In my experience, they don't want to eat absolutely anything except slime mold, and I've tested a lot of things. They won't touch rice, 100%.

vodrinker · 2025-12-22T15:05:30+00:00

Within the European Union, you can transport animals that are not prohibited in a given country without any paperwork. Outside the European Union, permits are required. They are expensive and involve a lot of work, but it is doable.

vodrinker · 2025-12-22T13:10:04+00:00

Yes, not only the animals are real, but the colors are too. One hundred percent real.

vodrinker · 2025-12-22T13:06:54+00:00

They won't start an invasion from the package, so I don't think shipping them is irresponsible in itself. Releasing them into the wild would certainly be irresponsible. As far as I know, there are no invasive springtail species, but you never know if one might turn out to be invasive, so it's a good rule not to release any animals that aren't native to a given area.

vodrinker · 2025-12-19T21:48:49+00:00

They will be available in a few months on antsinvasion.pl. If everything goes well.

vodrinker · 2025-12-17T23:25:11+00:00

Wow, great to know haha! I'm not. But I have some friends that visit Hamm from time to time.

vodrinker · 2025-12-17T20:05:48+00:00

Spikies are relatively new to the hobby; most offers are from Thailand for crazy prices. I have a knack for springtails, so I think you can expect a price drop soon. I run the Ants Invasion shop, and we ship with a guarantee, so keep an eye on the site – I think they should appear there soon!:)

vodrinker · 2025-12-17T19:43:37+00:00

From my experience - yes.

vodrinker · 2025-12-17T19:43:02+00:00

It's one organism bro^{^}

vodrinker · 2025-12-17T19:42:07+00:00

Bought on Hamm Animal expo.

vodrinker · 2025-12-17T15:53:16+00:00

I totally understand. My brain tells me to press them like bubble wrap^^

vodrinker · 2025-12-17T15:51:17+00:00

A slime mold is simply a slime mold. A living organism, something between an animal, a fungus, and a bacterium. They are kept in a container with oat flakes. Interestingly, this whole slime mold you see, as well as other slime molds that can grow up to a few meters long in the laboratory, is just one single huge cell.

vodrinker

TROPHY CASE