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Cleaner bugs


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I've been seeing a lot about springtails and isopods as a cleaner bug in the colonies. I was wondering what people did with them when the colony is cleaned. The springtails are so small that I see it being pretty difficult to separate or anything. Isopods like damp right? How do you keep the colony damp enough for the isopods without making the frass and everything moldy and killing the colony?

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When springtails and isopods are present in decent numbers, they will consume the materials on which mold grows, so you don't have to worry about mold when you keep the colony damp enough to support them. The cleaning is a continuous process and it never really ends, so your cleaner "bugs" are always fed and always propagating. For the most part, since they're so small and so ravenous, they will consume their own dead and any other byproducts they create are either broken down by their young or by bacteria which are presumably already present in the substrate and furnishings.

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What do you do or use to determine if you need to spray? By feel or how it looks or did you get the humidity meter?

I determine by how it looks. I use coconut fiber as the primary base for my roach substrate mixes, and if it's dark it's usually full of water.

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Personally, I purposely just feed them rotten left over fruits and veggies, I let some get kinda gross and kinda moldy and they go bonkers for it. If you haven't seen isopods swarm, well, it's awesome.

When I gave my discoid roaches fresh food, it attracted invaders like fruit flies and ants. So I stick them to fish flakes, vitamin supplement powder, and an accasional piece of bread.
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When I gave my discoid roaches fresh food, it attracted invaders like fruit flies and ants. So I stick them to fish flakes, vitamin supplement powder, and an accasional piece of bread.

I'm not trying to sound rude, but if your getting ants in your house you should get an exterminator to find how they get in so the holes can be plugged up. Fruit flies on the other hand anyone can get in the house.

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I'm not trying to sound rude, but if your getting ants in your house you should get an exterminator to find how they get in so the holes can be plugged up. Fruit flies on the other hand anyone can get in the house.

Actually, that was 8 years ago and I've moved since then. I post this comment on different pages to suggest to other forum members what is an easier, less messy, and safer for the roaches way of feeding. While nutritional needs may very, my Discoid seemed to fair pretty well with Tropical Fish Flakes, and Fluker's Vitamin Powder and so do the German that I have now. It should also be less expensive since that stuff won't go bad and thus doesn't have to be replaced so often. Fluker's also has water gell which is easier and safer than cotton balls and water dishes.
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