Funny little guys in a jar

 In January, I discovered I had a bunch of isopods (aka pillbugs, rolypolies, woodlice, carpenters, etc) living in a Rubbermaid tub of soil that I was over-wintering. The soil had come from my little balcony garden, where some of my plants didn't survive the colder months. I was quite surprised to see them in there since I didn't expect these tiny moisture loving bugs to make the journey up to my second story balcony. I wasn't entirely sure what to do with them. 

    After some thinking I opted to dispose of the soil and use the tub for storage, but I wanted to see if I could save some of the isopods and keep them in a small terrarium. I started with a large squared glass jar from Michael's, a couple scoops of soil from the tub, plenty of isopods, and a couple spider plant babies from my garden plants. Many people are now keeping different isopod species as pets and I thought it looked neat enough to try myself.  I added in some leaf litter from my balcony plants as well as some dead sticks from a suffering succulent a friend had given me in the hopes I could nurse it back to health. Isopods aren't called woodlice for nothing, those little guys love wood. 

My first isopod enclosure, cast in purple and blue light due to the led clip-on grow lights for the plants.

    I didn't know a lot about isopods when I started this project, but I spent a good amount of time reading up on them and their behavior. The species in my jar I'd identified as Armadillidium Vulgare- the common pillbug- a species that had originated in Europe and was introduced to North America. They're the most commonly found species of pillbug in California too. I'd learned that in addition to being crustaceans, they also still have gills, having at one point in their ancient ancestry been animals living in water. You can still find plenty of isopod species in freshwater and in the oceans. And perhaps not being so far out of the water, in terms of evolutionary history, terrestrial isopods don't really know what to do with bodies of water and are prone to drowning- you can't really give them a water dish or the poor little fools will drown. Their moisture needs are primarily delivered through damp soil. They can drink water through their butts (or express water that way if they have an excess in their body). They can live up to three years and the females carry their eggs/babies in a marsupial brood pouch on their underside- which is both cute and kind of gross. They're social critters and often cluster close together to conserve moisture. Breeders also have managed to breed lots of impressive color variations of different pillbug species. I'm curious to see if any interesting morphs appear in my population, though I'm not intending to be anything more than a hobbyist. I don't think there's a future of career invertebrate husbandry for me.

    The bugs in the jar thrived and I was spending a lot of time admiring them as they crawled around, nibbled food, burrowed into the soil, and sometimes comically tumbled off of leaves or sticks when they lost their footing. They are not graceful animals, but they are hardy. I even observed one isopod molting because it had dug down into the soil up against the glass to shed it's skin, unaware that it was sharing this very private little moment with me. On several occasions I thought I saw my isopods fighting- and it turned out actually they were trying to mate. Or at least, perhaps a male wanted to mate and was clinging onto a balled up female. 

I've also enjoyed seeing what foods they like besides the leaves and sticks I've been providing them. Kale and lettuce go fast, carrot peels from washed carrots are also popular. Bits of apple are enjoyed but don't get eaten fast enough before going hideously moldy. I'd also read that eggshell is good for them and provides calcium that helps them have healthier molts. After boiling some eggs I saved the shells and ground them up small before adding them into the jar and witnessed my bugs going absolutely wild for them. I even got a video of two bugs "fighting" for a piece of shell (really, one large one was just trying to eat a shell bit that a small bug wanted- with the small one haplessly clinging to the shell).

Something touching and unexpected is the way my partners have also taken to my hobby and have     encouraged it. Both my wife and boyfriend would come to admire and watch the isopods, finding the little creatures charming and cute. 

My wife, being 100% correct.

 

    My boyfriend began suggesting that I upgrade from a large jar to a proper terrarium tank on my shelf and by February I decided that would be a good idea. Both bugs and plants were outgrowing their enclosure a bit- including a few mystery sprouts that I didn't plant myself. We took a trip to pet store with some measurements in mind for the shelf where I keep my bugs and found a perfect plastic enclosure- one meant for invertebrates or as a temporary home for reptiles or amphibians during cage cleaning. My boyfriend and I set up the terrarium together and once the enclosure was assembled I added new soil, transferred the plants, then added the remaining soil and isopods from the jar. I also included lots of new sticks and dead leaves sourced from my garden.

Around this time I'd also started reading more about how professionals and seasoned hobbyists were caring for their isopods and one thing that came up over and over again was springtails. These tiny bugs are great together with isopods because they control the mold and fungus that so easily grows in the types of moist environments that isopods like. They help keep mites in check by out-competing them for resources as well. I decided that I had to have springtails too if I wanted my isopods to thrive. I placed an order from a dedicated seller and set up the old glass jar as an enclosure for the springtails with another spider plant baby and organic soil.

Springtails or Collembolans are not classed as insects- instead Entognatha, a separate subgroup that along with insects belong to the subphylum Hexapoda. I'd never really known much about them until now, where I learned that they're also very popular for bio-active enclosures for exotic pets- mainly frogs and reptiles. Isopods are popular for that reason too (and sometimes serving as pet food) and together they're an efficient team keeping enclosures clean of litter and animal feces.

My springtails arrived on the 23rd. I'd ordered from Josh's frogs, which I'd heard good things about, and I was indeed pleased with the experience. I'd also bought a large bag of animal-safe hardwood charcoal for both enclosures. Springtails are impossibly tiny so I did not get any good pictures of them, but the container of substrate I received from Josh's frogs was teeming with tiny little springtails. I put half the container into the jar and the other half into the isopod enclosure. Already I've observed them exploring and moving around. I'd definitely expected my isopods to be more shy and hiding after a recent addition of new things to their enclosure, but they seem entirely unperturbed by it and are actively liking the new soil and the charcoal bits. I'd also received some pet grade sphagnum moss to add to to isopod tank, but I will wait on that a little while everything settles. I don't want to stress my critters by fiddling with their enclosure too often.

I'm only two months into the hobby, but I'm excited to see where things go. I suppose I will update here in another few months if there's any major changes to my isopods or their enclosure. Some day if I manage to get a little more space I wouldn't mind setting up enclosures for fancier color morphs and different breeds of isopods, but I don't think that's in the cards for a while. I'm interested in reptiles and millipedes too, but that's far off (and I wouldn't move onto reptiles until I know everything I can about caring for them).