Caring for Isopods – Isopod Facts
We for one love isopods, in-fact we care for them daily, these little guys are also known as roly polys, rolly pollys, or even rolly pollies. No matter what you call them isopods (a more broad term) do a wonderful job cleaning up their environment, clearing waste, and creating nutrient-rich “dirt”. That’s why many people purchase isopods for their vivariums, tanks, and microhabitats. Cleaning and disposing of a creature’s, or critters feces, vivarium mold, algae, and heavy metals is hard and time-consuming but these cool guys do all that for you, and more – 24/7.
Another reason you may have purchased isopods one time or another is for feeders, they make great feeders – but a warning – isopods collect toxic heavy metals from their food, never purchase isopods from a non-organic source, only buy from reputable organic dealers such as us avoid collecting them in the wild as you can never know what they may have eaten – making them less than safe as feeders. You may have grown up thinking isopods are gross and disease-ridden – this is a myth – isopods do not spread any disease making them safe to handle, and care for – even for children.
Now you know a little more about isopods, their benefits, and some facts about them, but you came here looking for an isopod care guide – so let me guide you with some tips, how to get started, and much more, as organic isopod farmers – we want to help, subscribe to our mailing list to never miss an article again.
Are Isopods decomposers? – Armadillidium vulgare fun-fact – Isopods are decomposers. They will typically not eat live greens and prefer to stick to decomposing leaf litter, compost, and rotting materials. Isopods live where there is food, this may include your garden, but not for your beloved plants – for your nitrogen-locking dead materials. Letting isopods stay in your garden beds can help reduce this rotting material and in the process release otherwise locked up nutrients, and nitrogen.
Necessary Parts Of An Isopods Diet – Isopods Galore
Some Isopod species are harder to take care of than others, but Armadillidium vulgare is one of the best beginner isopod pet species for this exact reason – Armadillidium vulgare are easier to handle, care for, feed, and take care of in general than some other isopod species, making them easy to raise pets and feeders. Isopods need a few things in their diet that most people forget to provide – specifically two things; dry leaf material, and trace copper. These two things are necessary in order to maintain a healthy isopod colony. That is why we are working on our very own Specialty Isopod Food, tested and made for isopods, meant to provide trace minerals, nutrients, and foods necessary for an easily maintained colony, with ease in mind, learn more about our Organic Specialty Pet Foods here.
How to get started :
1. Depending on the type of aquarium, bin, or container decide how many isopods to start off with – we suggest starting off with 28-55 for most tanks (10-20 gallons) and purchasing more if you find they aren’t doing their job fast enough. As feeders, we suggest buying them in bulk so you always have the chance to treat your animal or insect to a fancy dinner.
2. Give your new isopod janitors or feeders a 1-2 inch (or more) layer of edible ground cover (bedding), clean leaves are a great starting point. Moisten it before adding them to their new home – isopods require humidity (or slight moisture) to breath, don’t make it too wet, just slightly wet is good enough – spray it with water every week if in an enclosed environment, or once a day if in an open dry climate, when isopods dry out they die. Isopods also love to dig, giving them a few inches of organic dirt gives them a place to hide – and mate.
3. (OPTIONAL IF USING EDIBLE BEDDING) Feed them vegetables, and or edible plants on an as-needed basis – when they run out give them more, if it molds give them less.
4. Care for them like any other pet, these isopods are alive and require your help to survive – they make it easy for you, just treat them right and they will reward you in many ways. They live for 2-4 years so expect your isopod pals to be with you for a while.
Click here for another isopod care article, the more info the better
Where to get help with your bugs – Ficarro Farms An American Organic Isopod Farm
Hi, we are Ficarro Farms, we are glad to see you! We are a small family farm in Corpus Christi Texas dedicated to organic farming, American made and raised products, and great customer service, as insect and worm farmers we’ve been through a lot, use the contact us page and get in touch, and we’ll try to answer any questions you have whether it’s about gardening, farming, animals, insects, or just to say hello – no question is a dumb question to us. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and like this article – every bit helps. Thank you so much for supporting our small family farm. Have fun caring for your isopods, and let us know if you have an interesting story to share – we love hearing from visitors.
If you’re looking for even more help we’d like to point to a great blogging site not affiliated with us – VivariumTips, they are relatively new but we’ve found they are a great source of tips and tricks for vivariums, terrariums, and aquariums, especially for beginners and people looking for vivarium help.
Hopefully, we’ve answered all of your Armadillidium vulgare care questions in this article today, but if you feel we’ve missed anything, or you’ve started your very own Armadillidium vulgare habitat, leave a comment down below and let us know how it went, and if you’ve purchased isopods for sale from us in the past – don’t forget to leave a review of your live Isopods here on our website, to help us improve, and provide words of encouragement.