#bug care

[sheeperzzz]

Hiii i need some help. I found myself a little friend after a shower and I want to keep him comfortable. His name is Hiccup. I have no knowledge of isopod keeping whatsoever. I love isopods but I never thought Id see one irl for some reason. Any tips would ve appreciated! If it helps; i live in southwest florida, near Fort Myers. Heres a photo of him in the temporary jar hes held in

[crevicedwelling]

things I do for my isopods: take an entire leaf pile and soak them for several days to leach tannins out, then dry them flat and snip off the inedible stems so they store nice and settle well in isopod tubs.

all probably not majorly necessary but I find it very satisfying to offer my animals the cleanest, tastiest food possible even if it takes hours of work. it’s sort of fun too to stockpile massive amounts of “hay,” and I never have bought leaf litter once

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

i have an orchid mantis, shes a full grown male mantis and her name is cherry, i feed her fruit flies every other day :3

this blog is to document things she does or stuff that happens because there isnt enough information about mantids i can find online, they’re severely under researched and i (a 23 year old queer person with currently beginner bug knowledge) feel like my findings could be helpful to someone someday :3

cherry is a male mantis, but i use she pronouns for her, i dont really mind what pronouns anyone wants to use for her bc shes a bug but thats what i use

my daughter ^^

[grumpy-beetle]

The last elephant beetle in my care ♥️

He took about 3 years to grow as a larvae, and unfortunately only lived a month as an adult.

I had 6 elephants in my care from that batch. 2 have pupated last year (2 years as larvae) and lived about 3~ months as adults. Unfortunately I only have the male from saved as the female was in a lay box (with unfortunately no eggs to show) and grew over with mold.

The last 3 unfortunately didnt make it. 1 died to a badly constructed pupa chamber and sustained incredible deformities that I have never quite seen before. The other two lived up to 3 years as larvae as well, however failed to make pupa chambers altogether and passed away despite my best efforts to help.

This guy at least grew a much more impressive horn than the last years male, which is quite interesting.

[prof-peach]

Hey, prof Peach ! Ever heard of the Youtuber "PleaseBee" ? He kinda reminds me of you sometimes. But with bugs (not bug types, though. Bugs. Animals), his work is great. He is mostly raising bugs like Caterpillars or Bees. If you decide to take a look, turn on the subtitles, he isn't English. That's defintly something to check out so... well, check it out 😅 (if you want)

Yessssss. I plan on IRL breeding native butterflies for the local protection agency sometime in the near future, so I will definitely check this out, LOVE me some bugs!

[bugthetwink]

A few caterpillars have fallen into my care. They were on the dill plant in the garden. I'm 90% sure they're swallowtails. All I really know is they're baby.

[spacegate]

Do you use anything special for the care of millipedes? Like heat lamps, extra light sources, beetle jellies etc? Because I'm pretty poor and don't know if I could handle too many continuous costs (sorry if my English is bad, it's not my first language)

Here’s what you need to keep millies happy! (Note this is for tropical species like my ivories. Desert millies need different things.)

1.A glass tank that is longer than it is tall, and a metal grated lid. For the lid you want to line the bottom with plastic wrap and poke a few holes in it for air. This way it keeps the moisture in! Half of the tank must be substrate, because millies need to burrow so they can shed without being stressed out. I use a 16 gallon tank for mine and it works lovely! Millipedes care more about deepness more than anything else. The glass makes sure they can’t climb out and try to escape lol.

2.For lighting, a recommend a combo lamp. The stands for them are fairly cheap and easy to install. You will need a basking bulb for heat during the day, and a ceramic heat emitter for heat during the night. For millies you just need the nano ones and 40 watt bulbs do nicely.  Lighting will probably be the most expensive out of the supply list but it lasts a good while. Make sure you have a surge protector! If you want you can get a timer to automatically turn and off the different lamps for a 12 hour day/night cycle, but I just do it by hand lol.

3. Temperature and humidity gauges. There are many kinds to get, but you should get a pair that is easy to read. You should stick them in your tank on the inside near the middle, so you can easily see and adjust temp and humidity.

For tropical millipede species, the temperature should be between 75-85F/ 23-30C and the humidity should not drop below 60%, the best range is around 75% humidity.

Those are the things that you NEED to buy. For me it ran me about 60 USD to get those. 

For substrate and tank decorations, you can buy them or make them. I did buy some tank decorations but of course that’s optional :)

For Ivory millipede substrate, mix good organic dirt with organic compost (less chance of pesticides in them), plus crumbled leaves, rotted hardwood pieces, and eggshells. You can also add a but of calcium sand to the mix if you like. Millipedes will eat the substrate so it needs to have everything they need! The eggshells give them the calcium they need to shed and grow new exoskeletons!

For food, they mainly eat dead wood and dead leaves. I go outside to get that for them, but make sure you dunk them in boiling water to kill off any microbes and wash away any contaminates like pesticides! I have a few oak sticks in the tank they love to chew on, as well as pieces of crumbly wood here and there. The leaves I get from the oak tree in the backyard and they love munching on them. They also love eating slices of soft fruit/veggies like cucumbers, apples, berries, lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, and avocados. In order to make sure they get calcium, i like to dust their food with calcium powder. They have successfully shed many times and I like to think it helps out.

For humidity, fill a clean spray bottle with spring or distilled water. NO TAP WATER. And spray the tank down. I do this every other day. Also use a bottle cap for a water dish, cause they do drink water from it once in a while. They mostly get their water from droplets on the sides of the tank or they drink it from where it collects in leaves. 

IF THE HUMIDITY DROPS, THEY CAN DRY OUT AND DIE. Keep it nice and hot and humid in their tank and they will be very happy!!!

To deal with all the millipede poop, you can get tank janitors! The best ones are springtails and they are very cheap and hardy! They also eat mold and mildew which tend to spring up in a tropical tank. They keep everything nice and tidy!

If you want to handle your millipedes, make sure you wash your hands with mild soap before hand, they can get sick from lotion and other things on your hands! Wash your hands after handling them.

Those are the basics! Please let me know what species you wanna get!

Also I’m poor too and usually i give them bits from what I’m eating for dinner so it all works out. Once you get the initial set up you usually don’t need to buy anything else, except for replacement bulbs when they burn out.

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

what a beautiful child. i love her. my daughter. look at those eyes. wow. just wow.

today cherry has done a lot of walking around her enclosure, i dont know whats gotten her so active but every time ive come into the room shes been somewhere else :3

my favourite girlboy :3