How to Love Your Bugs!

I used to be a bug keeper, I've kept springtails, a millipede, and tons of isopods. Since I started college, I haven't had time to keep any bugs, but I still want to share the bug love!
With that being said, allow me to yap about how to love bugs! This is my isopod care guide.

Prep Work

You'll want to start with a container of some kind. I've found that glass containers retain the most moisture, which is great for your bugs, but plastic will be fine. I also recommend getting something you can see into so you can easily check on your bugs. You can buy a container meant to house invertibrates, or you can buy a small container with a lid that latches on securely, and poke small holes in the sides close to the top. Doing this creates a small amount of ventilation that will be enough for the bugs, but retains a lot of moisture, and decreases the chances of any of them escaping.

You mainly need 5 things for your isopod container

Isopods are typically nocturnal, so they like to hide in things, mainly wood. Cork bark is great because it retains moisture as well as giving the bugs somewhere to hide. They also like to dig, so I recommend filling the enclosure at least halfway with dirt, but you really can't have too much. If they have too little dirt, especially in colder climates, they can easily freeze to death. I lost an entire colony during a winter storm because the enclosure didn't have enough dirt, so if I'm not sure if there's enough dirt, I just add more. Moss is important to add for similar reasons to cork bark: moisture retention and hiding places. I recommend having a side with little to no moss, and a side with a lot of moss, the the bugs can decide how moist they'd like to be. The last thing on the list, leaf litter, is something you'll need to check on every single day. This is because leaf litter is a staple food source for them, and if you want your colony to grow, you're gonna need to cover the entire enclosure with the stuff. You really wanna put leaf litter in any areas that aren't covered with cork bark or moss. Ideally, you shouldn't see very much dirt, if any, when you look into your enclosure from the top. Isopods naturally live in places with a dense covering of leaves, grass, and other plants on the forest floor, so they'll be much more comfortable if you can emulate that same environment.
And honestly, that's it. That's your prep work. Isopods are incredibly easy to keep, but it's so cool and rewarding to watch their colony grow.

How to Prepare Leaf Litter

Buying leaves can be expensive, and honestly, collecting leaf litter yourself allows you to make some time to go outdoors. You shouldn't just put leaves you find outside straight into your isopod enclosure, though, because those leaves can have pestisides, diseases, or harmful hitchikers that could result in your colony being wiped out. Luckily, preparing leaf litter is really easy, the whole process only takes about a half hour, and most of that time is spent waiting on the leaves to finish in the oven.

  1. Put your leaves into a plastic bag with warm water and dish soap
  2. Let the bag soak for 10 minutes
  3. Rinse the leaves off until there are no more soap suds
  4. Bake the leaves in your oven for 20 minutes at 250 degrees F
  5. Once cooled, put the leaves into the enclosure, or store in a dry place

And you're done! Now ya got safe leaf litter for your little friends. Thanks for reading my yap session about bugs, have a wonderful day:)

P.S. If you want more detailed information about a specific type of isopod, check out Josh's Frogs. And of course, do your own research. I'm just a college kid on the internet, there are plenty of folks much smarter than me who've done this a lot longer than me.