Woodlouse

[Tom Highum]

What will eat woodlouse? and how do you keep/ breed them?

[SludgeMunkey]

Just about all the amphibians I have ever worked with relish woodlice (AKAK sowbugs, pill bugs, roly-polies, etc...).

They are easy, but slow to culture. I use the biggest size Sterilite tub they carry at Target. I line the bottom with wet, crumpled up, unprinted news print. Over top of this I put about an inch of lawnmower trimmings from my yard. Then I add about 6 inches of loose leaf litter. I throw in a few pieces of soft, mostly decayed punk wood too.

To get the culture started, I collect as many woodlice I can find of all sizes using pitfall traps and a lot of log/rock flipping. I add these to the culture box, snap the lid in place and stick it in my basement where I forget about it for a few weeks. (Every so often I check to make sure it is damp in the box, and mist it with spring water.) Do not be surprised if you end up with a good culture of springtails too!

Other than that, there really isn't much to culturing them. To harvest them I put a dab of peanut butter on the inside of a damp toilet tissue roll. I let that sit in the culture over night. Next day at feeding time I carefully remove the tube and gently shake it out in my critter enclosure. Once every few months I stir in a few fresh hand fulls of lawnmower trimmings.

[Tom Highum]

thanks but do you need to drill ventilation in the tupperware?

[Iceni]

Woodlice breath through gills. There a closer relative of marine life then terrestrial forms. I think they actually class as a crustacean.

Woodlouse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Breather holes might not be necessary. If your worried take a section out of the top of your Tupperware with a dremel or a hole saw and cover it with Fine gauze.

[Tom Highum]

What is punk wood?