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Post by vraev on Sept 9, 2015 22:56:27 GMT -5
LOL! Baaah....,lice ......makes my skin crawl. lol Haha, that would be the normal response and used to be my response too... ...but I've seen so many tropical springtails magnified close up, that the resemblance to head lice is eerie... ...lice stick to their high wire act, tenaciously clinging by a hair, while springtails do more acrobatic aerial tricks. dvg o yea... I'm totally familiar with them. Lice was a problem once I was a kid in India, and I finally got my head shaven to get rid of it. Since then...its like a trauma that you always remember. but yea springtails are soo cool. I blasted the guy on the plant with water by mistake during spraying and it was gone in an instant. If only I had one of the newer nikon camera body...I could have tried to do a slo mo of him jumping. Either way...something cool for the future when I get a better camera.
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Post by WillyCKH on Sept 15, 2015 20:11:23 GMT -5
Check out this handsome springtail that I saw yesterday!
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Post by vraev on Sept 16, 2015 17:47:40 GMT -5
very nice. I was emptying some water in a glass beaker that I threw some live sphagnum in...and I saw some nice springtails that looked like that. It was actually 1mm or so...pretty big compared to the globular guys. Unfortunately..no pic. Need to get me some macro rings.
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Post by lloyd on Sept 16, 2015 17:50:51 GMT -5
I have some mainly black ones in my Exocarpus seeds. Fed them to the Drosophyllum.
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Post by grackle on Sept 17, 2015 3:09:57 GMT -5
I am not sure that it can be said that all springtails are beneficial, any more than all birds drink nectar. Sminthurus viridis causes severe crop damage in Aus. and Onychiuridae has a taste for tubers. What made me buy cultures (besides the anoles and Utrics) is that they are credited with spreading mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhiza-helper bacteria which some seeds need for germination.
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Post by vraev on Sept 17, 2015 8:40:05 GMT -5
I am not sure that it can be said that all springtails are beneficial, any more than all birds drink nectar. Sminthurus viridis causes severe crop damage in Aus. and Onychiuridae has a taste for tubers. What made me buy cultures (besides the anoles and Utrics) is that they are credited with spreading mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhiza-helper bacteria which some seeds need for germination. Can you please direct us to these cultures?? I wouldn't mind seeding my tanks with it...or having some extra culture to feed baby plants.
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Post by WillyCKH on Sept 17, 2015 9:11:31 GMT -5
I am not sure that it can be said that all springtails are beneficial, any more than all birds drink nectar. Sminthurus viridis causes severe crop damage in Aus. and Onychiuridae has a taste for tubers. What made me buy cultures (besides the anoles and Utrics) is that they are credited with spreading mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhiza-helper bacteria which some seeds need for germination. Yes, I agree that not ALL springtails are beneficial, and even the harmless ones can be causing problems if the population is too high.
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Post by grackle on Sept 17, 2015 12:59:17 GMT -5
I came across her site at Canadart forum. She is a desert reptile breeder who cares about her clients and goes that extra mile. However this weekend is a herp expo (in Mississauga?) so unless hoping to grab whatever from her there I'd wait until next week. Lisabeth Villeneuve www.elevageslisard.com/collemboles.php .
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Post by vraev on Sept 17, 2015 14:50:55 GMT -5
Thanks so much. I emailed her and set up a order to pick up at the reptile show. I am getting both the sizes of springtails. Will be useful for feeding the smaller plants.
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Post by grackle on Sept 17, 2015 15:29:22 GMT -5
Excellent. I hear substrates are wildly cheap at those, bring carrying bags with you.
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Post by lloyd on Sept 17, 2015 15:48:57 GMT -5
I find the little guys grow all by themselves.
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Post by vraev on Sept 17, 2015 16:49:12 GMT -5
I find the little guys grow all by themselves. I know. But I have never seen the big ones. Mine are like 0.5mm or smaller. With these two species, they seem to grow big enough to handle and perhaps I can flash freeze a bunch and feed them to some plants.
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Post by morphman on Sept 17, 2015 17:21:34 GMT -5
Springtails are super easy to culture. I usually inoculate my tanks with springtails and isopods. They eat detritus and keep any mold outbreaks under control plus they are a great source of food for any small animals or Carnivorous plants. Usually easy to find on Canadart as mentioned or any Reptile shows. I also seed tanks with Isopods which are also very beneficial. In my personal experience you can't have too many. If the population booms out of control they usually end up crashing from lack of food and then it's back to normal. To culture them I just put some charcoal in a container and partially fill it with water so there is some charcoal above the water level. I then pour in some springtails from another culture and that's it. I keep them in a cabinet with low light and room temperature. I feed them either Baker's yeast or pulverized dried up mushrooms.
There are a few useful threads on Dendroboard specifically about springtails.
Hope that helps.
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Post by lloyd on Sept 17, 2015 18:01:53 GMT -5
I find mine in my petri dishes. There's a thin film of water. I tilt it towards the bugs. They float and are helpless. I pick them up with a fine forceps.
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Post by morphman on Sept 17, 2015 20:02:46 GMT -5
Try culturing them. Put some in a deli cup with charcoal and water then add some mushrooms (dry preferably). Give it a couple of weeks and see what happens. Don't put a lot of mushrooms. Just a small sprinkle. The bigger the culture the more they'll eat and you'll get the hang of it quickly.
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