Tips for breeding woodlice

[merk199]

Any tips on how to get woodlice to procreate. I have some in a shoe box container with damp corrugated stacked side by side on top of wood chips and some leaves. I feed fish flakes and occasional carrot peels. I have had the culture going since around October and have gotten nothing. My newts are dying to eat them....I have fed out one or two of the smaller ones and got a good feeding response. Any tips?

 

[RobM]

Hi!
I recommend having a look at this video by Alan Cann: AJCs Virtual Frogroom: Woodlice cultures

I haven't had much luck with my cultures either, sometimes they kick off, other times they don't.

 

[merk199]

Ironically I was feeding and wetting the culture and I saw at least 100-150 babies tooling around....So hopefully that will go well and they will grow out somewhat so I can feed them.

 

[ajc]

The cultures take a while to get going, but weeks rather than months. Keep them on the dry side and aim for both a vertical (stack of corrugated cardboard) and horizontal (water at one end) moisture gradient.

 

[merk199]

Thanks I do have the verticle stack of corrugated pads. You are telling me to remove some substrate and add a very shallow/minimal pool of water?

 

[ajc]

No, keep them on the dry side - definitely no pools of water! - but damper at one end of the container than the other and with good ventilation.

 

[Azhael]

I was meaning to participate in this thread to say that my culture of Porcellio scaber was not reproducing, but i just saw a lot of tiny woodlice and a "berried" female, so YEAH! xD I was happy, nevertheless because although they weren´t reproducing, the existing population was doing very well, but now i have proof that they are indeed doing fine.
I keep them on a mixture of carboard, paper, shredded coconut and leaf litter, with a couple of stacked egg crates for aditional cover (i feed them on the crates so that i know when to feed again). Pretty much like you merk, and it seems it works well.

 

[grius]

I have also breed Porcellio scaber(orange type) for about a year now with great sucess. I purchased a breeding group from a fiend, that he had some probleme with the culture under a short time and lost much woodlice, probably because off to litle ventilation he thought. So i drilled some more holes in the lid and everything has gone great.

He feed them leaves and soft wood with smell off mushroom. I feed them carrot, apple, lettuce,leaves and that wood when i can find it. I throw all shred food on top of the leaves, or under. So the box only contains of very nice substrate from moulder away leaves etc in the soil (old culture so i dont know what soil he had put in there). And i allways make sure to have some cm leaves over the substrate, wich i moist upp maybe 2 times a week with a quick spraying. Temp from 20-25 degree.

An easy species to breed from my exsperience. But perhaps there is difference in care between the orange and grey P.scaber?

 

[grius]

If it helps anyone this is how i keep my porcellio scaber breeding.
YouTube - ‪Porcellio scaber (orange) woodlice‬‏

 

[eldaldo]

Excellent video grius. I just started a culture of guys I found in my backyard this week. Hope it works out in the long run.

 

[Sikfrog]

Any tips on how to get woodlice to procreate. I have some in a shoe box container with damp corrugated stacked side by side on top of wood chips and some leaves. I feed fish flakes and occasional carrot peels. I have had the culture going since around October and have gotten nothing. My newts are dying to eat them....I have fed out one or two of the smaller ones and got a good feeding response. Any tips?

First of all, you don't want to keep them in a shoe box. The cardboard could be eaten by the woodlice. There's a great wikihow article about keeping them in glass, then releasing in the wild before they breed. There's no reason you can't breed in captivity, but there is a risk of the male woodlice who a larger and have longer feelers, that they will eat the young ones. I'd say as long as you have enough woodlice in good living conditions with plenty of food and habitation, there is no reason they wouldn't breed. They may not breed in less than ideal conditions. Alternatively one can buy them as 10 or 20 at a time, or 100 larvae. If you have a garden and a big old decaying log, that 'wild' environment may be a better breeding ground than what one can create in captivity as a hobbyist.
I would suggest the standard brown ones rather than the white or orange variety, especially if they're just going to end up as feed. Ensure they're kept warm and damp, and remove any mould from there environment that they don't clean up themselves. A clear out once every few weeks should be enough!

 

[Sikfrog]

Any tips on how to get woodlice to procreate. I have some in a shoe box container with damp corrugated stacked side by side on top of wood chips and some leaves. I feed fish flakes and occasional carrot peels. I have had the culture going since around October and have gotten nothing. My newts are dying to eat them....I have fed out one or two of the smaller ones and got a good feeding response. Any tips?

Also, soil is a good living environment, they eat wood and if the chips are chemically treated they may be your issue!

 

[Sikfrog]

Also, soil is a good living environment, they eat wood and if the chips are chemically treated they may be your issue!

Better feed than fish flakes, they are not fish and mostly eat leaves, decaying wood, fruit and veg. There is special insect food one can buy.