The clean up crew?

[Mad Dog Murphy]

Hi all, currently building my bioactive terrarium and now turning my attention to the bottom, I have butyl lined the bottom and sides 4” and affixed with silicon and installed a drain and waste pipe, pipe is currently open with a view to maybe fitting a shut off valve?
i would like to get the clean up crew up a running in a temporary plastic container until the time comes to pop them in, your thoughts?
was planning on woodlice,springtails, earwigs and a few earthworms? Sound ok?, my concern here is the springtails, the door is a fine mesh aluminium and sides and back are closed, there will be a 2.5mm gap running all the way round so more than enough room for them to escape, is this likely? and if so a problem ? Is there a similar alternative To springtails ? I have no doubt there probably end up in there anyway on leaf matter I plan to put in from outside.
stick with me here, I do rattle on a little , next question is, are theses isopods etc ok to just be sourced from my own land? I live within my own mixed wood forest and know they’re all out there, European versions I guess, as well as a whole host of bugs and Beatles that are currently decimating my pines.
next question for those of you that have stuck with me,
i have clay balls to go down first on the bottom, do these sit on a layer of weed matting? As I was just going to mat over them.
then what, substrate ideas please, was going to go with compressed coco blocks, but am rapidly changing my mind after being told they are a bugger for coming free with parasites!

your ideas would be appreciated.

 

[MissSkittles]

This is what I used as a guide when setting up my bioactives. Since I lack building skills and fear the circular saw, I used fabric root pouches to contain everything. I do like that they are breathable. I set them on a substrate tray to avoid leaking. Inside I placed the drain layer and covered it with landscape fabric to separate. For my girls, I wanted a more solid separation floor so used plastic lighting egg crate and beneath the landscape fabric. Then I dumped in all the components of substrate and mixed it up. I used play sand, horticultural charcoal (needed by the springtails to breed), orchid bark, coco coir, organic garden soil, and some chopped up sphagnum moss. I put my washed plants in and got everything else completed. Last step I put in my isopods and springtails with a healthy layer of leaf litter and at least one decent sized piece of cork bark for the isopods to hide beneath.
I haven’t had any problems or concerns about the springtails. Every now and then I find an isopod wandering along the hallway or find their desiccated corpses in a closet. Not sure exactly why I started it, but I do keep a small bin of extra isopods. It has come in handy when I need to take down and redo a leopard gecko tank or something. I would not use wild caught clean up crew as you really have no idea what other travelers they may have on them. I would also not use earthworms. It’s no problem if my cham hunts/eats the isopods, but they don’t easily eat earthworms because of the slime they secrete. You can toss in some superworms if you want.
To use the leaf litter from outside, that I would advise sterilizing first. Bake for maybe 20 minutes or so at maybe 200F.

 

[MzLaurie11]

Try amazon for Flukers bend a branch

 

[nightanole]

Find rolly pollies
Let rolly pollies make little rollie pollies
Use little rolly pollies for clean up crew, try to discard adults

the reason is it gets rid of any parasites. If the adults are infected or poisoned, they gonna die.

As for a barrier, you can smear about a 1" wide coating of vaseline if its a cool area, or coconut oil if its a hot area. however if you get it backwards the coconut will harden or the vaseline will melt down the sides.

 

[Mad Dog Murphy]

This is what I used as a guide when setting up my bioactives. Since I lack building skills and fear the circular saw, I used fabric root pouches to contain everything. I do like that they are breathable. I set them on a substrate tray to avoid leaking. Inside I placed the drain layer and covered it with landscape fabric to separate. For my girls, I wanted a more solid separation floor so used plastic lighting egg crate and beneath the landscape fabric. Then I dumped in all the components of substrate and mixed it up. I used play sand, horticultural charcoal (needed by the springtails to breed), orchid bark, coco coir, organic garden soil, and some chopped up sphagnum moss. I put my washed plants in and got everything else completed. Last step I put in my isopods and springtails with a healthy layer of leaf litter and at least one decent sized piece of cork bark for the isopods to hide beneath.
I haven’t had any problems or concerns about the springtails. Every now and then I find an isopod wandering along the hallway or find their desiccated corpses in a closet. Not sure exactly why I started it, but I do keep a small bin of extra isopods. It has come in handy when I need to take down and redo a leopard gecko tank or something. I would not use wild caught clean up crew as you really have no idea what other travelers they may have on them. I would also not use earthworms. It’s no problem if my cham hunts/eats the isopods, but they don’t easily eat earthworms because of the slime they secrete. You can toss in some superworms if you want.
To use the leaf litter from outside, that I would advise sterilizing first. Bake for maybe 20 minutes or so at maybe 200F.

 

[Mad Dog Murphy]

Thanks for the advice, I would never think of baking the leaves but it makes sense, could be bringing unwanted free loaders in, and I’ll buy the clean up crew, will scrap the earthworm idea too.

 

[Mad Dog Murphy]

Try amazon for Flukers bend a branch

Ok cool I’ll take a look

 

[Mad Dog Murphy]

Find rolly pollies
Let rolly pollies make little rollie pollies
Use little rolly pollies for clean up crew, try to discard adults

the reason is it gets rid of any parasites. If the adults are infected or poisoned, they gonna die.

As for a barrier, you can smear about a 1" wide coating of vaseline if its a cool area, or coconut oil if its a hot area. however if you get it backwards the coconut will harden or the vaseline will melt down the si

 

[Mad Dog Murphy]

Thanks for the advice

 

[MissSkittles]

You could probably freeze the leaves instead of baking. It’s primarily to kill off any unwanted pests that could be in the leaves.

 

[Mad Dog Murphy]

Freezing would be easier for me as have a couple spare chest freezers, but now I’m concerned a little as to bringing in nasties to the little fella especially red mite and may just use arcadia custodian fuel, which is a shame as I have leaves in wire baskets everywhere for composting

 

[Flick boy]

Thanks for the advice, I would never think of baking the leaves but it makes sense, could be bringing unwanted free loaders in, and I’ll buy the clean up crew, will scrap the earthworm idea too.

Baking the leaves, will make them not last as long ,but will keep tanins ( a food source for your cuc , ) boiling them will make them last longer but remove tanins . Yeah not fused on the earth worm idea myself, from what I've read they can damage plant roots and stunt plant growth, ( and personally I would have thought they would consume/ remove to many nutrients to quickly)

 

[Flick boy]

You could probably freeze the leaves instead of baking. It’s primarily to kill off any unwanted pests that could be in the leaves.

I never thought about freezing them good idea

 

[Mad Dog Murphy]

Ok this is my thinking now after Thinking on the matter some more and reading everybody’s thoughts, I’m going to scrap the Earthworms, yes I believe the plant life will suffer from what I read, so will go with shop bought Crew consisting of springtail, wood lice and earwig ( sound ok) I’m planning on making a mealworm farm so maybe I could throw a darkling beetle in there too, not going to gather anything from outside as Im concerned about potentially bringing red mite in as it’s rampant here, so probably custodian fuel to keep them happy.

 

[MissSkittles]

Have you tried diatomaceous earth for the mites?

 

[Mad Dog Murphy]

Have you tried diatomaceous earth for the mites?

Yea it’s our go to for the coups also use a dust powder for the birds and my wife cleans the coups regularly with some fancy concoction she’s made, pretty sure it involves vinegar, I’ve burnt coups before and started again, tried painting them with a lime wash even old engine oil once which I won’t recommend as didn’t work anyway, some years are worse than other, generally a hard winter gives some respite! I’m learning it’s a case of management as opposed to eliminating them. Look at me turning this into a chicken forum