To collect Isopods or not to collect?

[happiness]

I saw a Isopod running across my kitchen floor and thought.. I'm going to catch this little guy, raise him and find more! .. but now I'm kind of thinking maybe I should just buy some (to avoid parasites) but I can go outside and probably find a lot of them. They are always coming in my house!

What should I do?

& Is there a cheap website to purchase them from?

I ended up finding about 10 total isopods and 4 very tiny shelled snails in my search for rolly poley's outiside! Can anyone tell me what kind of snails these are and if they get bigger? I don't recall ever seeing a huge shelled snail around my area (Maryland). Wondering if they're worth keeping or should I just let them be free in the wild? But really, what is the point when I have 3 non parasite ones that I recently purchased ! I guess they're just cool to have! Though they'll probably fit right through the critter keeper top holes!!

I also noticed some eggs! Anyone know what laid these? Do Isopods lay eggs? Should I keep them and let them hatch to find out? There was a slug close by.. Maybe they're slug eggs?

There was another batch of smaller eggs stuck to a leaf. I was going to leave them in my new tank of isopods but I noticed they were already hatched!

 

[pigglett79]

Isopods hold their babies in their belly and release live babies when they are ready. So the eggs are some other type of bug. I bought my isopods online just because I wanted to be sure they were clean, I could order a bigger species and the price wasnt bad http://www.doubleds.org/Uniquefeederpg.html I got the Tan sow bugs and they breed like crazy. I have only purchased them once.

The snails you have wont get big.

 

[sandrachameleon]

isopods do not lay eggs

Yes, it is okay to start a colony from wild parents. You'll want to remove the wild parents before they die, so that anything they have in their little bodies are not picked up by the offspring.

 

[happiness]

Thank you for the information