# Springtails



## Precious (Aug 31, 2007)

I ran a forum search and found some information on springtails but I still have questions. Anyone have much experience with them? I've never seen them. Are they a species or just a baby crik? My interest is in whether they are smaller than d. melanogaster. I have Gamibian oothecae and I always have melanogaster but they seem so big for the really little nymphs. Please share :wink: .


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## Rick (Aug 31, 2007)

They're not baby crickets.


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## Sparky (Aug 31, 2007)

maybe this will help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springtail


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## Precious (Aug 31, 2007)

I don't Wiki, but I should have Googled. Ick! Look something like earwigs. Anybody use them?


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## Red (Sep 1, 2007)

the cultures of springtails are very easy to breed, only need high humidity and food for goldfish. i used sometimes when really small nynphs hatch, but springtails die very quickly and dont be good for feed mantis.

regards


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## Ben.M (Sep 1, 2007)

> I ran a forum search and found some information on springtails but I still have questions. Anyone have much experience with them? I've never seen them. Are they a species or just a baby crik? My interest is in whether they are smaller than d. melanogaster. I have Gamibian oothecae and I always have melanogaster but they seem so big for the really little nymphs. Please share :wink: .


0My gambians which are 8 days old now are taking small hydei


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## AFK (Sep 9, 2007)

springtails belong to a totally seperate order from earwigs and crickets

springtails = collembola

earwigs = dermaptera

crickets = orthoptera

i do wonder, however, how viable they are as L1 food. i wouldn't be surprised if springtails require very particular habitat conditions though, so they'd probably wouldn't last long in a mantis habitat if they weren't eaten quickly. if the damp and humid soil and detritus is added to the mantis habitat for the springtails to survive, i don't know how often the springtail would come out and wander for the L1's to take notice and catch.

anyone ever tried aphids?


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## Red (Sep 10, 2007)

yup i tried, but i catch it in the wild. you can culture it with fresh plants, but its really dificult.

so if you can get it for a free pesticides place. you can give it for your mantis nynphs.

regards


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## Precious (Sep 10, 2007)

> springtails belong to a totally seperate order from earwigs and cricketsspringtails = collembola
> 
> earwigs = dermaptera
> 
> ...


You were right about the springtails. My Gambians are taking melanogaster and they're doing well but the springtail culture came in the mail today, very late and very dead. But I had no idea how small, white and covered in dirt they are. Useless. I thought I'd respond to your aphid question, though. Aphids rock. I used them this past spring to feed Chinese hatchlings. Aphids had infested some irises in the yard and I just dropped the flower in the enclosure and the babies loved them. As the flower decayed, I'd add a fresh one and the aphids would leave the wilting flower and migrate to the new one. It was clean, smelled like flowers  but I don't know how you could culture them, so to speak.


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## AFK (Sep 13, 2007)

very cool, precious!  

the last time i kept fruit flies was back in elementary school, but i'm also curious which is easier to culture and which reproduces faster - fruit flies or aphids? i know both reproduce like rabbits x 100 lol.

the one thing that i would immediately be concerned about though is the nutritional value of aphids. they seem like...eating iceberg lettuce - 90% water! haha

i would imagine that culturing aphids would just be a simple matter of keeping the host plant alive and not much else to it. it might even be easier than fruit flies! but the fact that fruit flies seem to be more popular than aphids suggests there is a good reason why.


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## Precious (Sep 14, 2007)

There's always a catch. Nutrition. Hadn't thought of that. At the time, aphids were recommended, but by an children's educational site and it kept the hatchlings from eating each other! Other than nutrition, culturing aphids of course requires having aphids to start with. In the spring, they are readily available in different varieties in the wild. Their food doesn't even need to be live, just relatively fresh. But as you know, you can obtain fruit flies and have many cultures for pennies any time of year. I'll tell you this. I don't think they'd work for every mantid. They are almost perfectly still! They just sit and I don't think most nymphs would even notice them. The Chinese, well they eat anything with a pulse!  They certainly are clean and fragrant though!


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## AFK (Sep 14, 2007)

ha, you are right!  

aphids certainly don't move much...once they're settled in. however, i do remember that they would creep along just enough to get my L1s' attention when you first dump the aphids in...they'll also keep moving longer if there is no host plant for the aphids to feed and settle on in the mantis enclosure since the aphids will try to keep moving (to a certain point) until they find food.

another disadvantage with aphids!


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## Hypoponera (Sep 19, 2007)

I have used springtails many times. They are great for L1s of most species. They were even readily taken by L2 African grass mantids! I am lucky in that I have a ready supply of springtails. They have infested my ant colonies! They provide my ants with free house keeping! I just toss some in with the mantid each day. And springtails move a lot more then aphids.


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