Avoiding mold

[young1]

I am planning to put an ootheca in a 10 gallon tank, which I really don't want to clean often. Besides using paper towels as a substrate, what is a good substrate or technique to use to avoid the mold that will start to build when the flies start dropping. I am basically trying to find a way to raise mantises without having to worry about cleaning very often, once a month at most

any advice helps B)

 

[LauraMG]

A couple of things. What species? 10 gallon could be too big or too small or too short depending on the species. So long as you have proper ventilation you should avoid mold. I've had issues with substrate molding, but never paper towels. They just usually dry out too fast to promote growth. Just make sure to change them every week or so or they get nasty with waste!

 

[Rick]

If you get mold you're really doing something wrong. Mold can form when things are kept too moist. Under normal mantis rearing conditions there should not be mold. If you get mold it just means things are far too moist.

 

[sporeworld]

My favorite so far has been "T-Rex Desert Snow Bedding". Bright white, so pleasing to the eye, and the peices are so big, the droppings fall through it (and sometimes the house flies). So it doesn't NEED to be cleaned as often (well, it doesn't LOOK like it needs to be cleaned). Tiny nymphs have some issues getting around in it if it's too fluffy, but mine don't usually get to hang out in it til L2 or L3. It holds moisture pretty well, but mostly the apeal is visual - my bugs get a lot of viewing, so I'm concerned with the estectics.

If you're not too paranoid (maybe you should be) about toxins, you could just use paper from your office shredder, or the brown paper towel rolls from Costco or SmartnFinal. I've used wax paper (really, sandwich wrapping paper) on the bottom so I could just wrap up the debris and lay down a fresh sheet (not as pretty after a few days, but no problems with the nymphs gripping it.

But whatver you use, my best suggestion is to try and engineer a "cleaning box", and make the crawling structure for your habitat one peice (or a few modular peices). That way, you can easily put the plants and nymphs into the cleaning box and thouroughly clean the enclosure before replacing your "tenants". Especially if you deal with crickets, which can smell up an enclosure in no time. I've got big storage bins with really slick plastic, so no one's climbing out if they try to make a break for it.

Hope that helped.

 

[MantidLord]

I use soil and even place fruit in my tanks with soil as a substrate. I don't have mold, but then again I have an army of isopods and billions of springtails to clean up everything. They hide in the soil, so they don't disturb the mantids either.

 

[Precarious]

I'd suggest using damp moss in its own shallow dish. I use plastic Chinese takeout containers. That way you can contain the water separate from the rest of the tank which discourages mold, and you can just pick it up out of the tank for cleaning.

 

[sporeworld]

Hay, MantidLord - can you point me/us to info on isopods and springtails. Interesting stuff...