keeping Lithobius forficatus .

zxneon

Arachnosquire
Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
57
Just curios has anyone successfully kept Lithobius forficatus ? Thy are ubiquitous here . Why not give a try ?
How long thy live anyway ?
 

yougrowgirl

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 25, 2018
Messages
22
Did you ever go ahead and keep any? I recently brought one that I found in my garden indoors. Set it up in a terrestrial acrylic enclosure with a few inches of moist coir and leaf litter. Am keeping the substrate on the moist side and have fed it a mealworm that I killed first. It ate half so I feel things are off to a good start. I believe they eat small inverts, worms, and isopods. My only issue is how often to feed. My guess is weekly as with many other inverts. I’m not a fan of centipedes but thought t would be an interesting way to get to know these creatures that inhabit my garden and perhaps I will develop more of an appreciation.
 

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steel

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 15, 2018
Messages
13
in not sure where you live but I live just outside of Waco TX. I find hundreds of those under boards in my back yard ( or at least they look similar)!!! i all ways catch them eating small worms, crickets, and lots of termites!!! SO MANY TERMITES!!!! I most commonly find them where the termites are!!

hopefully that helps!!
 

Scoly

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 4, 2013
Messages
488
I keep a colony of these, partly for their own sake, partly as feeders for other growing centipedes. For my set up I stacked sheets of cardboard with a layer of topsoil between each sheet inside a small aquarium. The idea was to give them lots of surface area to clamber around, I'm not sure how successful this will be long term as the cardboard may disintegrate into nothing. The colony started in my millipede enclosure where they utilised the tunnel network created by the millies, but they also preyed on the baby millies, so I had to separate the whole lot - which wasn't an easy task.

I throw in dead cockroaches, and the colony's young feed on mites which feed off the cockroaches, and I suspect the larger feed off the young so will be adding another food source soon, perhaps a tiny cockroach species.

Also, they lay their eggs in the soil, and they hatch out as tiny 5mm long mini yellow pedes with a tiny amount of legs, and they can take weeks to hatch, so keep an eye out for them :)
 

RTTB

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 4, 2016
Messages
1,771
Easy to keep. Recently heard they are communal. Once every 2 weeks feeding is fine. One source says they can live up to 5 years.
 

yougrowgirl

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 25, 2018
Messages
22
in not sure where you live but I live just outside of Waco TX. I find hundreds of those under boards in my back yard ( or at least they look similar)!!! i all ways catch them eating small worms, crickets, and lots of termites!!! SO MANY TERMITES!!!! I most commonly find them where the termites are!!

hopefully that helps!!
I'm in Toronto, Canada. Great that you have these in abundance to manage termite populations.
 

yougrowgirl

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 25, 2018
Messages
22
I keep a colony of these, partly for their own sake, partly as feeders for other growing centipedes. For my set up I stacked sheets of cardboard with a layer of topsoil between each sheet inside a small aquarium. The idea was to give them lots of surface area to clamber around, I'm not sure how successful this will be long term as the cardboard may disintegrate into nothing. The colony started in my millipede enclosure where they utilised the tunnel network created by the millies, but they also preyed on the baby millies, so I had to separate the whole lot - which wasn't an easy task.

I throw in dead cockroaches, and the colony's young feed on mites which feed off the cockroaches, and I suspect the larger feed off the young so will be adding another food source soon, perhaps a tiny cockroach species.

Also, they lay their eggs in the soil, and they hatch out as tiny 5mm long mini yellow pedes with a tiny amount of legs, and they can take weeks to hatch, so keep an eye out for them :)
Interesting about a communal colony. I don't think I'm up for that since I'm not (yet) a fan of centipedes... I prefer arachnids and other inverts. But useful info should I decide to go that route in the future. I was surprised to discover how much they burrow and was glad I put enough substrate in there.
 
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