Separating isopods from substrate

EulersK

Arachnonomicon
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Feb 22, 2013
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Title really says it all. I'm looking to get as many isopods out of my colony as possible, babies included. I have a pretty bad phorid fly problem that I plan on resolving with an airtight container, and this is about the only way to do it since I can't allow it to dry out.

So far, about the only idea I've come up with is simply picking them out. But that's obviously a ridiculously tedious task. I'm willing to do it, but does anyone have experience doing anything else successfully? Again, I'm not looking for 100% capture rate, just as high as possible.
 

sdsnybny

Arachnogeek
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Apr 29, 2015
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Good luck, I use a spoon and take dirt with it which wont help you. After you get them as separated as possible you could possibly keep out further infestation in any enclosure by adhering mosquito netting like used in camping tents to the ventilation holes.
 

EulersK

Arachnonomicon
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Good luck, I use a spoon and take dirt with it which wont help you. After you get them as separated as possible you could possibly keep out further infestation in any enclosure by adhering mosquito netting like used in camping tents to the ventilation holes.
Yeah, a spoon is how I do it as well. I've already got the netting that I'm going to be hot-glueing around the air holes. I'm just not looking forward to plucking out the isopods, especially the babies. They finally started heavily reproducing, too :banghead:
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
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Glancing at this thread title half awake and relating it to cutting horses from a herd. Mount up and use a spoon instead of a rope. Simple.
 
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