- Joined
- Aug 16, 2002
- Messages
- 556
OK, so I am getting to be at my wits end with trying to get springtails. I have recently expanded my isopod bins, although 'expanded' may not be the word for it. I've more than doubled my enclosures as I prepare to split out colonies and continue to work on isolating color morphs. I like to get new culture bins well started with springtails, preferably before adding the isopods. I don't have enough springtails across my other bins to heavily seed all of my new bins. No big deal, I'll order them online. Right..?
So first set of two16 oz cultures that were touted as supposedly thousands of springtails in each was sent on clay and was about the best of what I have received so far - meaning that hundreds of them were still alive - but the clay shifted around in transit and literally suffocated thousands. But fine, there were still a lot, enough for one enclosure to be seeded.
Decide to try again, with someone who looked by their pictures would be sending on a lightweight substrate instead of clay. This second set of three was from one of those too good to be true deals... and it was, so shame on me. Got three deli cups full of mite infested dirt with a few nematodes and 11 springtails total (I looked... long and hard with a lighted 10x magnifier lamp). So got a refund on those and moved on.
Figuring the third time is going to be a charm, added two cultures to an order from another vendor along with two isopod cultures I was getting. They are often slow to respond and ship, as many have mentioned, but I have always had good quality bugs from them. Order arrived today and the 'pods came in beautifully healthy, just as I expected. The two cultures of springtails... not so much. Tropical pinks were mostly OK, but the substrate they shipped on was bark chunks and several dozen were smashed. No big deal though, there were plenty to seed a single culture. But the standard white springtails - a 1000 count - nearly all dead. A very generous guess is less than 100 alive. I guess whomever was packing the order didn't take note that the paper towels they put in the cup to ship them in were way over saturated. In fact, there was like half an inch of water in the deli cup and only three balled up paper towels for the bugs to climb on. Because everything was so wet, the towels collapsed onto themselves into a big mushy ball of wet goop, suffocated the springtails within the towels and the rest drowned in the water. I emailed them, they are usually good about fixing problems so I'm not too worried, but still... I am hella short on what I need to heavily seed dozens of new bins...
I am waiting on a shipment from one more vendor - placed after order #2 and as a backup to order #3 order in case they ran into troubles shipping on time. This one is from an Etsy vendor - because they said 'Cultures on cocofiber and spaghnum to make shipping easier on them '. I have four large cultures coming which I hope - if they are as described and alive - will let me seed at least another 8 bins. If I can do that, I will be able to rob Peter to pay Paul from my established bins to seed the rest of the new bins enough to not need to wait weeks for springtail explosions. As long as I can have at least 10 bins ready to use within the next week, the rest can take the time to naturally build up the springtails.
So the point of this whole rant is this - what IS the best way to ship springtails so that they are not crushed, suffocated, or drowned? I mean come on, there must be a way, and I hope it is The Etsy vendor's way. Have I just been terribly unlucky in the cultures I have ordered?
<shuffles off grumbling to herself and trying to figure out if I have room for another bin rack since I just found another color morph in my main A. vulgare culture... bins, need more bins>
So first set of two16 oz cultures that were touted as supposedly thousands of springtails in each was sent on clay and was about the best of what I have received so far - meaning that hundreds of them were still alive - but the clay shifted around in transit and literally suffocated thousands. But fine, there were still a lot, enough for one enclosure to be seeded.
Decide to try again, with someone who looked by their pictures would be sending on a lightweight substrate instead of clay. This second set of three was from one of those too good to be true deals... and it was, so shame on me. Got three deli cups full of mite infested dirt with a few nematodes and 11 springtails total (I looked... long and hard with a lighted 10x magnifier lamp). So got a refund on those and moved on.
Figuring the third time is going to be a charm, added two cultures to an order from another vendor along with two isopod cultures I was getting. They are often slow to respond and ship, as many have mentioned, but I have always had good quality bugs from them. Order arrived today and the 'pods came in beautifully healthy, just as I expected. The two cultures of springtails... not so much. Tropical pinks were mostly OK, but the substrate they shipped on was bark chunks and several dozen were smashed. No big deal though, there were plenty to seed a single culture. But the standard white springtails - a 1000 count - nearly all dead. A very generous guess is less than 100 alive. I guess whomever was packing the order didn't take note that the paper towels they put in the cup to ship them in were way over saturated. In fact, there was like half an inch of water in the deli cup and only three balled up paper towels for the bugs to climb on. Because everything was so wet, the towels collapsed onto themselves into a big mushy ball of wet goop, suffocated the springtails within the towels and the rest drowned in the water. I emailed them, they are usually good about fixing problems so I'm not too worried, but still... I am hella short on what I need to heavily seed dozens of new bins...
I am waiting on a shipment from one more vendor - placed after order #2 and as a backup to order #3 order in case they ran into troubles shipping on time. This one is from an Etsy vendor - because they said 'Cultures on cocofiber and spaghnum to make shipping easier on them '. I have four large cultures coming which I hope - if they are as described and alive - will let me seed at least another 8 bins. If I can do that, I will be able to rob Peter to pay Paul from my established bins to seed the rest of the new bins enough to not need to wait weeks for springtail explosions. As long as I can have at least 10 bins ready to use within the next week, the rest can take the time to naturally build up the springtails.
So the point of this whole rant is this - what IS the best way to ship springtails so that they are not crushed, suffocated, or drowned? I mean come on, there must be a way, and I hope it is The Etsy vendor's way. Have I just been terribly unlucky in the cultures I have ordered?
<shuffles off grumbling to herself and trying to figure out if I have room for another bin rack since I just found another color morph in my main A. vulgare culture... bins, need more bins>
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