Isopods and Myriapods

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We welcome isopod, millipede, and centipede enthusiasts to discuss care and identification or just to admire our favorite invertebrates.

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Hello. Any of you who have robust experience for the compatibility of the three: garlic, onion, and human urine, to isopods in garden and pot soil?

Maybe for 2 years I've been burying scraps into my small raised garden of about 1m long x 0.25m wide x 0.3m tall, located just under our front living room windows, for the hope to lure earthworms, but the isopods and beetles manifested instead. Beetles are only the size of silver pin heads, while the isopods have tinge of red, and adult size is about the length of a mung bean seed, of course not as thick. They're really small and delicate.

After 2 years I got enticed to use human urine (our own) as fertilizer. I don't really dilute it, I just dig a hole then pour the liquid and wait for it to fully settle down then re-cover with the dug soil.

Lately I noticed the population of the isopods really went down after less than a year. In fact I don't see them anymore when I dig soil anywhere there. But I don't really know if the urine affected them as my dig sites are often the same 2 locations since there are already existing plants. I only started to really see them again after I transplanted a Papaya from its pot to a bigger pot yesterday, which delighted me of their surviving small numbers there.

Still I don't really know if the urine affected the bugs or if their population simply dwindled on its own. The urine surely would not spread across the entirety of my raised garden as those are 2 same locations, and so the bugs have way larger safe areas to go to.

My adult chili pepper plant in a separate big pot also died, and my suspect was the urine because I didn't dilute it much, but I'm not really sure too, because that chili plant had been producing fruits continuously for maybe 3 months straight, and I don't know if that chili pepper plant was in fact really a perennial because I got it from the wet market. So my 2 suspects are the urine and the true lifespan of the plant.

Then how about garlic and onion plants, are they compatible with the isopods? Right now I have on the table 2 garlic bulbs, 1 red onion, and 1 white onion with sprouts already so I placed it on water in a small cup.

Now after researching, I think my bugs are sow bugs because they don't form a ball.

I really want the isopods to prosper because I noticed the buried materials were gone way, way faster.

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment.


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I'm having trouble with fungus gnats in one of my isopod containers. Whenever I replenish the humidity in that container they have an population explosion, but I can't let the container get too dry since that's going to kill my isopods.

Does anyone have a solution for this that's not going to be harmful for my isopods?

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Just wanted to share my isopod babies ๐Ÿ˜

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I believe this is Scolopocryptops sexspinosus, the eastern red centipede. Females protect the clutch from predators and mold spores, and some species also protect young after they hatch.

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I discoverd this tiny Dude this morning, the only known isopods in this bin are Rubber Duckys. Can i celebrate my first Babyducky?

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
 

A juvenile Clark's anemone fish, with a friend. A horrific, tounge-eating friend. Bangka island, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

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They face each other during copulation. The male's head is on top.

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Welcome isopod and myriapod enthusiasts! Feel free to introduce yourselves, talk about your keep lists, etc.

I'm located in the midwest and I've been keeping isopods and millipedes for a couple years. I have 30 isopod colonies and 10 millipede colonies. I'm picking up three new-to-me millipede species at a reptile show tomorrow and I'm pretty excited to get them home in their new setups.