# anyone ever used woodlice or earthworms in vivs as cleaners?



## Jim2109 (Mar 30, 2009)

i was thinking about this the other day, i think i read it somewhere unrelated to reptiles and had a brainwave, but woodlice and earthworms feed off of decomposing organic matter and then pretty much process it into compost. they eat up all of the waste matter and process all of the good bits and make the soil much richer.

in a reptile environment this would be beneficial for processing excrement, skin shed, etc and putting it back into the substrate. at the same time earthworms are a good staple food for many reptiles, and id imagine woodlice could be eaten as well so long as they were all captive bred away from pesticides and such.

ive noticed that livefood containers seem to have various worms and millipedes in them (millipedes work in a similar way to woodlice) to process the waste. so i cant see why it wouldnt work in a vivarium full of compost/soil/coco fibre/sand/etc.

also, ive been thinking about how this could also work in a locust "farm" (a big box full of breeding locusts) to process the waste matter and reduce the required cleaning.

anyone ever done anything like this, or seen it done? how effective is it? also how hard is it to breed woodlice and earthworms lol.


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## trw (Mar 2, 2009)

i know some people use giant millipedes in their crestie vivs to clean up their waste. Also some people have full ecosystems for their dartfogs with self cleaning soil containing loads of detrivores which clean the viv. Most people that do this have rainforest setups i think so im not sure how well it would work in a desert setup. hope this helps. 
I think one of the dartfrog websites sells the substrate containing woodlice and springtails. I think chondro13 used it in her dartfrog setup, so maybe pm her and ask her about it.


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## spend_day (Apr 10, 2008)

many people use springtails, and tropical woodlice in there vivs to help clean them. I tried using european woodlice and earthworms in one of my salamander viv's they all just got eaten by the salamander I've since switched to springtails


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## trw (Mar 2, 2009)

it probably depends on the species u are housing, the depth of the substrate avaliable to the detrivores and the numbers of them in the substrate.


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## Jim2109 (Mar 30, 2009)

it will be a rainforest setup, so it will be a mixture of mostly soil/compost, with some cooc fibre and sand thrown in. so should be suitable for any of the above mentioned bugs. im not sure that water dragons will be quite so eager to eat the woodlice, they might go after the worms although they dont seem all that interested in worm movement, they like their prey a bit faster i think.

i didnt realise dartfrog sold various types though, so that will save me having to catch them in my garden!!! might have to get some in there and see what happens, worse case scenario is that they all get eaten, which isnt going to cause any harm, just cost me money.

P.S. substrate will be around 4" deep all over, with some smaller areas upto 12" deep where there are plant pots sunk in to the base. in hindsight id have done things very differently, but thats a revision to be made to my next viv build in a year or 2's time.


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## spend_day (Apr 10, 2008)

Jim2109 said:


> it will be a rainforest setup, so it will be a mixture of mostly soil/compost, with some cooc fibre and sand thrown in. so should be suitable for any of the above mentioned bugs. im not sure that water dragons will be quite so eager to eat the woodlice, they might go after the worms although they dont seem all that interested in worm movement, they like their prey a bit faster i think.
> 
> i didnt realise dartfrog sold various types though, so that will save me having to catch them in my garden!!! might have to get some in there and see what happens, worse case scenario is that they all get eaten, which isnt going to cause any harm, just cost me money.
> 
> P.S. substrate will be around 4" deep all over, with some smaller areas upto 12" deep where there are plant pots sunk in to the base. in hindsight id have done things very differently, but thats a revision to be made to my next viv build in a year or 2's time.


mad4frogs (i think that there screen name) sells different types of "cleaner" insect generally alot cheaper than dartfrog might be worth dropping him a PM


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## trw (Mar 2, 2009)

btw jim2109, hows the build coming along. Wen are ther gona be new updates?


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## Jim2109 (Mar 30, 2009)

trw said:


> btw jim2109, hows the build coming along. Wen are ther gona be new updates?


new updates very soon. i was waiting on a piece of wood to be machined with a recess for an underwater perspex "viewing panel". but ive decided its not worth the effort so it wont have one, it will be at floor level anyway and i cant see myself on all fours too often looking in there.

so i bonded a panel on the front yesterday, i decided id give it today as well to dry so that its properly stuck on, and then tomorrow im getting busy with the fibreglass. if all goes well, there are no complications, and i find enough time, then the structural aspect could be completely finished next week. then its just the cosmetics, electrics and plumbing left to sort.


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## Lizard Loft (Mar 1, 2008)

The term to describe this sort of set-up is....... Bio-active, if you google that there is loads of good info on there, 

i did this with one of my vivs, i used an exoterra, placed about 1.5inches of gravel in the bottom, then that weed liner stuff over the top, then about 3/4inches of soil, planted the plants into the soil, then added about 100+ woodlice from my garden, it worked great, once the woodlice where established, any dropped leaves etc where slowly pulled under bit by bit every night was funi to watch, all i did was simply turn over the top inch of soil everyother day to mix it all in, and churn it all up once every month : victory:

my emerald swift did eat the odd big woodlouse but generally they where too small for him to be interested, and a woodlouses shell is basically pure calcium so it does your lizard good to have the odd one.

i stopped doing it in the end as my homemade water fall flooded my viv and i had to empty it all, and never got round to doing it again.


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