woodlice? ecosystems? say what?

[Stuart Collins]

i have heard a few people talking about making an ecosystem with many animals including woodlice, i was just wondering if having crickets and the like left over whilst a T. is moulting can cause stress and kill it, isn't there a possibility that a woodlouse could cause the T. stress and kill it? also what other animals or 'tricks' do you guys have? thanks Stuart

[Colin D Wilson]

I have never had any problems with woodlice in a tank when the spiders moulting, crickets on the other hand have not had the opportunity to do their little chewing antics on a freshly moulted spider as i always remove them asap. it all comes down to keeping an eye on the collection on a daily basis.

We have a wonderful mini eco system in that we have a breeding trio of whites tree frogs, two african train milipedes,a colony of woodlice and a good amount of mealworms in the same enclosure. there is hardly any waste matter at all, no smell and a very clean environment for the frogs to live in. saves on the monthly clean outs plus the mealworms and beetles provide a little extra food for the frogs when they've eaten all their weekly locusts.

[Stuart Collins]

you haven't actually mentioned a T. anywhere in there. might the T. get all protective/hungry and attack/eat one of the other animals? do the other animals eat the produce that the T. leaves that it can't 'digest'?

[Phil Rea]

Dysdera crocata, the woodlouse spider, has adapted to eat woodlice. They have nice big fangs which they use to good effect in piercing the woodlouse's 'shell'. They're distributed widely over the UK, pretty much anywhere there are woodlice (I spotted one on our conservatory wall a few days ago ).

I have some tropical woodlice in with some of my T's, which are too small to bother them, but I know people who have woodlice from their garden in with theirs, and they're also seemingly ignored.

[Colin D Wilson]

you haven't actually mentioned a T. anywhere in there.

"I have never had any problems with woodlice in a tank when the spiders moulting."

i was just wondering if having crickets and the like left over whilst a T. is moulting can cause stress and kill it

"crickets on the other hand have not had the opportunity to do their little chewing antics on a freshly moulted spider as i always remove them asap."
this is the number one problem with leaving crickets in the tank.

The second paragraph was an example of an eco system that was virtually maintenance free, woodlice are fantastic at their job.

[Stuart Collins]

sorry about that. my bad. can you buy woodlice to add to the tanks?

[Colin D Wilson]

you can buy cleaner woodlice cultures from online stores such as tarantulashop etc etc but i just use the garden variety, making sure of course that they come from an area that hasn't had chemical contact.
I breed them in with my sons cockroach colony and them transfer them as needed.