Native isopods for clean up crew?

[m0lsx]

Does anyone in the UK use native species of isopods for their clean up crew?

I have a reasonable colony of tropical, but have been thinking about getting some native species. Simply because I do not see any around.

If anyone does use native species, where do you source them? As I obviously don't want to use wild caught ones, which may have parasites etc.

 

[Vermis]

I don't use any isopods myself, but I have been thinking about it. As for so many invert related things for these days, I look to eBay. I've been buying a couple of roach colonies from a seller who goes by uk.isopods. Top notch service and animals. Strangely, most of his isopods are sold as mixed morphs and the only one with Latin attached is Porcellio laevis. That's a UK native, though not so hot as tarantula CUCs, I hear.

There's also someone on there selling colonies of Androniscus dentiger, another UK native. It honestly astounds me that this species hasn't made more inroads during the current craze for pet isopods and CUCs. Spend all that time trying to isolate orange or white scaber morphs, and there's this species that's already ruby red without any special breeding.

I thought about buying some of those myself, but that would spoil the fun of hunting down wild specimens and culturing them myself. Take that, Pokémon Go.

 

[m0lsx]

There's also someone on there selling colonies of Androniscus dentiger, another UK native.

Androniscus dentiger are found here in Norfolk.

Woodlice of Norfolk say. "It is often found under objects which are sitting on concrete or brick, and when it is found in soil this is usually clay. Also found commonly in coastal cliffs of slumping clay in N.E. Norfolk and is recorded from the stable shingle bank at Snettisham. These may represent natural habitats for this species in Britain.

http://nnns.org.uk/sites/nnns.org.uk/files/imce/user11/speciesguides/Woodlice.pdf

 

[Vermis]

A fair few sightings here in Northern Ireland, too, according to some websites; although I've never seen one! What I've read indicates they like limestone rocks and old abandoned buildings - plenty of the latter about here.

That pdf reminds me of another species I haven't thought of in years: Trichoniscus pusillus. Always used to find one or two scurrying about under rocks, among all the Porcellio scaber and Androniscus ocellus. Might be easier to find and culture...

(And there's Glomeris marginata, not a 'pod but another native I want to find again.)

On the topic of wild vs. cultured, how many generations would you need to keep them for, to reduce the risk of parasites? What would be the signs to look out for? It's something that's crossed my mind from time to time, but I've never looked too deeply into it.

 

[Vermis]

Androniscus ocellus? No. Oniscus asellus. Shoot. I did say it's been a while.