Springtails *Adult Content, May contain Mating Rituals*

WillyCKH

CPSC Moderator
Staff member
I love springtails, they are cute, and they are beneficial. They eat fungus, making them great cleaners and great food for carnivorous plants. I have a handful cultures currently, Globular ones, and Folsomia candida.
The globular springtails are tiny, whereas the adults are usually 0.5mm long. They are less shy than F. candida, and can adapt to lower humidity but they breed much slower. I like them because they can be kept on duckweed and they have different colors.
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Wow, did you take that picture? I love it. :)
It looks like a type of temperate springtails that I've seen in the yard (but they are in different colors).
Willy
 
Great pictures !
I never saw this kind of springtails... they are funny !

The ones I had were rather like this :
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I was wondering if those were what was in my VFT pot after seeing another thread on them, since I was seeing tiny white bugs with antennae just like that. Now I'd say for sure that is the kind that are in mine as well! They always come out when I water the plant, glad to know they're good little guys and are helping my plants :)
And what cool bugs you have, Willy, they are quite cute! (That's a lot coming from me, who gets freaked out by aphids :p )
 
They are awesome to have around your plants because they prevent root rot and fungus infection near the soil.
Two ways to verify:
1. they float on water because of the special coating that they apply on their body
2. they jump if you gently poke them
 
They are awesome to have around your plants because they prevent root rot and fungus infection near the soil.
Two ways to verify:
1. they float on water because of the special coating that they apply on their body
2. they jump if you gently poke them
That does sound awesome! Yes thinking about it now, I've never seen fungus growth in that pot, but I have in other ones.
And as far as tests go, I'll have to give it a go! They always come up out of the dirt when I water my flytrap, so that could be one sign, and I think once I tried to get one in my seedling pots to help some of the algae growth and they kept just sort of "disappearing" whenever I tried to get one onto a piece of dirt or something...hmm :)
 
Some picture from another culture:

A fat type, they like to explore
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And the common white ones that many people grow, like to hide away when the humidity drops
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Yea, now that I look at the picture, it is probably a kind of mite that eats decaying materials. In the container there is only decaying materials and moulds so I don't think they are the plants-eating ones or carnivorous (since the white springtail population isn't affected).
The front two aren't legs though, they seem to be antennas.
 
Sorry to act like a smart ass, I still believe I know too little to be one.

The more I know, the vaster the view of the ocean of all what I have no idea of grows.

There are a lot of things I don’t want to know though.
 
I would keep an eye on those mites though....they reproduce really fast and before you know it, they can quickly outnumber and out compete your springtails, resulting in your springtail culture crashing.
 
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