Josh's FrogsTemperate Springtail (Collembola) Culture (32 oz)

This arrived to me during the cold of January. We had a random 40-50 degree week so I ordered. It arrived and ended up sitting on the porch much of the day since we never saw or heard the delivery driver. I brought it in and opened the top and saw nothing. I put the top back on very loosely and waited some more. After several days I saw one or two springtails but that was it. I ordered the springtail food from the same brand and spritzed the charcoal with some unchlorinated water. When I finally received the food, I had had the colony for going on two weeks. It looked absolutely dead. I added the food and waited a few days. When I opened it back up I had springtails. I have repeated the feeding and watering and about 3 weeks on, it is thriving.If you receive this and it looks dead, be patient...and add some type of food. Don't overdo the food, just the tiniest bit works. Keep the environment moist, but don't drown them. Wait and you will see your colony begin to grow. Glad that I puchased this because the Petco/PetSmart prices are ridiculous. Now I have an endless supply, instead of paying $10 for a few at a time.

I am a longtime - and serious - reptile and isopod aficionado. I take my bioactive setups VERY seriously. I had read mixed reviews on these springtails, but I always take reviews with a grain of salt. I decided to order this culture because I was in desperate need of 32 oz+ of springtails.The weather was great when they arrived, and it wasn’t bad when they were in transit. Since I am fairly-recently disabled they were brought indoors immediately. I de-gassed them right away, but I was disappointed to see absolutely no signs of life. (I have 20/15 vision, thanks to LASIK, and I have eyes trained to detect the smallest life forms.) I have purchased springtail cultures that [initially] appeared to be subpar, so I gave this culture the benefit of the doubt.We came upon 24, 48, 72 hours and beyond...nothing. I waited 1, 2, 3+ weeks…nothing. No signs of life. It has now been >2 months since I received my order. This culture has been kept under perfect conditions, and yet it had failed to produce a single living springtail! (If anyone wants to question me - yes, I waited instead of asking for a refund immediately. Springtails often pop up out of nowhere, and a few days is not enough time. To know whether a culture will succeed or fail. If I had made a premature judgment it would have been irrelevant.)I can recommend a few Amazon sellers if you are looking for springtails, but I will never recommend these. I have a solid reputation in the reptile community, and I always seek to lift others up, but I will always call out bad sources when I encounter them.Do your research. Please go bioactive - but make the best choices when it comes to your scaly companions!! I am happy to provide resources to whoever needs them.

I'm really glad I read the reviews and description/instructions from seller!! When mine arrived I thought maybe it WAS all dead like so many low star reviews, but if you read the directions you'll know that it's actually full of EGGS that hatch quickly. I saw no movement AT ALL and my package was very cold from shipping. I left it alone for a few hours and MAYBE saw 3 or 4 individuals crawling around. So, like they say to do, I fed the culture, LOOSELY ATTACHED THE LID SO THERE IS AIR EXCHANGE, and set it aside for 2 days... SO MANY SPRING TAILS!!!NOW If I pour out 1 or two ounces a PILE of 100+ active adults come pouring out! It's been a few weeks now and the culture is HUUUGE!Thing is, Shipping is hard on these little ones, the adults will die, but the eggs laid in it and the very next generation is what you're really buying. So make sure you purchase them WITH feed and WITH TIME to let them breed up for a few days before you have to use them (if you want to keep a constant culture going). And they MUST be kept with the lid not fully tightened so there is air exchange, without which you could kill the culture on your own.I got them for constructing vivariums and terrariums. I'm NEVER going to have to buy a new culture.I'm saddened that so many people likely suffocated or threw out a perfectly good culture assuming it was dead when they really just needed to feed, check the water, and wait a few days... week max if it froze or boiled hard in transit. That said, I'm sure some people did do this and didn't get the same results. So they may have a good warning on being considerate of how long and at what temperatures the package may be exposed to before it gets to you. If you can control for any of those factors it may help prevent total catastrophic failure of the culture.As to how well they work for plant care? (If you need to feed animals, I don't use them for that) I wish I took pics. NIGHT AND DAY! I have enclosed Tupperware for moss and succulent propagation and the succulents particularly were molding. When my culture arrived I took ONE PIECE of carbon out and put it in the box since I didn't want to let them rot while waiting for the springtails to breed. Well, there must have been enough eggs! I saw adults in the bin within 24 hrs and after 3 days the plants were 100% clear of rot and growing green and healthy!!! They really really clean up! After a week I was able to pour a pile of new springtails in to make sure the bin is thoroughly inoculated.I will buy from Josh's frogs again. MARVELOUS!