Transferring Springtails to a Charcoal Medium

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All of our springtail tubs are shipped via coco peat for the safest delivery possible. But springtails also operate very well in a charcoal medium and its one of the most common ways to culture them. So after purchasing a coco peat based tub, you may want to make the switch. Here’s how you do it.

How to transfer:

First you’ll need:

• 1 Small Airtight Tub

• 1 Bag of Horticultural charcoal

• Distilled water (Or Dechlorinated water)

• Springtails

The reason we specify a small tub is because in the future, you will be filling it up with water and tipping it, so make sure you will be able to handle the tub properly when you need springtails.
For your charcoal tub set up, first lay a thick bed of horticultural charcoal and then fill 1/3 of that with water. The tub will work best with an air tight seal because if a feeding schedule is missed, they may start to wander and its common for springtails to leave the humid tub and die of dehydration not very far from their home.

The easiest way to transfer springtails from one location to another is by a piece of moist wood or cardboard. The reason why this works so effectively is because springtails don’t have good grip but they do love hanging around and munching on the breaking down of these materials. Simply wet the wood or cardboard, place it in the tub and close the lid to keep the humidity. After waiting overnight, when they have crawled on top, tap your material inside the charcoal tub and the springtails will easily fall off. Cardboard is very effective when deciding between the two as taking wood from outdoors as wood will need to be sterilized to get rid of all natural contaminants and there is also a risk of pesticides being present.

When transferring a coco-peat springtail culture to a charcoal culture, you may not be able to transfer all the springtails unless you were incredibly meticulous. so we suggest keeping a couple in the tub and mix it into some terrarium soil or you can feed the coco peat culture and transfer again when they reproduce. There’s always a new hatching of springtail eggs around the corner and there may be some already waiting to hatch so don’t throw the coco peat out!

When feeding the charcoal culture, start off with a light feeding (a pinch of food) that will taper up as you get more springtails, gauging their appetite. After their first reproduction, your springtail colony will expand exponentially.

Benefits of a charcoal tub:

Charcoal is a very clean medium that cleanses a range of toxins, bacteria and fungus and will ensure your culture stays clean over a long period of time.

Springtails can be moved from a charcoal tub by filling up the tub with water, and due to the fact that springtails are very small and light, they are able to walk on the surface of the water without breaking surface tension. This means your springtails will rise with the water level and your charcoal will ideally stay sunken. After this, you can pour the springtails out into wherever you may need them. Because of this, charcoal tubs are much more efficient in applying springtails to already established terrariums. That doesn’t mean you can’t apply directly via coco peat. Using the soaked wood technique directly into the established terrarium is an option but there is always a chance coco peat may stick to the wood and be shaken off with the springtails.