How to Set up a White Tropical Springtail Culture

Springtails are one of the most essential components of any bioactive habitat. They eat debris and mould, making them excellent maids. They are also harmless and easy to care for.

If you wish to use springtails regularly, you should create a culture so you have a ready source. This is easy to do, as this article explains.

There are several ways of creating a culture, but this article will explain how to use the charcoal method.

We prefer this method for several reasons, including:

• Easy to set up

• Made from readily available materials

• Easy to see your springtails

• Easy maintenance

• Easy to retrieve springtails as needed

What you need:

• A Jar: A typical cookie jar or similar will make an ideal springtail habitat. Glass or plastic is fine, but you must be able to put ventilation holes in the lid. 

• Charcoal: You will need lumps of charcoal of varying sizes, as shown in the images below. You should have enough charcoal to fill about ¾ of the jar.

• Water: Your habitat should have 2-3 inches of clean water sitting at the bottom. It is important to use reverse osmosis water or similar – DO NOT use tap water.

• Sharp tools: You will need a sharp tool to make ventilation holes in the lid. A drill will be ideal if you have one, although a knife will often do. 

• Food: Tropical White Springtails will thrive on baking yeast or brewing yeast. They also enjoy grains of uncooked rice and fresh cucumber.

• Springtails: The final ingredient is the springtails themselves. You can start a culture with just a few, but the more you begin with, the sooner you will have a bustling colony. 

Note that this model works best for white tropical springtails, and you might have mixed results if you try this for other species. For example, Thai Red springtails will thrive under similar but different conditions, which we will go into in another post.

How to Get Started

Place your charcoal pieces into your jar so it’s about ¾ full. This part of the exercise is to know how much charcoal you need.

Empty the jar and thoroughly clean the charcoal. Make sure to clean the jar also. The charcoal should be clean enough for the water to be clear with the charcoal in it.

Place your cleaned charcoal back into your jar.

Top tips:

• Shake the jar a little to help the pieces settle before adding springtails

• Place a flat piece at the top for a food table

• Placing another smaller part at the top will help you ‘farm’ some springtails when you need to.

This concave piece of coal will make an ideal springtail table and will be placed at the top.

Pour about 2 – 3 inches of clean water into your habitat. As mentioned, the water should be clear.

Make 1 or 2 small holes in the lid for ventilation.

A couple of holes like those above will provide all the ventilation you need. You don’t need to worry about aesthetics at this point.

When your habitat is ready, add your springtails and a little food. Fit the lid, and you have a habitat in which your springtails should thrive.

Maintenance

Providing ongoing care for your springtails is just as easy as creating their habitat.

One of the most common errors people make is to overfeed springtails. Overfeeding can result in unsanitary conditions, putrid water and encourage pests like mites and fungus gnats. On the other hand, feeding your springtails plenty will help ensure a thriving community.

One way to get the balance right is to feed them every day with a light sprinkle of yeast. However, you should always check first and NEVER feed them if they have food remaining from previous feeds. Springtails can go for about two weeks without food, so not feeding them for a day or two won’t be a problem.  

Pests like fungus gnats and mites are unsightly but usually harmless. Springtails will easily outcompete them for resources, so the pests should die out when you remove excess food. You can remove them yourself, although this can be a tiresome and unpleasant job.

Sometimes, predatory mites will get into your habitat and feed on your springtails. They will not usually threaten your colony overall, but you might need to sanitise your habitat if they overpopulate.

Once you have a colony of a few hundred or so, it’s advisable to separate them into different colonies. That way, you still have a healthy culture if something bad happens to the other one.

And that’s it. The springtails will do the rest of the work themselves – you won’t even need to change the water. All that’s left for you to do is far some of the sprinhtails when you need to seed a new habitat, and the rest of the colony will continue as it was.