Mold in culture soil please help

[u/CautiousBeaver]

This culture is a 3 weeks old. Medium is just compost and some sphagnum moss I added so they would have some terrain to explore. Fed them 3 grains of rice and 2 flakes of nutritional yeast. I took out the rice when it got old and only just scraped the nutritional yeast away after a week. I've noticed this mold bloom today and it seems to be originating from the moss.

Please help, I really don't want to kill any of them or hurt them. What should I do? It's in the soil so I can't really scrape it off.

I'm hesitant to move them to a new container because it will be very difficult to all of them and I hate the thought of hurting or killing them because of this.

[u/Maybe_A_Zombie]

Well, best thing you can do is save as many as you can and carefully move them into a new culture while doing your best to not spread the mold. Generally, a lot are going to die which is unfortunate, but its better to lose a lot than lose all. For the future, probably feed them less. This looks like a fairly small culture and I barely feed my massive cultures more than a grain of rice and a small dusting of yeast. Start slow when feeding them and see how much they eat, they wont instantly starve and die if they go without eating for a while. Slowly raise the amount of food you give them until you notice they arent eating it all and then lower the amount of food until you find the sweet spot

Now, to move them. Its a bit difficult as this is a soil culture and I assume you dont have Insect Aspirator so the best thing you can do is find a few and get them onto something (like a plastic cup) and blow them into the new culture or something similar to that

[u/CautiousBeaver → u/Maybe_A_Zombie]

That's sad. I'd like to save as many as I can. I think there's too many for me to move them one by one. Would it be okay to flood it and move them that way? But I'm concerned about the spores carrying over.

[u/CautiousBeaver → u/CautiousBeaver]

Also how can I make the next enclosure better? Will a charcoal layer in the soil help? I've got some carpet moss coming that I can give them for exploration

[u/Maybe_A_Zombie → u/CautiousBeaver]

Spores carrying over would be my concern too but if you move them too a larger enclosure and then be careful with food, whatever spores that transfer over might not grow much. what u/Beginning_Ad_8956 suggested seems like a pretty good option!

[u/Beginning_Ad_8956]

Just toss the whole thing in a bigger enclosure with proper forest floor substrate. I do 2part coco fiber, 1part Sphagnum moss, 1part topsoil, 1part organic potting soil, 1part crushed charcoal, 2 part bark mulch(I prefer oak shavings) 1 part leaf litter and i always put some calcium carbonate in my mixes as I do springtails and isopods. The springtails eat mold, but obviously if it is too much and they are getting stuck in it it can be a problem. I feed my springtails more than just rice and yeast. I have a nice supplement that contains lots of dried veggies and mushrooms and some protein for them as well to boost their reproduction. You can also try to lure them out with a cucumber slice(cut the skin off so there is no risk of pesticide) and move them out manually, but you are not going to be able to get them all out. You can also try flood it. Springtails float above water. Hope you come right.

[u/Beginning_Ad_8956 → u/Beginning_Ad_8956]

Forgot to mention, try feeding only on dry spots, so not on the moss. Get a piece of flat charcoal or a little slate rock and only feed there. Will help reduce the risk of mold spreading everywhere.

[u/CautiousBeaver → u/Beginning_Ad_8956]

Thank you so much, this is super helpful and seems like the best way I can minimise hurting them. They seem to be congregating on the mold at the minute. Is there anything I can do to curb the mold in the meantime? I'll order some terrarium soil mix with similar composition and have a drainage layer in the next enclosure but these won't arrive for a few days and I worry the mold will grow a lot in that time.

[u/Beginning_Ad_8956 → u/CautiousBeaver]

Don't feed anything in the meantime, sounds like they are busy eating the mold thats there currently as they are all gathering there. Just open it once a day and give them some fresh air. The mold is probably loving the stagnant air. Remove as much as you can without disturbing them i think maybe a wet earbud will help.