Going away for a week - how will the bugs survive!?

[suztor]

I am going out of the country for a week on Saturday and I don't have frogs(yet) but I have 2 ff cultures and 2 springtail cultures.

Since I'm going away for a week and I don't trust that the mother in law isn't going to freak out if I ask her to feed my bugs lol. She's already being a good sport about feeding my newts worms

I'm obviously not concerned about the FF but in way of food for the springs should I just put extra food in there and hope they survive a week without feeding? I'm also going to be making a small vent so they don't suffocate
hole punch > hot glue around the hole > coffee filter

is this a good plan? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[bsr8129]

A week of not feeding will be fine. I dont feed mine for 3 weeks sometimes.

[Pumilo]

Just give them a regular sized feeding the day or day before you leave. They will be fine for a week. If you give a larger feeding, the increased bacterial action could suffocate them and cause a crash. I did see that you are adding a small vent but that is a pretty small sized vent.

[randommind]

I have several booming cultures of springtails that I only feed once a week (if that). Sprinkle a a few spoonfulls of yeast down and they will be fine. Don't put too much time into making the ventilation holes, after all they are bugs..several tiny pinholes will be more than sufficient. Have a good vacation, your springs will pull through.

[Mitch]

I have a springtail culture in my basement with just charcoal and water that I haven't fed for 8 months. They're still living in there... How? I'm not sure at all.

[Eric Walker]

The hole punch and coffee filter is a good idea anyway. I did that to all my culture after loosing two larger woodlice and one larger spring culture after putting them into a tuperware that sealed very well. Left them closed for 4 days and all bugs were found dead on the surface. Food is less of a concern than suffocation or afixiation imo. I only put 3-4 1/8th inch holes in and hot glued a coffee filter over it. Problem solved.

[BugginDave]

Oh man you're fine. Throw a few extra grains of rice in your springtail cultures and have fun while you're out of town :-)

[JeremyHuff]

Depending on when your ff cultures were made, you may want to make a new culture or two just before you leave so you don't loose the flies from the first boom to make a new culture. If you use the second boom, they are usually smaller.

For the springs, I wouldn't add any extra food or air holes. If your culture is working as is, leave it. Just feed the normal amount before you leave. I rarely feed mine once a week and even less now that I add leaves into my cultures.

[suztor]

All my cultures are pretty new and I'm still working out feeding amounts.

I do have leaves in one of my spring cultures, and I'm planning I starting a aquarium carbon one today, should I place a few leaves in that one too? I'm using roughly 5 cup containers half full of substrate. How much should I be feeding?

As far as ff go I'm going to start a new one today and one on Friday before I leave, so they are nice and spaced out.