*11/22/22 – Live Isopod shipping is NOW CLOSED FOR WINTER.  Its just too cold to safely ship the little leggy rice.  We will resume shipping isopods again some time next Spring.  The shipping window open date varies from year to year, but usually is in early March, so please check back then for shipping updates.  In the meanwhile, we still have all of your Isopod essentials like Leaf Litter, Mosses, Charcoal, and of course the amazingly delicious Fruity Fungus isopod diet.  All of those items can be found in the Isopod Care section of this site*

If you have a natural soil floor, Dwarf White Isopods are the best investment you’ll ever make.  They’re an extraordinary clean up crew for your natural enclosure, happily eating up all sorts of mold & fungus.  They make pretty short work of gecko poop and dropped tails too.  A colony of Dwarf Whites will also help to eliminate anaerobic bacteria as they create aeration while moving through the soil. And to answer the question that most folks who are new to isopods always have before you even ask it – NO, typically Dwarf White Isopods do not eat reptile eggs.  Not the good ones anyway.  They’ll demolish a moldy dead or infertile one though.  But they do not eat good eggs.  They’re actually quite beneficial to your growing eggs, as they keep the area around them aerated and free of mold.  Dwarf Whites do have a fancy for eggs of certain reptile species though.  Fertile eggs of both Chahoua and Eurydactylodes have been reported to have been consumed by Dwarf Whites residing in the enclosure.  If you have breeding animals and are considering adding microfauna to your Chahoua or Eurydactylodes enclosure, you may want to consider springtails.

Dwarf White isopods are a great choice as tank janitors for many different reptile species.  They are a hardy crustacean, and can tolerate a pretty wide range of temperatures and moisture levels.  Their small size and tendency to stay just under the surface of the soil make them virtually invisible to most reptiles, so you don’t have to worry about your larger geckos picking them off as a snack.  However for any creatures who eat a micro diet, such as dart frogs, micro geckos, and arachnids, these little dirt shrimp can double as a clean up crew and feeders.  Pretty much anything that eats pinheads or fruit flies can eat these isopods too.

We sell our Dwarf White Isopods in 25, 50, and 100 count cultures, and yes, we are the crazy people who actually count them.  After having received some isopods cultures ourselves that seemed a bit light in the isopod department, we realized just how important an actual count is.  I don’t care how many ounces the cup is…I’m buying isopods, not dirt!  Ha!  So we take the time to actually count out your order to ensure you’re getting what you’re paying for, and then we top off the cup with soil from the isopod bin, so you’re bound to get a handsome amount of extras with each order.

We recommend a minimum 25 count to seed a 12″ x 12″ ground space, but you could easily quadruple that to establish the colony quickly.  Our cultures contain mixed-size isopods, ranging from baby to adult.  This is to ensure that you get the most productive culture possible.  Since its practically impossible for us to know how old an adult isopod is, providing a mix of sizes ensures that you won’t end up with a cup of older isopods on their way out of this world, and you also won’t end up with all teeny tiny babies that will take a long time to start populating your enclosure.

Dwarf White Isopods are not capable of rolling up, so when they feel threatened or alarmed, their defense is to freeze up and stay perfectly still.  Upon arrival, please allow several minutes of quiet time for your isopods to let their guard down, adjust to the indoor temperature, and begin moving.