This is another of those miracle products that’s incredibly inexpensive and has about a million applications around our Gecko room.  Our primary use for these is as a water source for our feeder insects.  Any unconsumed pieces can be washed and reused (within the same feeder bin…never, never pass uneaten food or water sources around from colony to colony).  They provide hydration to your feeder insects without the danger of drowning.

So that’s awesome…but their functionality doesn’t stop there.

Did you know you can also mix these in with your potted plants to provide water directly to the roots?  And you can use water gels to propagate new plants…just fill a jar with them and place bare clippings directly in and wait for them to root.

Yup, but the awesomeness doesn’t end there.  We had issues with dry out periods in the isopod bins.  Solution?…We mixed water gel crystals into our isopod substrate and our problem was miraculously solved for a measly $2 per iso bin.

But wait…there’s more!

If you use any of the suspended incubation methods for hatching your eggs, you can use these bad boys as your incubation medium.  And did we mention the part where you can wash and reuse them?  Yah, you can.

Crystals are sold as dry and can be hydrated with whatever liquid source you choose.  We plump ours up with natural spring water, but you can use whatever water of your choosing (just be sure its safe to drink if you’re using them to offer water to your insects or to add to isopod substrate).  Some folks even make liquid insect diets and then use these gels to absorb it and offer food and water in one.

These are super absorbent crystals with the ability to absorb up to 200 times their weight in water.  This 2oz packet will hold at least 1 gallon of water.

Photos here show crystals in both dry and hydrated form.  When purchasing, you will receive a packet of dry crystals weighing 2oz at dry weight.