TIME TO SHOW THE WORLD

Hello and welcome. 🙂

There have been ups and downs, but while the blog had been in near total darkness, I've been accumulating species by species, enclosure by enclosure, shelf by shelf. The mini zoo that has been built up is the largest to ever be documented on this blog and it's time to show the world. Let's dive right on in. 🔥

Once I had expanded outside of mantids, it had always been my dream to have a huge collection of arthropods like some of the bigshots - Invertebrate Dude (in the past), Kyle Kandilian, Alan Jeon, etc. While still living in my old house, I always wanted to believe that this was possible, but in those small living quarters, it never really was. So as soon as we moved, this was the first thing on my mind. 😛 The move did cause some casualties (particularly with the isopods), but I quickly had more species than I arrived at the new house with due to a rapid flurry of acquisitions. After a few months, I needed a second shelf to hold everything on. This leads into May of this year where I, in my 6th year of officially keeping arthropods, finally hit the 100 species/morphs/localities mark!!! 😮 I have to say, it definitely feels like that amount, if not more. LOL Although I don't get to put my full focus on and relish each individual like I used to, it's the arthropod experience on a much larger scale and I like how things are. You may wonder where this mass of living organisms is maintained and the answer is two areas - the "bug room" and the "isopod closet".

The "bug room" is where I house near 100% of the roaches and basically things that are ok with warmer temps for at least short periods. Enclosures are mainly kept on two large shelves, but a few are also kept on the ground when I have things I'm trying to keep in isolation from others for whatever reason. Supplies are kept in the two corners of the room bordering one of the shelves. In the colder months of the year, I place a brooder lamp equipped with a 250 watt heat bulb in front of each of the shelves to keep things toasty. They heat the inner third of the shelves thoroughly and usually keep the outer two thirds in the vicinity of 70 F. In the warmer months of the year, I disable the lamps and use an air conditioning unit to keep the room at ideal temps.

The "isopod closet" is, as the name implies, a closet where I keep all my isopods as well as almost all other temperature-sensitive things. Enclosures are mainly kept on two wire racks mounted to the wall, but my largest (along with a few others) are kept on top of a short dresser, and a couple on the ground. There are a small amount of supplies kept in multiple areas, but mostly near the ground in front of the dresser. There is no temp regulation required specifically for the arthropods since they are on the floor of the house that is already kept at room temps for the humans that dwell there.

What you've all been waiting for. ⬇️

"Bug room"

"Isopod closet"

For both buggy areas, there are a couple enclosures not shown, but the pictures give very good representations of how things are set up. I hope you all got a kick out of the animal factory which has taken hold in my house and maybe even got some ideas for housing your own collections. That's about it for now and I'll meet you right where I always do - next post. 🙂